LVAAS General Meeting at LVAAS South Mountain

The Astronomy in Chile Educator Ambassador Program selected 10 individuals from around the world to immerse in the astronomy of the Chilean Andes in summer 2025. While there, the ambassadors not only visited cutting-edge research facilities like ALMA and the LSST/Vera Rubin Telescope, but also interacted with individuals from AUI/NOIRLab, indigenous Chileans at Reserva Elemental Puribeter, and the family hosting programs at Alfa Aldea.

Thematically, “cosmovision” is about bringing people together to support diverse ways of knowing and finding your place in the universe—connections to the Earth, sky, and one another. In this talk, Deborah will cover the technical aspects of the places visited, show astrophotography captured in the Chilean dark skies, and discuss how many telescopes are being repurposed to work together as one—despite their age and international differences—for the advancement of astronomy and collaborative humanity.

Deb teaches physics and astronomy at Friends’ Central School and at St. Joseph’s University near Philadelphia. Her earliest astronomy memory was creating a solar eclipse diorama for the October 1977 eclipse. She later studied physics and astrophysics at Swarthmore College, working at the Sproul Observatory’s historic 24-inch refractor.

She earned her Master of Science in astronomy from the Institute of Astronomy at the University of Hawai?i in 1994 and pursued doctoral studies of colliding galaxies both there and at the University of Pennsylvania, spending many nights observing on Mauna Kea. Deb later served as observatory supervisor at Williams College and developed a passion for eclipse outreach under Jay Pasachoff.

In 2022, she published “Look UP, Below! An educator’s guide to the total eclipse of April 8, 2024” and delivered more than 25 public presentations across multiple states. Today, she continues outreach while also officiating weddings, serving as a Lay Minister, and baking sourdough bread.

Founded in 1957, the Lehigh Valley Amateur Astronomical Society (LVAAS) is one of the oldest continuously-operating amateur astronomy organizations in the U.S. The mission of LVAAS is to promote the study of Astronomy and to maintain meeting spaces, observatories, and a planetarium.

LVAAS operates two astronomy sites: The South Mountain site in Salisbury Township is the headquarters of the Society. It has a planetarium with a Spitz A3P projector, a 21-foot dome, meeting space, the Red Shift store, library, workshop space, and three observatories. The Pulpit Rock site near Hamburg is LVAAS's members-only dark sky site. At 1,600 feet above sea level, the site features five observatories and a pad for members' scopes.

Members who receive training on the scopes may obtain keys to the observatories. LVAAS also maintains a rental "fleet" of telescopes that members may rent at low cost. Members also receive access to The Observer, our online newsletter, as well as reduced subscription prices to Sky and Telescope and Astronomy Magazine. If you want to learn more about astronomy and LVAAS, please join us at our next public star party.

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