KAAL Events Page

Meetings

Periodically, KAAL meetings have been held at the facilities of Kentwood Community Church on 60^th Street between Eastern and Kalamazoo in Grand Rapids, Michigan. We have discussions on Astronomy in the news, our personal observation time, and a KAAL Learning Lab. Many of these presentations are available on this site. If you are interested in being notified of any future meetings, send email to info@kaal.org and let us know.

We would like to do more Star Parties and trips to the Veen Observatory. If you would like to help arrange an event, trip, or star party, send email to info@kaal.org and let us know how you wish to be involved.

Events

Leonid Watch 2001 - November 18, 2001 - Weather again provided the most spectacular part of this November non-event as 100% humidity created dense fog throughout lower Michigan thwarting all efforts to see any part of the night sky, let alone any Leonid meteors. Ken Thede said he had "listened" to them on the radio, which says something about the nature of amateur astronomy in "The Cloud State". Hopefully John and Chris de Longpre found the clear skies they were seeking out west, and were able to get some pictures.

Astronomy Day 2001 on Saturday April 28th, 2001 was a wonderful clear day of Sunspot viewing, Astronomy presentations, displays of telescopes, astrophotographs done by KAAL members, displays of the solar system, and fun for the kids with hands-on activities. Check out the Astronomy Day Review to see pictures and an overview of the event.

Astronomy Day 2000 on Saturday June 3rd, 2000 was a full day of activities. The Kentwood Library multipurpose room served as the perfect place for our event. We concluded the day with a Star Party at our "dark site" in Moline. Check out Chris de Longpre's review of the event, and keep watching this site for the next KAAL event.

Geminid Watch - December 13,1999 - A small group of us braved the cold after the meeting on December 13^th, and watched the Geminids. At our "less than" dark site, we were seeing about 1 per minute. We had a couple of telescopes with us and were amused at the orientation of Jupiter's moons, two on each side but they were vertically aligned. Check it out with your favorite Jovian moon finder set for December 14, 1999 at about 02:30 UT. We didn't stay long but had a good time none the less!

"September to Remember" Star Party - September 11, 1999 - We hosted our first Star Party in the Grand Rapids area after a cloudy start! We planned on September 10^th but cloudy weather pushed it to the next night. On the 11^th, we had great skies and pretty good seeing. Check out a complete Star Party review here.