The Virginia Solar Lunar Convention and Imaging Conference

April 4, 2009 will be a great Saturday.

At 9:00 AM on this day, the first Virginia Solar Lunar Convention and Imaging Conference will begin. The event will be held at Camp Brady Saunders Scout Camp in Goochland, VA and, as I write this, the weather forecast is looking good.

This star party will be a lot of fun. John Raymond has arranged for interesting speakers (myself excluded), displays and demos and it will be held at a great location. The Scout Camp in Goochland is an easy to find, very convenient site with lots of space to set up telescopes and camp.

There are great facilities at the site including a large dining hall / meeting space and an always popular item at star parties - real toilets with running water. The site is located in a rural area west of the city lights from Richmond. Tim Streagle, one of the camp rangers, has been kind enough to host the gathering. All of the efforts on the part of John and Tim are very much appreciated and we are looking forward to a great event.

More information about the event can be found at: http://mysite.verizon.net/vze10oyym/index.html. It will start at 9:00 AM on Saturday and continue through the day and into the night for a full range of day and nighttime observing.

Directions to the Scout Camp are here: http://bradysaunders.net/camp/direct.html.

The Richmond Astronomical Society is supplying refreshments along with some imaging displays and demonstrations. Be sure to stop by for snack and learn more about our group.

We are also going to try an experiment at the event – a live video broadcast over the internet (as long as the technology works). During the daylight and evening observing sessions, please check the following address for live video from the site: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/vasolcon.

I hope to see everyone there! This will be a great star party and very much worthy of our support. I encourage all in the area that are interested in astronomy at any level to attend.

Regards,

Jim Browder
Richmond Astronomical Society

2009 – The Year of Astronomy in Virginia!

Thanks to our members Phil Roberts and Ken Wilson a request was made of Virginia Senator John Watkins to introduce a resolution in the Virginia General Assembly designating 2009 as the Year of Astronomy in Virginia. Senator Watkins kindly introduced the resolution this month.

The full text of the proposed resolution is at:

http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?091+ful+SJ303

Many thanks to Senator Watkins, Phil and Ken. May we have a very astronomical 2009.

If you like, you might contact your state senator or delegate and express your support for the resolution.

Regards,
Jim Browder
Richmond Astronomical Society

Welcome to the RichAstro Blog

Welcome to the RichAstro Blog where you can find news and information about astronomy in the Richmond, Virginia area.

I would like to wish everyone a very happy holiday season and a wonderful 2009! As we all know, this year will bring a number of challenges and opportunities for many reasons. One of the more enjoyable opportunities will be how to properly celebrate the International Year of Astronomy.

A number of websites have information about the year-long event. One particularly good source of information is the US national site sponsored by several organizations at http://astronomy2009.us/. Ideas for celebrating the year are welcome from all.

At the next meeting of the Richmond Astronomical Society, Leslie Bochenski, with the Science Museum of Virginia, will be discussing the International Year of Astronomy and associated activities. Please join us if you can at 7:30 PM on January 13 at the Science Museum of Virginia.

Best wishes in 2009,

Jim Browder
Richmond Astronomical Society
www.richastro.org

-----------------------------------------------

Items of Note:

Meeting Location for 2009: Due to budget constraints, the Science Museum of Virginia will be closing on Mondays in 2009. For this reason, our past practice of meeting on the second Monday of each month was necessarily changed. After careful review of member preferences, the RAS Board decided to change the meeting location to the second Tuesday of each month. As of the date of this post, we do not know which meeting space at the Science Museum will be available for us at the January meeting. When arriving at the Museum, the guard at the main entrance will be able to direct us to the correct location.

Buying Star Names: Ken Wilson of our society recently appeared in a local television spot by Aaron Gilchrist discussing the pitfalls of "buying" a star name. There are firms who claim to sell the right to name stars to individuals. Ken explains that the International Astronomical Union is the international body recognized by professional astronomers as the offical organization with the authority to name astronomical objects and they do not sell the right to name such objects. A link to the video appears here.

Skywatches in 2009: The schedule for the Science Museum of Virginia Skywatches has been updated by our webmaster, Jim Blowers. Click this link for the updated schedules. The main web page is at this link.