Von Braun Astronomical Society
March 2014 Planetarium Shows
Our Public Planetarium Shows Begin at 7:30 PM
Skywatchers of Ancient Mexico - Saturdays, March 1, 8, 22, & 29 at 7:30 PM
Skywatchers of Ancient Mexico is a planetarium program that integrates astronomy with archaeology in a fascinating look at the cultures of the Maya, Aztecs, and other great Indian peoples of Central America and Mexico. Skywatchers transports you across time and space for an in for an introduction to these ancient civilization whose accomplishments in science and architecture still astonish us today. Skywatchers of Ancient Mexico is a professional planetarium program written by Mark Littman and produced but the Hansen Planetarium. Presented by Doreen Forsythe.
Mars Opposition - Saturday, March 15 at 7:30 PM
Mars has been a planet of mystery since the 1800’s with speculation about it being inhabited by intelligent beings who build canals across the surface. Since then we have worked hard to strip away its mystery and,
although we stripped away some, we created more mystery. April is going to be a good month to observe Mars. Perhaps you can see the canals the people in history have seen. Join us and see what mystery was stripped away and what mystery is left about Mars. Presented by Doreen Forsythe.
See you there!
Telescopes will be open after the programs. (Weather permitting) All programs are open to the public.
Admission for Saturday Night Programs:
Admission is $5 for Adults, $3 for Students, and free for children under 6, as well as VBAS members. Weather permitting, you will have the opportunity to look at some of the wonders of the universe our telescopes following the planetarium program with the help of our experienced and knowledgeable observing crew.
Monthly Society Meeting
Written by Naveen Vetcha
The next VBAS Monthly Society Meeting will occur Friday, March 21 at 7:30 PM. Pizza at 7:00 PM!
Topic: Cosmic Rays Astrophysics: A Quick Survey of The Discipline, Its Scope, and Its Applications
The talk will give a brief and eclectic survey of our understanding of cosmic rays drawn from observational as well as theoretical insights. It will also touch on some relations and connections of the discipline to formal topics like statistical mechanics and transport theory, on the one hand, as well as applied ones like space radiation and effects, on the other.
Speaker Bio
Nasser Barghouty is currently the manager of the Astrophysics Office at NASA MSFC. Trained as a nuclear physicist, he spent 15 years in academic teaching and research before joining NASA in 2004; the last position being as the Brian H. Thornhill Professor of Physics at Roanoke College in Salem, Virginia. He has also been a visiting scholar at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, DC, the University of Arizona, and the CalTech. He has authored/co-authored more than 80 research papers on space, nuclear, and radiation physics. His current interests include synthesis, acceleration, and transport of cosmic- rays, in addition to the theory and modeling of stochastic transport and acceleration processes in space plasmas in general. He holds a B.S. degree in electrical engineering from San Jose State University and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in theoretical nuclear physics from Kent State University.
Vice-PresidentM51 The "Whirlpool" Galaxy
Written by Administrator
This is one of the latest images we have taken with the Sims SBIG camera. It is of M51, the Whirlpool Galaxy located in the constellation Canes Venatici, just off the last star in the tail of the Big Dipper. The image was taken on April 12, 2013 through our 6 inch Astrophysics StarFire apochromatic refractor on an Orion Atlas mount and was made by stacking multiple exposures taken through different filters in order to achieve the color image. The smaller object (at the bottom of M51, in this picture) is its companion galaxy, NGC 5195. Jeff Delmas, Frank Schenck, Jared Cassidy, and Doug Horacek were the observing crew that acquired the image.
First Light of the Richard Sims SBIG Camera
Written by Administrator Saturday, 23 June 2012 12:33
The night of June 22, 2012, brought "first light" to our new digital astronomical camera, which was made possible, thanks in part, from a donation by Terri Sims in memory of her husband Richard Sims. Our new camera is a SBIG model STF-8300M, with St-i Autoguider/Planetary Camera, and FW8 Filter Wheel. This is a monochrome camera, which uses filters and multiple images stacked together to achieve a color image, this allows all available pixels to be used for making the image and provides better resolution than single-shot color cameras. 
Our plan is to use this on the Swanson 21 inch telescope and other society scopes to show the wonders of the universe to the public and make contributions in astronomical research.
A Brief VBAS History
Written by Al Reisz Sunday, 07 November 2010 20:45
VBAS is the second observatory that Wernher von Braun was instrumental in building. As a student at the Lietz boys high school that he attended in Berlin, at the school’s North Sea campus on the island Spiekeroog, he influenced the school to buy a telescope and build a small observatory in 1927. He selected a reflector with a 95-mm objective lens that was ordered from a Berlin manufacturer. The observatory was a “hut” with a removable roof. It didn’t survive WWII but the telescope tube and wooden tripod stand did and are in the Deutsches Technikmuseum in Berlin today. In 1954 Huntsville High School student Sam Pruitt wrote a letter asking Dr. von Braun, then at Redstone Arsenal, to build an observatory for school children interested in astronomy. Von Braun didn’t hesitate in organizing his colleagues, students and others in the community to build our observatory on Monte Sano. Von Braun was our society’s first president [then known as the Rocket City Astronomical Association (RCAA)]. After his death we re-named our society in his honor.
VBAS is an astronomical society for amateur and professional astronomers. VBAS is a special astronomical society in that our origins
