Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers

June 21, 2015 saw the opening of the annual meeting of the Society of Amateur Radio Astronmers at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Green Bank, West Virginia. The meeting was well attended by members with 55 registered attendees, representing states of the United States as far away as Washington state, as well as from many states surrounding the NRAO location.

Here are the results of the officer and director elections from the 2015 SARA Conference:

This free public stargazing (Friday, June 19, 2015; 6–11 pm) was organized by Dr. Donald Lubowich, Coordinator of Astronomy Outreach at Hofstra University. The Astronomy Festival on the National Mall (AFNM) featured solar, optical, and radio telescope observations of the Sun, Moon, Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn; hands-on activities, demonstrations, hand-outs, posters, banners, and videos; a planetarium show with a portable blow-up dome, speakers from scientific and educational organization. Unfortunately this year the weather was unfriendly.

The Stanford University campus is in Silicon Valley south of San Francisco. The satellite image below shows the northern portion of the campus from 4 km altitude. The Physics and Astrophysics building, where the 2015 SARA Western Conference was held, is just left of center, barely distinguishable at this altitude. Just out of view to the south is the huge open area populated with radio research facilities including the 150 ft diameter dish antenna that SARA Western Conference attendees toured in 2010 and 2012. The main campus is about 33 square kilometers (8 180 acres). Imagine paying California property taxes on that each year.