The annual conference of the Virginia Assoication of Astronomical Societies will be held in Charlottesville on September 12 this year.  The Charlottesville Astronomical Society has scheduled a great lineup of speakers, a BBQ dinner and star party at McCormick Observatory.  More information is available at http://www.cvilleastro.org/vaas/.

Please join us at the conference if you can.

This Wednesday, August 26, John Raymond will be hosting a skywatch for Bryan Park on the park’s soccer field.  Viewing starts at 8:00 PM.  If you can bring a telescope, please do.  It should be a lot of fun.  All are welcome.  (more…)

Observing field

Clouds threatened to restrict our viewing at the August 14 mini star party at the scout camp in Goochland, but periods of clear skies prevailed, allowing us several hours of good viewing in stable skies.  Dave Walton, Tim Streagle and I deployed scopes at various time during the evening and were treated to some nice views of seasonal objects.

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Tonight Ken and Betty Wilson will give a talk on the Great China Eclipse of 2009. This eclipse is a member of Saros 136; a Saros is a period of 18 years 10 1/3 days in which eclipses repeat. The previous eclipse of this Saros was on 1991 July 11, and I was in Mexico to photograph the eclipse. I will bring memoirs of that eclipse along. Anyone went to Africa in 1973 or Indonesia in 1955? The next one is in the Middle East in 2027. I also note that today, August 11, was the date an eclipse occurred in Europe in 1999.

The Perseid Meteor Shower starts Aug. 11 (the night of our next RAS meeting).  (more…)

Everything cooperated last night (Aug. 3)–the skies, the weather, and the crowd. (more…)

This took place Saturday night, July 25. The park is near Gladstone, VA, so it’s quite a hike from Richmond. 85 miles, in fact. (more…)

I was at Radford, Virginia at SUUSI on 2009 July 23. One of the things I did at SUUSI was “Stargazing”, where we went to a site near Mountain Lake. (more…)

ISS pass tonight, 8:40 pm (July 28),. -2.5 magnitude, 46 degrees high, traveling from NW to SE.

-2.4 magnitude, 40 degrees high, traveling from the NW to the NE.

The crescent moon will also be near Saturn tonight.