LVAAS General Meeting

Saturday August 20, 7 p.m. at Pulpit Rock

Rain Date Sunday August 21

 

Update on LVAAS Projects



 

Frank Lyter

Frank Lyter, Director of Pulpit Rock Observatories, is presenting an update on two projects he is leading for the society. 
The presentation will be held at the society’s Pulpit Rock Observatory Site. 

The first project presented will detail the installation of digital encoders and a controller to the society’s 17.5 inch Coulter Odyssey 2 Dobsonian Reflector “Push to” telescope located at Pulpit Rock Observatory Site.  The addition allows users to push the telescope to navigate the night sky while monitoring the position wirelessly via the Sky Safari application on their phone or tablet.  The project utilizes the open source DobsonianDSC application developed by Vladimir Atehortúa and made available via GNU General Public License.

The second project presented will be the installation of meteor detection cameras to the society’s South Mountain and Pulpit Rock Observatory Sites as well as at member’s homes.  The project utilizes the international Global Meteor Network (https://globalmeteornetwork.org ) program which is a worldwide organization of amateur and professional astronomers alike, whose goal is to observe the night sky using inexpensive, low-light video cameras to calculate meteor trajectories in a coordinated manner.   LVAAS society’s cameras are the first installations on our area of the United States and along with other installations across the globe allow for the tracking, determining the source, size and possible landfalls of meteors impacting the earth.

 

The meeting will be in-person only, outdoors at LVAAS' Pulpit Rock dark-sky observing site. Click here for directions. For members who do not have a key, the gate will be manned during a certain period TBA before the meeting starts.

Prospective new members who wish to attend the meeting should email membership@lvaas.org.

 

 

LVAAS Public Star Party

Saturday, September 3

6:00 p.m. - Planetarium Show for families with children aged 14 and under

7:00 p.m. - presentation TBA

8:00 p.m. - regular Planetarium Show

Continuous - Observatory tours and telescope viewing

620 B East Rock Road, Allentown

click here for more info

 


 

1 Comments

 

 

Mega Meet August 19-21, 2022!!!

 

 

The gate at the Hamburg reservoir will be manned from 4 p.m. until 7 p.m. on August 19-20 for new members who do not have keys.

 

LVAAS is not providing any food or beverages! Please bring your own refreshments.

Click here for more details about Mega Meet.

Click Here for directions.

See you on the mountain!

 

—    LVAAS    —

THE LEHIGH VALLEY AMATEUR ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY -- 620B East Rock Road -- Allentown, PA 18103 -- 610-797-3476 -- www.lvaas.org

WELCOME!

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 a meeting space, 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 1600 feet above sea level, the site features five observatories and a pad for member's 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.

 

South Mountain Clear Sky Chart  image

Pulpit Rock Clear Sky Chart         image