General Meetings

ASKC General Meetings are held at the UMKC Volker Campus in Royall Hall, Room 111, on the fourth Saturday of each month — except September and December, when we hold our members-only picnic and holiday party.

The night begins with Astro 101, a small-classroom educational series on foundational astronomy topics, followed by a meet and greet with light refreshments served. The meeting includes club announcements followed by our featured speaker(s). All are free and open to ASKC members and the public. Check the Event Calendar for details.

• 6:00 pm  Astro 101
  
• 6:30 pm  Meet and Greet 
  
• 7:00 pm  General Meeting
  

This Month's General Meeting Details

The Astronomical Society of Kansas City’s General Meeting on Feb. 23, 2019, will feature Jen Winter, owner of Daystar Filters, a local manufacturer of astronomical solar filters.

Her talk will be “Touched by the Sun: A Journey Spanning a 20-year Career ‘Dancing’ with the Sun.” Come along with Jen as she relates stories of how a love of solar astronomy outreach and astrophotography evolved into her day job and a 20-year career. In this talk, she will describe solar astronomy’s influence in outreach, in astrophotography, in travel and her manufacturing business, and in the resulting adventures all around the world. She will give an overview of changes in solar photography during her career, will tell harrowing tales of adventures on the high seas, and of heartaches in Antarctica. Her biggest adventures, however, will be detailed as a builder of equipment for top solar researchers all around the world and beyond. 

She also previously owned Astronomical Tours, a company which organized and led astronomical expeditions to intercept the Total Solar Eclipse. She has witnessed 10 total solar eclipses, two annular eclipses, two each transits Venus and two ofMercury. A former editor of the Astronomical League’s Reflector magazine, she has recovered a meteorite, co-authored an astrophotography book, had a minor planet named for her and her late husband Vic, and holds a U.S. patent for a new solar filter design.

• Next meeting will be March 23, 2019.