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 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.

I just added a new link to our web page, in the rightmost column, under Categories. To use it, once you open an article for reading, just click on the Share button. This will take you to a page where you can select a social network to share it with.

If you go outside tonight (June 17), or the next few nights, you’ll see the Moon very close to Mars, and moving toward Saturn. Here’ the view on June 16. As the nights go by, the Moon will move to the left.

This is a science fiction convention that I’ve been trying to get to for about three years. I think this is the year I’m actually going to make it. If you’re a Battlestar Galactica fan, the guests this year are going to make you delirious.

RAS had three telescopes at the Westover Hills Library last night, to help them celebrate Yuri’s Night-an annual worldwide party to celebrate Yuri Gagarin’s first flight into space–as well as to promote space exploration. The library highlighted many books on astronomy and space celebration, and held events for the younger kids to celebrate the night. We saw many home made flying saucers around our telescopes later in the night.

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RAS tries to motivate students to learn about astronomy in several different ways. In addition to holding many skywatches with schools and scouting groups, we also hand out money at one of the bigger science fairs: The Metro Richmond Science Fair. This fair draws students from the greater Richmond area, and usually ends up with two or three hundred projects.

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Wow, we got quite a bonus at the Science Museum last night. At the beginning of our monthly skywatch, we might see a crowd of 30 or 40 people gathered around the Kugel, waiting for us to set up our telescopes. But, as I pulled up to the entrance last night, I saw a group of about 100 people standing there. And the driveway was full of buses. It turns out that the Science Museum was hosting part of this year’s 2010 FIRST Robotics competition. So, kids had come in from all over the place, including other states.

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John Barnett will be hosting an open house at the RAS Ragland Observatory on Thursday, April 22, starting at 8:00 PM.  The 8.5 day old moon will be in Cancer, near Mars and the Beehive cluster. Saturn will be high in the east.  Watch the Richastro Yahoo Group or check back at this site for weather updates on the day of the event.

Directions:

From Henrico West End, go south on Parham rd, cross river on Willy bridge, rt onto Hugenot rd., then left onto Buford rd. Turn rt onto Rockaway rd and travel across the railroad,the creek (where Rockaway becomes Old Bon Air Rd.), and just past Mt Nebo church. Don’t go as far as the stoplight at Robious rd. You should be at the rear/side entrance of a shopping center ( Robious Hall, I think its called). turn left to drive behind the stores until you come to a fire hydrant and a steel gate on the left. The observatory is up　 the gated driveway.

From Chesterfield, go Rt.60 (Midlothian Tpke) and turn north at the stoplight onto Robious Rd. This turn is toward a mobile home park entrance and a small shopping center. Enter the shopping mall, maneuver behind it to the service area. The observatory is located up a gated driveway near the fire hydrant behind the mall.

For those with GPS:

Latitude = 37deg 30′ 31″

Longitude= 77deg 34′ 45″

If you ‘re not familiar with the Ottewell Calendar, this may be a good way to get introduced to it. For those who are not faimiliar with this treasure, it’s a large (11 x 15 inches) paperbook compilation of information about sky events for the coming year.

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The year’s show should be exceptional, at 30 to 300 per hour. Look between 2 and 4 am (Tues. morning).