Presentations

Our monthly meetings include a presentation on observing, telescope care and use, space exploration, and other topics of interest to the members. Here are a sample of some of the presentations over the years.

• Patroclus-Menoetius Occultation Presentation
  Tom Heisey gave a presentation on the LUCY mission, occultation campaign, and the science behind it at last Thursday’s meeting. It’s a fascinating area of citizen science.
• Astrophotography Pt. 1 – Equipment
  During the August meeting, Tom Heisey gave a presentation on equipment choices for astrophotography. This was a basic discussion of how equipment choices affect the amount of sky you see and the targets you’ll shoot, not a discussion of the available equipment.
• July ’23 Presentation – Solar Telescopes
  On July 20, 2023, Tom Heisey gave a presentation on solar telescope and the solar…
• West Texas Observatory Project
  Yuexiao Shen will present his West Texas Observatory project on the Astronomy Imaging Channel (TAIC)…
• March 2022 Meeting Astronomy League
  I was building a tour in my telescope controller based on the Astronomy League Carbon Star observing list. As I was looking for that list, I took a look at the other observing programs and realized that we, as a club, could easily work those lists into our fun sessions after the public leaves the star field. This presentation is the result.
• Messier Marathon Presentation 2/17-2022
  The presentation for the February meeting was on Messier Marathon by Tom Heisey. I covered…
• Perseverance Update 11/21
  Presentation by Tom Heisey on the Perseverance rover on Mars. In particular, I concentrated on…
• Apophis Occultation Observed, Part 2
  Near-Earth Objects, History and Detection In Part I of this series, we discovered the asteroid…
• Mars Exploration update Sept. 2021
  Tom Heisey gave the presentation for the September meeting on the current news coming from…
• Apophis Occultation Observed, part 1
  As I was producing a PDF of my presentation from last month’s meeting, I realized…
• Ingenuity – Flight on Mars Presentation
  The Ingenuity helicopter is a technology demonstration experiment to show that flying drones are possible…
• Ingenuity’s First Three Flights
  Ingenuity’s first three flights are a success despite the many challenges and unknowns of the first powered flight on another planet.
• Occultation Presentation 04/15/21
  Presentation by Tom Heisey at the monthly club meeting about the International Occultation Timing Association…
• Sketching the sky
  When you look through the eyepiece at an object, or take a picture of it, it is like you are just owning the book, buying it without opening it. Once you have taken the time to sketch the object, to see it, and put to paper what your eyes have seen, and recorded with your hands what your mind has interpreted, then you have really made the object yours. You have taken the time to do more than just add the object to your collection, you have truly made it yours.
• Parker Solar Probe 2019-09-19
  Tom Heisey presented basic information on the Parker Solar Probe after its first pass close to the sun. The presentation covers the history, including the probe’s namesake Dr. Eugene Parker, the history behind observing the sun, and why we need a close approach.