The October monthly club meeting is scheduled for this coming Thursday, 10/15. As previously announced, we start the meeting with our annual board of directors' election. Members present and on the Zoom conferencing system will be able to vote. For more detailed information, please check out this link - Roper Mountain Astronomers - RMA Board of Directors Election (10/15/26)

At the conclusion of the election process, our very own, Josh Palmer will be presenting - Planetary Imaging. Josh will provide insight into how you can take your own photos of these fascinating objects from nearly anywhere with amateur equipment. He will provide insight into the hardware, software, and processing steps you'll need to get started or to further improve your images. 

You can find more of his photos here on the RMA website, or the Alt+Azimuth Photography Facebook page.

We look forward to seeing you on Thursday, in person or on our Zoom conference call.

Jesse Nunez

President, Roper Mountain Astronomers

Members,

We are approaching our annual election for the board of directors in a month. Elections are held each year as per our bylaws during the October club meeting. Our bylaws require voting to be conducted in one of two ways. You may cast a vote during the meeting in person, or you may vote by attending the same meeting via our Zoom conference call.  

If you are interested in submitting your name for a position or if you would like any information related to the process or positions, please contact me at jnunez@rmastro.com.

I have listed below the current board members that want to return and are currently uncontested.  A member at large position is open, and I am announcing one member has submitted his name for consideration. There will be different voting processes depending on whether a position is uncontested or not.

1. Vote to accept uncontested existing board members and candidate. Uncontested may be voted on by show of hands and accepted as nominated.

2. Vote on the contested board position(s) with multiple candidates via secret ballot (TBD).

Existing Board Members Willing to Continue:
Jesse Nunez, President

Scott Stevens, Vice President
Bill Linton, Treasurer

Tim Stevenson, Secretary

David Quattlebaum, Member at large

Mark Stanford, Member at large

Kevin Velasquez, Member at large
Open, Member at large

Nomination for the Open Member at Large Position:
Andy Ball

The current board will make a final decision on voting procedures and will carefully outline the process prior to voting during our club meeting. The most important thing to remember is that you must be present to vote!

Thank you for your participation and support in our club.

Jesse Nunez

President

Roper Mountain Astronomers 

Club Members,

As we all know, this year's weather has negatively impacted our ability to get together during our monthly star parties. We reviewed the remaining time we have in 2026 and jumped at any possibility to host multiple star parties in a month. That schedule is posted on our website here - Roper Mountain Astronomers - Star Parties. Additionally, we have also looked at the possibility of opening the dark site during the week in an effort to provide our membership an opportunity to use it. There will be times over the coming months that advanced notice is not going to be possible, but our objective is to take any opportunity that comes up. We hope that some of our members will be able to, but we understand that weekday schedules will be challenging for many. 

We have a star party scheduled this coming Saturday (9/12), but in addition we see a window in our cloudy forecast this evening. We will open the dark site this evening, Wednesday (9/9) at 5:30 for anyone who is able to attend. 

The star party scheduled for Saturday, 9/12 is still on! We are monitoring the weather for this weekend and will make a final determination as soon as we can.

We will continue to look for opportunities to bring our membership together at the dark site.

Jesse Nunez

President, Roper Mountain Astronomers

Our October meeting each year represents the time that we elect our leadership for the following year. This year we had an uncontested ballot that was approved by the membership at our monthly meeting.

The elected Executive Committee for the upcoming year is:

Jesse Nunez - President
Scott Stevens - Vice President
Bill Linton - Treasurer
Tim Stevenson - Secretary
David Quattlebaum - Member at Large (Immediate Past President)
Mark Stanford - Member at Large
Kevin Velasquez - Member at Large
Maggie Connelly - RMSC Representative

Membership Dues Scheduled to Change:

Additionally, after reviewing the budget for the upcoming year the membership voted to accept the board recommendation to change our yearly membership fee from $25/year to $45/year. The updated fee structure will go into effect with the new year (Jan 1, 2026)

Solar Scope Fund Goals Met:

Great News! Our equipment fund goals have been met for our club purchase of a solar scope rig. This rig will be used primarily for daytime outreach events such as school presentations. Over the years our members have faithfully volunteered at local schools to present content about astronomy. The real challenge is that most of those events are during the day. the addition of a Solar Scope will enable a more hands on experience for daytime presentations! Thank you all for your generosity!

Capture the Dark is back! ✨ DarkSky’s premiere photography competition is the global stage for photography at night—celebrating the magic of dark skies, the beauty of the cosmos, and the wonder of the world after sunset.

Be sure to check out the new Capture the Dark website to learn how to enter and showcase your night photography to the world!

Capture The Dark Website

We are planning two nights for a Messier Marathon this month! The Clemson Area Amateur Astronomers will be our hosts at a special location in Mountain Rest, SC on March 22nd and the 29th (weather permitting).

If you are a member of the club, login to the website and click on Events for details. Join us all night on one or both dates in an attempt to view as many of the 109 Messier objects as possible in one night!

Our annual board elections were conducted last Thursday evening. The membership voted to accept the board as proposed. Thank you all for your support and continued trust in our leadership team. We hope that the coming year will be an exciting time for the club, with new opportunities to share our love of astronomy with our community, while support that passion within our membership.

The elected leaders are:

President: David Quattlebaum
Vice-President: Scott Stevens
Treasurer: Bill Linton
Secretary: Dave Hoyt
Members at Large:

• Sam Horton 
• Mark Stanford
• Jesse Nunez

Thank you again for your support!

-David

Members,

Our current Treasurer will be resigning her position at the end of October, and as a result we are looking for a qualified member to help us manage the finances of the club. Responsibilities include monthly finance resport to the board, checking our PO Box for any physical checks and getting them deposited, as well as filing our taxes each year. 

If you or someone you know would like to serve on the board, please let me or one of the other board members know ASAP.

Thank you in advance!

David Quattlebaum (davidq@rmastro.com)
President

Our annual board elections were conducted last Thursday evening. The membership voted to accept the continuation of our current board. Thank you all for your support and continued trust in our leadership team. We hope that the coming year will be an exciting time for the club, with new opportunities to share our love of astronomy with our community, while support that passion within our membership.

The elected leaders are:

President: David Quattlebaum
Vice-President: Scott Stevens
Treasurer: Casey Amarnek
Secretary: Bill Linton
Members at Large:

Thank you again for your support!

-David

Yesterday we had a special StarParty day, beginning at lunch time, observing the partial annular eclipse of the sun. Lots of clouds early, but they broke in time to have some very nice views of the moon's shadow crossing the sun.

Later in the evening it was windy, but extremely clear. With the club's EdgeHD C14" scope we viewed the Dumbbell nebula, the Phantom Galaxy (M74), the Ring Nebula, and Saturn and Jupiter.

Other club members viewed and imaged the Veil Nebula, Sirius, and several star clusters.

If you have not yet attended a Star Party, please join us! It is a wonderful time for getting help with your telescope, enjoying the naked eye views of the Milky Way of getting to know other astronomy enthusiasts!