News – Buffalo Astronomical Association

August Upcoming Event – Astronomy Day @ BMO (08/05/23)

Posted on July 17, 2023 by Emilyann Kerr

Hi all,

Hope everyone has been enjoying the warm summer nights. We have an upcoming event on August 5th, 2023 — Astronomy Day! It’s an all-day astronomical extravaganza, held at our very own Beaver Meadow Observatory. The main focus of this event will be on eclipses, predominantly the upcoming April 2024 solar eclipse visible from Buffalo, as well as the partial solar eclipse in October.

We’ll have something for everyone between the hours of 10AM to 4PM:

Multiple informative and interesting lectures on eclipse science — these will be held at different times throughout the day
Solar viewing, using member telescopes — see various solar features such as sunspots, filaments, and prominences
Kids’ activities — simulate an eclipse, learn about time with the Big Dipper, or create astronomy buttons of your very own!
Telescope repair — have a telescope, but don’t quite know what to do with it? Bring it to the Beaver Meadow Observatory and let our expert BAA members help you out.
Solar eclipse glasses will also be available (for a donation of $2)

This is not only a great opportunity to join in on some astro-fun, but it’s also a good chance to check out the Beaver Meadow Observatory in daylight and enjoy the grounds of the Beaver Meadow Nature Center.

GPS users, the Nature Center’s address is: 1610 Welch Road, North Java NY 14113
For updates, keep up on our Facebook and the event page on our website. Hope to see you all there!

April Upcoming Event – Public Night @ The BMO (4/2/2022)

Posted on March 31, 2022 by Emilyann Kerr

Hi all,
It’s not an early April Fools’ Day joke — it’s real! Our first in-person public event of the year will be taking place this Saturday at the Beaver Meadow Observatory, starting at 8PM. We’ll have BAA members on-site with telescopes providing views of stars, planets, and various deep-sky wonders. You’ll also be able to check out our observatory itself, as well as the grounds of the Beaver Meadow Audubon Center. Additional info can be found on our page here: https://www.buffaloastronomy.com/event/public-night/?instance_id=1052

Unfortunately, the weather isn’t looking super great for Saturday — but it might still be worth taking the chance and coming out. We’ll be holding these in-person public events every month this year until October, so there’s always May, too! Regardless, hope to see lots of other members and fellow astronomy lovers there.
–Emilyann

March Events — General Member Meeting, and Looking Up!

Posted on March 9, 2022 by Emilyann Kerr

Hi all,
We’ve got two major, meteoric March events coming up this week!

The first is, of course, our monthly member meeting, to be held on Friday, March 11th, at 7:00PM through Zoom. Our topic this month is “Extreme Astronomy”, presented by the Vice-President of the Astronomical League, Charles E. Allen. We’ll also have our regular breakout rooms to discuss astronomical topics with other members. The invitation went out earlier this week, so please check your email for it, and reach out to Mike Humphrey if you didn’t receive it.

Our second event is our Looking Up! Virtual Star Party, to be held at 8PM on Saturday, March 12th. Our fellow BAA members will hold presentations on monthly celestial events, basic stargazing… and we’ll also be celebrating Near Miss Day! What’s that? Well, you’ll just have to check out the event page here on Facebook, or go here to our Youtube channel, to find out!

Hope to see many fellow members and astronomy fans there,
–Emilyann

February 2022 Online General Meeting

Posted on February 10, 2022 by Emilyann Kerr

Hi all,
Just a reminder that our monthly member meeting will be held this Friday (aka tomorrow!) starting at 7PM. Our own Martin Pepe will be unveiling an exciting new collaboration with colleagues at RIT. It’s something that will benefit all BAA members, so be sure to join in and check out the presentation.
The invitation went out on Monday (2/7), so please check your inbox and reach out to Mike Humphrey if you didn’t get it. See you then!
–Emilyann

February Upcoming Event – Looking Up! (02/12/22)

Posted on February 6, 2022 by Emilyann Kerr

Hi all,
Hope everyone has been enjoying the New Year and making the best of this weather. We’ll be having another Looking Up! Event this Saturday, on February 12th, starting at 7:30PM. Members of the BAA will join associates from Penn Dixie Fossil Park, the Buffalo Museum of Science, and the Williamsville Planetarium to present a wide variety of exciting presentations on astronomy topics! We’ll also have live views (if available.)

Head on over to our Facebook event page or Youtube channel to watch the event. Hope to see you all there!
–Emilyann

December Event Notice — General Meeting Date Change

Posted on December 10, 2021 by Emilyann Kerr

Hi all,
Just a reminder to BAA members that the December general meeting is not tonight (12/10) — due to a time conflict with the Buffalo Museum of Science’s Science After Hours event, it’ll be held tomorrow night (12/11) instead, from 7PM to 8PM. Our very own Devon Dice-Jaffri will be presenting on nebulae and their characteristics. Thanks and hope to see some fellow members tomorrow night!
–Emilyann

(RESCHEDULED) December Upcoming Event – Looking Up! (12/18/21)

Posted on December 6, 2021 by Emilyann Kerr

NOTICE: Due to the incredibly high winds we’re having tonight, and the possibility of presenters losing power, we’ve tentatively rescheduled the Looking Up! event to December 18th. Apologies for the last-minute change, and hope everyone is doing okay out there. See you next week!

Hi all,
We’ll be holding our month’s Looking Up! event this Saturday, December ~~11th~~ 18th, starting at 7:30PM. Despite the current wild winter weather, BAA members and associates from the Buffalo Museum of Science, Penn Dixie Fossil Park, and the Williamsville Planetarium will be presenting some interesting and fun talks, and hopefully showing live telescopic views too. You can catch the event on our Events page here. Hope to catch some folks there!
–Emilyann

11/19/2021 Partial Lunar Eclipse Presentation by our own Emilyann

Posted on November 18, 2021 by Dennis Bartkowiak

Are you prepared for the lunar eclipse? Check out the presentation from our recent Looking Up! event by Emilyann at this link:

If you haven’t heard, Emilyann also reached out and shared the event with NPR on WBFO today. Thank you Emilyann! You can check out the 4 minute spot here –

https://www.wbfo.org/local/2021-11-18/buffalo-astronomical-association-talks-tonights-near-total-lunar-eclipse

If you are a member, be ready to get up at 1am on 11/19/2021 and join Dan Marcus at our zoom session to see if we might just catch the eclipse live from somewhere around WNY. Members can log in and check out the form for details.

Keep Looking Up!

November Happenings — BAA Member Meeting and Looking Up! Event

Posted on November 8, 2021 by Emilyann Kerr

Hi all,
Just a reminder that there are two virtual BAA events happening this week:

The first event is our monthly member meeting, which will be held this Friday (11/12) starting at 7PM. The Zoom invite went out today (Monday), so please check your email and reach out to Mike Humphrey if you didn’t get it. Our speaker this month will be David Bishop, a fellow local astronomer who’s involved in the Rochester scene.

The second event is this month’s Looking Up!, which will be the very next day, Saturday (11/13) starting at 7:30PM. Additional details can be found on the blog here, or on our Facebook page for the event. Just wanted to remind everyone so that you don’t miss out! Thanks and hope to see you there.

–Emilyann

November Upcoming Event – Looking Up! (11/13/21)

Posted on October 31, 2021 by Emilyann Kerr

Hi all,
Hopefully you were able to attend one of the two in-person public nights we held out at the observatory this autumn. Don’t worry if you didn’t though — we’ll be moving back to in-person events starting in the spring of 2022. Keep an eye out on the website and on our Facebook page!

We still want to keep the momentum going despite the changing weather, so our next virtual Looking Up! event will be in just about two weeks, on November 13th, starting at 7:30PM. This month we have a variety of presentations from knowledgeable folks from the BAA, the Buffalo Museum of Science, Penn Dixie Fossil Park, and the Williamsville Planetarium. We’ll discuss upcoming lunar and stellar events, and of course we hope to have live telescope views and photography too.

As always, you can catch the stream live on our Facebook event page here. See you then!
–Emilyann