Author: Joe Kutner

Join us on Friday July 18, 2025 at 7:30 pm at the VBAS Planetarium for our monthly member meeting. Admission is open to the public.

NASA Meteor Monitoring at VBAS

Our topic will be: NASA Meteor Monitoring at VBAS with NASA specialist Dr. Bill Cooke. The Global Meteor Network is a Canada based project with sites all over the world collecting and reporting data on meteor strikes in Earth’s atmosphere. Each site uses a visual camera and specialized software to monitor the night sky for meteors. Each day, calibrated data from the previous night is reported back to a central database. More info available at https://globalmeteornetwork.org

Bill Cooke’s team at NASA participate in the network and one of their cameras is now mounted at the VBAS Swanson observatory. The VBAS station is called USN009 and you can access the latest and archived data from this station through the VBAS website on our Sky Conditions page or at https://globalmeteornetwork.org/weblog/US/.

Join us on Friday June 20, 2025 at 7:30 pm at the VBAS Planetarium for our monthly member meeting. Admission is open to the public.

Starlore from India

Astronomy is one of the oldest branches of Science. All the known ancient civilizations were equally fascinated by the motion of the Sun, Moon, Planets, and the Stars and made careful observations/recordings of these motions. Although the objects in the sky are the same, the stories about the constellations vary widely across the cultures. In this talk I will share some constellation stories that I heard growing up in India and touch upon how astronomy plays a role in various rituals that are still followed in India.

Presented by Dr. Naveen Vetcha

---

Dr. Vetcha is Team Lead for Aerosciences team at Amentum Space Exploration Division supporting the Engineering Services and Science Capability Augmentation (ESSCA) contract at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC). His prior roles on the contract include Team Lead for Technology Development Team, Challenge Manager of NASA’s Centennial Challenges Program, and Liquid Propulsion Analyst for RS-25 engines that power the core stage of NASA’s Space Launch System Rocket. Prior to this, he worked as lead test analyst at Nexolve for NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s sunshields. Naveen is also an adjunct faculty at University of Alabama Huntsville’s College of Engineering. Naveen has been an active member and volunteer of VBAS since 2013. Dr. Vetcha received MS & PhD degrees in Mechanical Engineering from University of California Los Angeles, MTech in Mechanical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, India, and BE in Mechanical Engineering from Osmania University, India.

 

Launched atop NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, Moon Tree seeds traveled into lunar orbit aboard the Orion spacecraft as part of the Artemis I mission in 2022. The seeds travelled thousands of miles beyond the Moon and spent more than 25 days in space before returning to Earth.

The Von Braun Astronomical Society applied to receive a tree through NASA’s Office of STEM Engagement (OSTEM) and partnered with Alabama State Parks to plant the tree at Monte Sano State Park.

WHAT: Moon Tree dedication at Monte Sano State Park
WHEN: Thursday, March 20, at 11 a.m.
WHO: Representatives from Alabama State Parks, Von Braun Astronomical Society and NASA, as well as local civic and business leaders
WHERE: Monte Sano State Park, 5105 SE Nolen Ave, Huntsville, AL 35801; please park near the John Scoble Memorial Pavilion, located on Cabin Drive near the intersection with Bankhead Parkway.
LEARN MORE: Visit nasa.org to learn about the Moon Tree program

Choosing a first telescope for yourself or a loved one can be a daunting task. There are many different choices at all sorts of price ranges. Some are good and some are not so good. Let our Telescope Buyer’s Guide help you in your decision.