Club in Action
May 2, 2024
Starry Nights Ahead: Weather Forecasting Tools and Tips for Astronomers
This is certainly a relevant topic for anyone trying to observe here in Central PA!
Our May speaker helped us get a better handle on the weather. She is meteorologist Christy Shields of the Discovery Space, formerly of WTJA-TV. Christy told us about basic tools for forecasting the weather and gave us tips about forecasting that are useful for astronomers. Her talk spanned everything from primitive forecasting to computer models of weather systems, showing us how to access the data to make our own forecasts.
March 7, 2024
Outreach: Sharing our love of the night sky with the public
Sara Street told us about the very successful Sky Watch events she has been holding at Rider Park, near Williamsport, and about how several of our members have been major contributors. We also heard from several of our members about how much fun it is to take part in CPO’s Sky Watches. They gave us lots of good insights about how to be successful and have a good time participating and showing the night sky with our community.
January 11, 2024
Qur Annual Intro to Astronomy Meeting
CPO member Bill Arden will tell us to “Look Up,” in an introduction to the night sky and the fun of exploring the universe without telescopes or other equipment. There’s a lot to see in the sky overhead, and Bill will describe how to get your bearings and what to look for in the January sky.
August 18th Rider Park Star Party
Five members of CPO (Liz, Kelly, Bob, Steve, and Brandon) helped the First Community Foundation Partnership of PA host a start party at Rider Park north of Williamsport. The weather looked like it was not going to cooperate, but 30 minutes before the start of the event the skies cleared and we had a great night. Bob brought his EAA setup and displayed several deep sky objects for the public. The rest of us gave guided tours of the sky and assisted attendees in looking through our telescopes.
August 3, 2023
Our speaker was Dr. Diana Hannikainen, the Observing Editor at Sky & Telescope. She gave us a behind the scenes look at Sky & Telescope.
June 1, 2023
Our speaker was Dr. Macy Huston, who just recently defended her thesis and graduated in May from Penn State with her PhD in Astronomy and Astrophysics. She discussed SETI: How Astronomers Search for Technological Life in the Universe.
May 4, 2023
We had an excellent presentation by Dr. Michael Eracleous entitled “From cute binary stars to exotic gravitational wave sources”
March 7, 2023
Sky watch at Bernel Park. The PSU stories under the sky group joined us for the event.
March 6, 2023
Bill Arden shared “The CPO Gets into Radio Telescopes”. He told us about the Radio Telescope that the CPO has purchased.
February 2023
One of our newest members from the Williamsport area on February 02. 2023 Bob Stoffregen gives a presentation on his astrophotography equipment
February 2020
Howard Bond, pictured on left talking with Wayne, talked about the recent fainting (yes, that’s a term) of Betelgeuse which has heightened interest in variable stars – and that one in particular.
January 2020
We had a four member round table program. Jim Steamer gave a nice presentation on his growing up with Astronomy interests and visiting some noted telescopes and observatories.
Jim Paine gave us a synopsis of the struggle to get permits to observe in our local parks.
Steve Taylor gave us some insight to his latest projects and Bill Arden gave us a presentation about the Parker Solar Probe.
December 5, 2019
The CPO held an Open House for the public. Bill Arden gave a very nice talk about what to see in the sky and how the stars move.
October 3, 2019
We had an excellent presentation by Källan Berglund entitled “Seeing the Invisible: Observing Black Holes”