Reminder that KVAS has switches between summer and winter hours at the same time we change our clocks. The current monthly meetings will be at 6:00PM until we “spring forward” at which time we will meet at 7:00PM. See you on the third Friday of the month! The 4H Spin club will also meet with us at these times for a youth astronomy program.
KVAS has had an explosion of changes in 2023-2024! We have changed domains to KVASWV.ORG and migrated an older development site to be our new website. The new platform is still under construction and the data that was migrated was set up in 2022. We have completed our second observatory the Waugh-Haxton Observatory which houses a very historic telescope, tripled our concrete pad area for star parties. and setup area for telescopes. With the help…
A new Supernova is in our night sky! photo credit: Member Bill Brown A new Supernova is in our night sky! This image was taken on May 31, 2023, in Tornado WV, a Bortle 4/5 area and has 4 hours of integration time. The image was captured with a Celestron 11″ SCT with a ZWO 294MC camera.A supernova is what happens when a star has reached the end of its life and explodes in a…
KVAS is hosted an AstroPhotography Weekend at BlackWater Falls on July 14-15 in addition to Astronomy Weekend on Sept 14-15. This is the first-ever Astrophotography centric event in West Virginia! We have an all-star lineup of speakers for the first year for the all-new non-profit organization. The keynote speaker is Nico Carver from Nebula Photos. We will have an opportunity for live planetary viewing from Cypress Island for Saturn and Jupiter along with a presentation…
Work continues! Observatory #3 Project is fully underway. Lorenzo Shortt, an Eagle Scout has taken on the role as the project manager to construct a 15′ Dome Observatory on our site. It will be named after the donators daughters The Verileith Observatory. The Dome was donated by Scott Miller and the concrete was funded by a donation from member Lewis Cook. Members Bill Brown and Aaron Brown installed the electrical conduits. The boy scouts organized…
Rodney Waugh – November 8, 2021 This Telescope has a long history. It was built in Japan in 1938 by the GOTO Telescope Company for the University of Tokyo. It is a 12” cassegrain reflector F/10 telescope. It was placed on top of a mountain on one of the islands of Okinawa. It was used for astronomy and during World War ll, I am certain it was also used to search for US ships and…