By John Jardine Goss, Vice President Astronomical League All joking aside about the end of the world in December, 2012 promises to be a great year for amateur astronomy. It features numerous celestial scenes worthy of viewing: lunar occultations, planetary encounters, comets, asteroids, planetary satellites, planetary visits to deep sky objects, and the last Venus [...]

Thanks to all who attended our annual potluck dinner.  Everything was absolutely delicious, the images of the Heart of Virginia Fall Star Party were great and the Astro-Jeopardy was a lot of fun.  It was really great to see everyone. Hope everyone has an enjoyable and safe holiday season. . Regards,. Jim Browder 

Next meeting:  The next meeting of the Richmond Astronomical Society will be on Tuesday, December 13, 7:30 PM at the Science Museum of Virginia in the Forum. At this meeting we will transform into the Richmond Gastronomical Society and have a potluck dinner as is our custom for the December meeting.  Please send me an e-mail to [...]

  Asteroid YU55 blew past us on November 8. RAS member Tim Streagle appeared on WTVR Channel 6 in a story about the asteroid pass at this link. ….. So did anyone observe or image the asteroid? Please let us know or pass along an image or video and we will be happy to post [...]

Frank Green passed along this report on his recent expedition to Florida for some excellent stargazing: Drove down to the Chiefland Astronomy Villgae near Chiefland, Fl. last week (Oct. 23) for one of the two annual star parties there. The sky is darker at Chiefland than at many Virginia sites, though not as dark as [...]

Calling All Astronomers! Heart of Virginia Fall Star Party November 18 – 20   The Heart of Virginia Scout Reservation in Goochland County is once again hosting a Fall Star Party! All area astronomers are invited to attend. The Richmond Astronomical Society will be there and will be supplying refreshments for the event. We hope that [...]

The annual meeting of the Virginia Association of Astronomical Societies was hosted this year by our friends, the Back Bay Amateur Astronomers, on Saturday, October 1, in Virginia Beach at Tidewater Community College. From the Richmond area we had Jim Blowers, Daryl Douglas, Bill Jeffries, Dave Medici, Dave Walton, Betty Wilson, Ken Wilson me. . . . .

RAS Fall Picnic: With all astronomical observing events, we run the risk of having uncooperative weather. That was certainly the case with Saturday’s RAS Fall picnic at the Heart of Virginia Scout Reservation in Goochland. Early in the evening we had solid clouds and so we moved the event indoors where we had great accommodations [...]

. News from our friends with the Back Amateur Astronomers who are hosting this years meeting of the Virginia Association of Astronomical Societies:  The VAAS Annual Convention for 2011 is scheduled for Saturday, October 1, at Tidewater Community College, Virginia Beach Campus. Times are approximately 8:00 AM to 5:30 PM with an observing session planned [...]

Fall picnic:  Our fall picnic is scheduled for September 17, 2011 at the Heart of Virginia Scout Reservation in Goochland.  This is the same location where we had last year’s fall picnic.  The Scout Reservation is an excellent location with convenient picnic facilities, restrooms, electricity and, lest we forget, a nice dark sky.  With the [...]