RMAA aka "BobFest".....a little history,
_ When Bob Eskridge became president in 1992 the club staged the first installment of its annual Regional Meeting of Amateur Astronomers, affectionately known as "BoBFest" the following year. Since then, The CCAS has continued to be an active organization in amateur astronomy in the region, with Steve Davis, then Roger Ivester succeeding BoB as president. The current president is Don Brooks.
The Club’s members participate in a wide range of programs oriented toward the amateur astronomer and the general public including telescope demonstrations, video and slide presentations, and other educational programs. This regional meeting is known as “BoBfest” for Carolina's Astronomy Ambassador, BoB Eskridge.
The Club’s members participate in a wide range of programs oriented toward the amateur astronomer and the general public including telescope demonstrations, video and slide presentations, and other educational programs. This regional meeting is known as “BoBfest” for Carolina's Astronomy Ambassador, BoB Eskridge.
Join us for the
2013 Regional Meeting of Amateur Astronomers
aka "BoBfest"
on Saturday Jan, 26th, 9 am to 5 pm.
We are excited to be holding it in a new location -
the just completed
Tucker Student Center
at Gardner-Webb University .
The all new facility contains the latest state of the art technology for presentations, Broad River gourmet coffee shop, sub sandwich shop, Chinese cafe, a fast food cafe and more.
Click here for Map (Tucker Center is #22 and last years meeting was at #10)
GWU physical address for your GPS - 110 S. Main Street, Boiling Springs, NC 28017
( 35°14'48.93"N 81°40'17.13"W )
Need Directions? Click here.........
Local Accommodations - Click Here
VENDORS - ASTRONOMY SPEAKERS - DOOR PRIZES
FOOD - SWAP TABLES ------ and Don't forget to bring your best astrophotos to enter in our Astrophotography Contest!!
Brought to you by the
Cleveland County Astronomical Society and the
Craven E. Williams Observatory
Cleveland County Astronomical Society and the
Craven E. Williams Observatory
Speakers lined up for this year include:
Presentation: "Strange New Worlds: The Search for Alien Planets and Life beyond Our Solar System"
Professor "Ray Jay" is the Canada Research Chair in Observational Astrophysics and
Author of "Strange New Worlds: The Search for Alien Planets and Life beyond Our Solar System"
One of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles for 2011
One of Library Journal Reviews' Sci-Tech Best Books for 2011
Shortlisted for the 2011 (third annual) Lane Anderson Science Writing Award
Catch RayJay on Twitter......... Click Here.
Supported by the
American Astronomical
Society's Harlow Shapley Visiting Lectureships in Astronomy,
and the
Gardner-Webb University Life of the Scholar program
Tom English, M. S. - Professor of Astronomy at Guilford Technical Community College and director of GTCC’s Cline Observatory
Presentation: Documenting the New Astronomy
Tom English is a Professor of Astronomy at Guilford Technical Community College and director of GTCC’s Cline Observatory. He graduated from Guilford College in 1982 with a BS in physics and received his Master’s in physics from the University of Georgia. He has been at GTCC for 11 years, and served in a similar position at Gardner-Webb University for 12 years before coming back home to the Triad. His primary professional interests are astronomy education/outreach and history of astronomy.
This talk will describe the emergence of two chroniclers of astronomy, separated by an ocean and more than a century. In the 1880s, an amazing book was published in England by an unheralded woman named Agnes Mary Clerke. Her Popular History of Astronomy During the Nineteenth Century covered advances in astronomy from the Herschels to the rise of astrophysics, and was so widely heralded that her house in London became an important destination for visits and letters by the top astronomers of the day. Over a century later, an unheralded astronomy club in western NC began planning events and publishing a newsletter that ultimately led to the establishment of the Regional Meeting of Amateur Astronomers (AKA BoBfest). This presentation will describe the writings of Agnes Clerke and the circumstances that made her work so important (even to this day), as well as highlights from the pages of the Newsletter of the Cleveland County Astronomical Society during its "golden age" - the times leading up to and encompassing the first few editions of BoBfest.
Tom English is a Professor of Astronomy at Guilford Technical Community College and director of GTCC’s Cline Observatory. He graduated from Guilford College in 1982 with a BS in physics and received his Master’s in physics from the University of Georgia. He has been at GTCC for 11 years, and served in a similar position at Gardner-Webb University for 12 years before coming back home to the Triad. His primary professional interests are astronomy education/outreach and history of astronomy.
This talk will describe the emergence of two chroniclers of astronomy, separated by an ocean and more than a century. In the 1880s, an amazing book was published in England by an unheralded woman named Agnes Mary Clerke. Her Popular History of Astronomy During the Nineteenth Century covered advances in astronomy from the Herschels to the rise of astrophysics, and was so widely heralded that her house in London became an important destination for visits and letters by the top astronomers of the day. Over a century later, an unheralded astronomy club in western NC began planning events and publishing a newsletter that ultimately led to the establishment of the Regional Meeting of Amateur Astronomers (AKA BoBfest). This presentation will describe the writings of Agnes Clerke and the circumstances that made her work so important (even to this day), as well as highlights from the pages of the Newsletter of the Cleveland County Astronomical Society during its "golden age" - the times leading up to and encompassing the first few editions of BoBfest.
Brad Panovich, Chief Meteorologist WCNC-TV NBC Charlotte, NC
Presentation: Meteorology Related to Astronomy.
Brad is a Broadcast/Digital Meteorologist, Certified Weather and Tech Geek.
B.S. in Meteorology from The Ohio State University
Worked History:
WKEF-TV Dayton, OH
WGKI-TV Cadillac, MI
WWL-TV New Orleans, LA
Brad's Weather Blog - @wxbrad blog Brad on Facebook - Brad Panovich
Brad is a Broadcast/Digital Meteorologist, Certified Weather and Tech Geek.
B.S. in Meteorology from The Ohio State University
Worked History:
WKEF-TV Dayton, OH
WGKI-TV Cadillac, MI
WWL-TV New Orleans, LA
Brad's Weather Blog - @wxbrad blog Brad on Facebook - Brad Panovich
Hap Griffin - VP of Engineering at SC Educational TV (ret.)
Presentation: Construction and images of the Mac-Hunter Observing Facility and the Imaging Infinity Observatory
2012 recipient of the RTMA Clyde Tombaugh Memorial Award
for Creative Innovation in Astronomy.
Hap holds a Bachelor's Degree from the University of South Carolina in Electrical Engineering and is a practicing registered Professional Engineer. He was Vice-President for Engineering at the South Carolina Educational Television Network, where he was responsible for engineering planning and oversight for 11 TV and 8 radio stations, and a multi-channel digital satellite network.
Hap also owns a small business making specialized cables for use with Canon and Nikon Digital SLR cameras and modifying DSLR's for increased astronomical performance. The details are at www.imaginginfinity.com.
Hap's primary interest is astronomical photography. He has had photographs published in several books on DSLR imaging and has been a speaker at the Midwest Astro-Imaging Conference (MWAIC) in Chicago, the Northeast Astro-Imaging Conference (NEAIC) in New York, and the BobFest and Southern Star Astronomical Conferences in North Carolina.
Joe Heafner, M.S. - Astronomy/Physics Instructor, CVCC
Regular contributing Editor to Sky and Telescope Magazine.
Presentation: How We Know Our Sun is Recycled
Joe Heafner began teaching astronomy and physics at Catawba Valley Community College in 1992.
His approach to teaching science emphasizes the model of critical thinking developed by Richard Paul
and Linda Elder and the reasoning behind science, not just “plugging into equations”, sometimes to the
chagrin of his students. He was the first instructor in North Carolina to adopt a radical approach to
teaching introductory calculus-based physics that incorporates computer modeling, among other things. His
introductory astronomy course has a flavor unlike that at any other institution. Joe authored a book entitled
Fundamental Ephemeris Computations which was published in 2000 by Willmann-Bell, Inc. He is also a contributing editor to Sky & Telescope, writing software and book reviews. In early 2006, Joe began a three year term on the American Association of Physics Teachers Committee on Space Science and Astronomy and will assume chairmanship of this committee in January 2013. He is active in, and past president of, the North Carolina Section of AAPT. Joe is an active member of the Catawba Valley Astronomy Club and is on the staff of Lucile Miller Observatory at Maiden Middle School in Maiden, NC and volunteers at the Catawba Science Center’s Millholland Planetarium. He is currently writing his second book, which will be an inquiry-based introductory astronomy textbook
Come out for a day full of telescope accessory vendors, interesting speakers, solar observing (weather permitting), food, door prizes and bring your extra telescope gear you no longer need to sell for some extra cash on our swap and shop tables!!
