Kern Astronomical Society

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The Kern Astronomical Society (K.A.S.) promotes community awareness of current events in astronomy, and provides a forum for sharing of knowledge and experiences among amateur astronomers. The Kern Astronomical Society meets at 6:30 PM for dinner followed by the business meeting and program at 7:30 PM on January 6th (Friday) at the Round Table Pizza at the corner of Gosford and White Lane (4200 Gosford Rd, Suite 101) in Bakersfield—see the map below. We're part of the Night Sky Network. Find our events by using the NSN Search widget at left or check out the Syzygy (our newsletter). The initial search will be all events within 100 miles of the given zip code and it will be sorted by date. You can then sort by club or narrow the search radius. KAS group on Facebook Public Star Party at Russo's Bookstore May 18th! From 8 PM to 10 PM KAS members will be outside of Russo's Bookstore in The MarketPlace to show you the sights through their telescopes. See star party link for more information and download the flyer.

Usual meeting spot shown below:

View Larger Map

Annual membership is $20.00 and $25 for those getting paper copies of the Syzygy (to cover postage). With membership Sky and Telescope and / or Astronomy magazines are available at reduced rates. New members get first crack at borrowing one of the club telescopes for a month!

• We have club star parties every month on the Saturday evenings (sometimes also Friday evenings) before and after New Moon (weather permitting). Favorite spots for these are: near the Lockwood Valley ranger station (alternate map and look for the Chuchupate Ranger Station -- Forest Route 8N04 = Frazier Mountain Road) & Mt Pinos (other maps). Other areas we've been to are: Wind Wolves Preserve, Red Rock Canyon, and an airfield at Barringer Canyon Hwy.
• We give star parties for school groups during the early fall semester and late spring semester when the weather is still decent and the schools are in session.
• We put on the annual Astronomy Day in April drawing hundreds of people with workshops during the day for kids and adults and evening viewing and it's all free! There will be a one-year break with Astronomy Day so the next one will be in April 2014. Link to "Make Your Own Spectroscope" project done at 2012 Astronomy Day.
• We also hold public star parties for the general public at various times of the year. Popular spots for these are at C.A.L.M. (local zoo), Barnes+Noble on California Ave near Hwy 99, Russo's Bookstore in the MarketPlace, and Panorama Park on Panorama Drive, a little west of Bakersfield College (near where Linden Ave runs into Panorama Drive)
• Late Summer Messier Object hunt -- use the enclosed star charts to hunt down some Messier objects (nebulae, clusters, galaxies) while the temperatures are still comfortable.
• Want to Build a 20-inch f/4 Telescope? (10.5 MB PDF download) Doug Stewart gets down to nuts and bolts with this graphical step-by-step approach to building your own telescope. The PDF is 10.5 MB.
• Make your own Planisphere (circle map of entire sky)
• Star Party Photo Album shows some of our members and their telescopes (before nightfall!).
• KAS group on Facebook---we observe stars, galaxies, and planets and we even social network!

Our monthly newsletter is called the "SYZYGY". Copies of the newsletter are posted on the web as PDF documents. Select here to go to the newsletter archive.

Officers

SpacePlace Archive at KAS

Astro-photography Album

Have you taken images of some celestial object that you would like to share with others? Send them to the KAS webmaster and he will put them in the KAS astro-photo album!

Quick Links

1. This week's sky at a glance
2. Sky almanac (quick overview of what's visible now)
3. Astronomy Notes (will answer just about any other astronomy question)
4. Bakersfield College Planetarium (also has info on safely observing the Sun during solar eclipses)

last updated: May 13, 2013

Webpage contact: Nick Strobel