RAS had three telescopes at the latest skywatch for the Petersburg National Battlefield Park Service at City Point in Hopewell. And it’s a good thing we had as many scopes as we did, because we were surprised by a sizable group of scouts that had come for a rocket and astronomy activity earlier in the day. With parents, we probably had 100-125 viewers in attendance.
Terry Barker
August 2010 Board Meeting Minutes
RAS Board Meeting August 16, 2010 President Jim Browder called the meeting to order at 7:01pm. Attendees (8): Jim Browder, President David Medici, Vice President Jim Blowers, Treasurer Chris McCann, Secretary Ken Wilson Prashant Reddy Bill Jeffries Tim Streagle Secretary’s report given by Chris McCann May’s board meeting minutes were distributed, discussed, and accepted. … Read more
August Meeting Minutes
Richmond Astronomical Society
731st Consecutive Meeting
August 10, 2010
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Jim Browder called our meeting to order in the Eureka room.
Greeting & Announcements – approximately 25 in attendance at the meeting.
Please check the link to our RAS blog: http://richastro.org/index.php/category/blog/
Thanks to the many email responses who were willing to help with the telescope training for the Midlothian family.
There is a new link on the RAS website about a girl named Sydney, who asked her dad Mark (one of our members) if they could build a telescope. They are doing that and have set up a web site, http://mysite.verizon.net/mhmabry/Crimson/Telescope.html , to chronicle their adventure and their progress. Mark has also set up an email address for comments/suggestions: sydney.telescope.blog@gmail.com. It looks like they are going to have loads of fun with this project and have already made a lot of progress. We look forward to the next update. Be sure to stop by their blog and say hello.
Share table:
Photographs taken by a member; Televue eyepieces; and a lost water bottle from the July meeting
Past Events:
The Science Museum Skyday Night event on July 16th was very successful. Approximately 400 people attended the event which included the RAS skywatch. Several of the RAS members were there to help, including Gary, Jim Browder, Cal, and Alan. I apologize if I left others out.
Several members mentioned that they had been observing and has viewed several objects, including Jupiter and solar observing using a SunGun.
Upcoming Events:
Perseid meteor shower peaks this coming Thursday night/Friday morning (10/12-13)
Please contact John Raymond at raymond7419@verizon.net if you can help with any of these events:
- Bryan Park Meteor Watch – August 12, 8:00 PM.
- Skywatch at the Montpelier Center – August 13, 7:30 PM. For directions and information see http://www.montpeliercenter.org/.
- Battersea Foundation (Petersburg) Skywatch – August 26, 8:00 PM For directions and information see http://www.batterseafound.org.
- Dinwiddie on Sept 4.
- Scotchtown in Hanover County on Friday, Sept 24
Science Museum Skywatch / LiveSky show – August 20. LiveSky will be held at 6:00pm. Please sign up if you can bring a scope.
An open house is scheduled for Wednesday, August 18th at the Ragland Observatory Open House, weather permitting. Watch the Richastro Yahoo group for updates.
A job opening was found through Cornell University, for a telescope pointer at Arecibo. Anyone interested?
VAAS: October 9 at Roanoke College. More information later.
Dues announcement:
Annual dues are due and should be given to Jim Blowers. Membership is $30. Observatory memberships and magazine subscriptions increase the amount.
Payment can be made by PayPal at http://richastro.org/ras_payments.htm
Observatory Report (John Barnett):
John Barnett has asked Chris McCann to hosting an open house for members and guests on Wednesday, August 18th at 8:30pm. Weather advisory and a reminder will be emailed to all members.
Thanks to Reed and Dave for cutting the grass in July.
Contact Jim Blowers to update your email address if it has changed.
July Meeting Minutes
Richmond Astronomical Society 730th Consecutive Meeting July 13, 2010 —– Jim Browder called our meeting to order in the Eureka room. Greeting & Announcements – approximately 25 in attendance at the meeting. Please check the link to our RAS blog: http://richastro.org/index.php/category/blog/ Share table: There were several items for sale, including a few eyepieces by John … Read more
News About the Dark Skies, Bright Kids Program
A couple of months ago, several very dedicated graduate students from UVA presented at our monthly Richmond Astronomical Society meeting about the “Dark Skies, Bright Kids” program they are sponsoring in Charlottesville. The program enhances science education at rural schools. The graduate students have put a great deal of their personal time and effort into … Read more
Many thanks to all who helped out with Astronomy Day at the Science Museum of Virginia and at Belmead on the James. Everyone did a great job – thanks for all the good work! Also please join us for our next monthly meeting on June 12 at 7:30 PM at the Science Museum of Virginia … Read more
A New Flash Imaged on Jupiter
Masayuki Tachikawa was observing Jupiter early on the morning of August 21st (18:22 Universal Time on the 20th), when his video camera captured a 2-second-long flash on the planet’s disk. Check out this article in Sky and Telescope. The video of the flash is at this link and below along with an image captured by … Read more
June Meeting Minutes
Richmond Astronomical Society
729th Consecutive Meeting
June 8, 2010
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Jim Browder called our meeting to order in the Eureka room. This meeting was going to have a different format – business first, the main presentation, and then after the break, the short talk.
Greeting & Announcements – approximately 43 in attendance at the meeting.
Please check the link to our RAS blog: http://richastro.org/index.php/category/blog/
Share table:
Jim Browder is a celebrity. Jim displayed an ad for Astronomy Technology, and showed us a photo of him, but it’s a small photo in the lower corner of the ad.
There were several items for sale, including a few eyepieces by John Raymond.
There were a few photos for anyone to look at.
A license plate holder that goes on the back of a car was on the table. It was a recent purchase from the RAS Café Press store. The shop can be found at http://www.cafepress.com/RichAstroShop .
Past Events:
Science Museum Skywatch was a success on May 21.
Ken Wilson talked about sighting Comet McNaught in the SE sky.
Terry Barker and others mentioned the pairing of Mars and Venus close to each other.
Upcoming Events:
The next Science Museum Skywatch/LiveSky show is June 18. Please sign-up if you are available to attend and bring a scope.
Skywatch at Willow Oaks Country Club on Friday June 11. Rain date is July 9.
Cub Scout Twilight Camp at Fairfield Prebyterian Church on Tuesday June 22. Rain date is June 25.
ECVAR (East Coast Video Astronomy Rendevous) in Luray, Virginia on June 10-13. Please see http://sites.google.com/site/ecvar2010/ for more information.
Green Bank StarQuest in Green Bank, WV on July 7-10. Please see http://www.greenbankstarquest.org/ for more information.
Dues announcement:
Annual dues are due and should be given to Jim Blowers. Membership is $30. Observatory memberships and magazine subscriptions increase the amount.
Payment can be made by PayPal at http://richastro.org/ras_payments.htm
Observatory Report (John Barnett)
John Barnett will be hosting an open house for members and guests on Wednesday, June 16th at 8:30pm. On the 15th, he will email a weather advisory and a reminder to all members. Contact Jim Blowers to update your email address if it has changed.
Library Report was not given. The RAS library was moved out of the RAS recently. At this time, it is in public storage with controlled atmospheric conditions. An effort is in progress to find a long-term location where RAS members can easily access the library contents.
June’s Presentation: “News in the World of Weather Forecasting” by John Bernier
John Bernier spoke about many aspects of the weather affecting our lives and environment. He started off his presentation by asking about a very active political topic: “Climate Change – Fact? Fiction? Fantasy?” He used the beliefs of Al Gore to take the side of there is global warming, Ken Cuchinelli to side with no global warming, and Sargent Schultz (from Hogan’s Heroes) to take the middle ground using Schultz’s well-known line of “I know nothing!”. Very effective!
Since the dawn of time, we have had 7 ice ages, where the warmer periods have lasted longer than the colder periods. Sometime during the warmer periods, it has been warm enough for the dinosaurs to venture up to the Arctic.
Observatory Open House – 8:00pm Sunday, Oct. 17th
Members and guests are welcome to the Ragland Observatory’s monthly open house at 8:00 pm, Sunday evening, Oct. 17th. I’ll send out a reminder the day before on the club’s directory ( keep Jim Blowers advised if your email has changed) and on Richastro.org. Unless it’s actually raining, a staff member will be present. Use your own judgement about the … Read more
Sydney’s Telescope
Sydney asked her dad Mark (one of our members) if they could build a telescope. They are doing just that and have set up a web site to chronicle their adventure here. Mark has also set up an email address for comments/suggestions: sydney.telescope.blog@gmail.com. It looks like they are going to have loads of fun with … Read more