Upcoming presentation
Teresa Greenberg
The SaddleBrooke Star Gazers’ 2017 Total Solar Eclipse presentation will be on Sunday, October 14, 2018, at 7:00 p.m. in the SaddleBrooke One Activity Center. The guest speaker will be Mike Weasner, Chair of the Oracle State Park Dark Skies Committee.
Mike Weasner will give a talk on his August 21, 2017 Total Solar Eclipse experience. SaddleBrooke saw only a partial eclipse, with the sun covered about 60 percent. The talk will let attendees experience what it was like to prepare for, travel to and see and photograph “The Great American Eclipse.”
An older brother started Mike in astronomy when Mike was six years old. He received his first telescope, an Edmund Scientific 3” Newtonian in 1961, which he still has and occasionally uses. Mike earned a BS in Astrophysics (Indiana University) in 1970, did graduate work in Meteorology (University of Wisconsin), served as a USAF fighter pilot (A-7D) and instructor (T-38B) and was a manager in the USAF Space Shuttle Program.
After leaving the Air Force in 1983, he was a senior manager at a large aerospace company in southern California (TRW, Northrop Grumman). Mike authored the popular Springer Practical Astronomy Series book, Using the Meade ETX in 2001.
In 2004, Mike and his wife Larraine purchased their retirement land in Oracle, Arizona. He retired in mid-2007 and they moved to Oracle in 2009. His “Cassiopeia Observatory” in Oracle houses a Meade 12” LX600 telescope. Mike is the Chair of the Oracle Dark Skies Committee which, in 2014, helped Oracle State Park become an IDA “International Dark Sky Park.”
In addition to our monthly presentations, viewings of the night skies are held in the SaddleBrooke softball field parking lot. All residents of SaddleBrooke and SaddleBrooke Ranch are invited to attend the next viewing. As a courtesy when arriving or leaving the sky viewings, please use parking lights in the parking lot and, when walking, please use a red flashlight to minimize distractions for those viewing through telescopes and binoculars.
To learn more about our group, visit our public website https://sites.google.com/view/sbskygazers/home. To learn the benefits of being a supporting member, please contact Sam Miller or send a $10 check (per individual) payable to SkyGazers and mail to Sam Miller at 62930 E. Silkwood Way, Tucson, AZ 85739.