Colorado Springs Astronomical Society

Colorado Springs Astronomical Society Colorado Springs Astronomy Organization We are a local (to Colorado Springs) group of people interested in amateur astronomy.

We hold public and private Star Parties, and work with local schools and organizations to share our interest of all things astronomical.

06/17/2026

If you missed the occultation of Venus by the moon today, check out the encore tonight just after dark as the moon and Venus lie on either side of the rich star cluster M44. Binoculars will give a fantastic view.

Observed the moon occult Venus at 12:56:15 MDT with 20x80 binocs. First noted dimming on Venus at 12:56:01 MDT.
06/17/2026

Observed the moon occult Venus at 12:56:15 MDT with 20x80 binocs. First noted dimming on Venus at 12:56:01 MDT.

Getting ready to view the moon occult Venus with my 20x80 binocs. Any set of binocs or a small telescope well show the e...
06/17/2026

Getting ready to view the moon occult Venus with my 20x80 binocs. Any set of binocs or a small telescope well show the event. Occultation will happen just before 1:00 PM and reemmergence just after 2:15 MDT in Colorado Springs.

Get your binoculars or small scopes out on June 16-17 for some cool lunar and planetary action. The weather on the 17th ...
06/15/2026

Get your binoculars or small scopes out on June 16-17 for some cool lunar and planetary action. The weather on the 17th is looking good for the lunar occultation of Venus in the afternoon sky!

For everyone who departed RMSS arly in anticipation of bad weather ... you forget that our little valley doesn't follow ...
06/14/2026

For everyone who departed RMSS arly in anticipation of bad weather ... you forget that our little valley doesn't follow the rules, as it's been an unexpected but very welcome beautiful night so far!

06/06/2026

Saturday's star party at Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument (Saturday, June 6th, 9-11 PM) is cancelled due to forecast cloud cover. We hope we have better weather for our other planned events later this Summer! I'm ordering it now.

This was at RMSS 2013. The kids in these photos are now amazing young adults that we sorely miss when they can't be at R...
05/21/2026

This was at RMSS 2013. The kids in these photos are now amazing young adults that we sorely miss when they can't be at RMSS with us due to adult commitments! The water rocket activity has since evolved to paper rockets. It continues to evolve and is a fun activity for our attendees at RMSS each year. I hope you were able to get your ticket to RMSS and will be joining us (again) this year! I can't wait!

Did you get to see the Moon and Venus tucket up tonight, with Jupiter high and left? The Moon will be in between them t...
05/19/2026

Did you get to see the Moon and Venus tucket up tonight, with Jupiter high and left? The Moon will be in between them tomorrow and up near Jupiter on Wednesday. Castor and Pollux in Gemini shine above and right from Jupiter.

Some of you who know Erick White from when he first joined CSASTRO and started going to RMSS in 2013 through when he lef...
05/14/2026

Some of you who know Erick White from when he first joined CSASTRO and started going to RMSS in 2013 through when he left for CU Boulder in 2022 might be interested to hear that he's graduated!

Carrying on his love of space, he's double-majored in Aerospace Engineering and Applied Mathematics, with a minor in Computer Science. He was recognized as the Outstanding Student for Aerospace Engineering Sciences, was recipient of the College of Engineering and Applied Science Research Award, received the Chancellor’s Recognition Award for a 4.0 GPA all four years (of graduating seniors, he was one of only 66), and with that he also graduated Summa Cum Laude with Honors.

Over the past four years he's interned doing work with the NASA Goddard Conjunction Assessment Risk Analysis (CARA) team where he performed “conjunction visualization with focus of analyzing and comparing old and novel methods for three-dimensional Low Earth Orbit satellite conjunction visualization” as well with the Colorado Center for Astrodynamics Research where he was an Undergraduate Research Assistant “developing N-body simulation codes for asteroid dynamics involving granular mechanics”. Along the way he was also published and had "Showcase and Comparison of Three Methods for Visualizing Near-Earth Satellite Conjunction Events" (read here: https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/20250006946) presented at the 2025 AAS/AIAA Astrodynamics Specialist Conference, and has authored a second paper which has not yet been publicly released.

Sometime after RMSS 2026, probably at the end of July, he'll head down to the University of Texas-Austin to begin his Astrodynamics graduate school program there where, in his own words, "I'll be building on Dr. Luke Peterson’s work on local orbital elements in cislunar space; my work after that will likely continue focusing on dynamical systems in cislunar space, probably emphasizing numerical methods and computations.”

His mom and dad say all the time just how much everyone in CSASTRO and at RMSS over the years directly contributed to his education and future by taking him under their wings and guiding him along, and how it influenced who he's become. Look for him at RMSS next month and be ready to talk Astrodynamics ... if you can pull him away from his scope!

You know you're getting old, when the telescope you used in College is now outside the observatory as a display! The tel...
05/07/2026

You know you're getting old, when the telescope you used in College is now outside the observatory as a display! The telescope you see here was built in the 1930s by Warner & Swasey. I was using it between 1973-1975. This is at Northern Arizona Univ in Flagstaff, AZ. They upgraded the observatory telescope about 20 years ago. Tom DeClue

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Colorado Springs, CO
80907

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