Monthly Meetings

  • Join us for Skyscrapers’ August Monthly Meeting

    Join us for Skyscrapers’ August Monthly Meeting at Seagrave Memorial Observatory
    Saturday, August 1, 2026

    Featuring Dr. Vijay Varma, University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth

    Social hour at 6:30pm, Presentation at 7:00pm

    Two black holes smash into each other, shaking space and time itself. We caught the very first gravitational waves emanating from these violent collisions back in 2015, leading to the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2017. Ten years after this groundbreaking discovery, we will explore what new mysteries this new window to the universe might unveil.

    Vijay Varma is a computational astrophysicist at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth. He uses supercomputers and machine learning models to study black hole collisions.

    Skyscrapers, Inc. is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

    Topic: August Monthly Meeting
    Time: Aug 1, 2026 06:30 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
    Join Zoom Meeting
    https://us06web.zoom.us/j/85163836601?pwd=grKlU2RGbQiyY5fVyMr9QZZvaTbnGV.1

    Meeting ID: 851 6383 6601
    Passcode: 621382

    Join instructions
    https://us06web.zoom.us/meetings/85163836601/invitations?signature=CeN6_oLNNn2yGkPDU9ECpVEtseLilqtOLrN8QBB5Yok

    Date: Saturday, August 1, 2026

    Location: Seagrave Memorial Observatory
    47 Peeptoad Road
    North Scituate, RI 02857

  • Join us for Skyscrapers’ July Monthly Meeting

    Saturday, July 11, 2026

    Featuring Member Presentations

    Social hour at 6:00 pm, Presentation at 7:00 pm

    Lots of activities for a summer night of fun at Seagrave Memorial Observatory:

    Member’s presentations, Observing with fellow members | Pizza provided by Skyscrapers before!

    RSVP to Kathy Siok (kathys5@cox.net) if you plan to attend the Pizza Party.
    Desserts to share would be appreciated.

    Member Presentations: 7:00pm

    A Historic Series of Titan Shadow Transits in 2025
    Presented by member Greg Shanos

    Greg is a retired pharmacist by profession and NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador by passion. A Rhode Island nativ, Greg became a member of Skyscrapers in 1986 with the apparition of Halley’s Comet. He married in 1990 and relocated to Sarasota, Florida. During the COVID shutdown of 2020 Greg once again became a member of Skyscrapers once the lectures were being live-streamed via zoom from Seagrave Observatory.

    A recent trip to the Richard F. Caris Mirror Lab at the University of Arizona
    Presented by member Sean Salstrom

    Sean is an Associate Professor of Glass at RISD. He has a background in glassblowing and art making. He is new to Astronomy, coming into it through the material of glass and learning to grind his own mirrors. To date he has completed a 6″ f/8 and a 12.5″ f/5 (Newtonian Reflectors) and am almost finished with a 10″ f3.7 Cassegrain. You can find more on my Faculty Bio at RISD if that is useful.

    Sean will discuss his recent trip to the Richard F. Caris Mirror Lab at the University of Arizona where they are casting the largest pieces of glass ever made for the Giant Magellan Telescope.

    Refurbishment of an 8-inch Dobsonian Telescope
    Presented by John Kocur

    John Kocur, Skyscrapers member since 2005, amerteur astronomer with intrests in art, science, astronomy, photography, and astrophotography. Designed and built an 8-inch Newtonian, builds telescope accessories. Enjoys participating in outreach events for Skyscrapers and attending major star parties in New England.

    John will present about the refurbishment of a donated 8-inch Apertura Dobsonian telescope that was donated to Skyscrapers recently. He will explain the cleaning, collimation, and upgrades he made to the scope.

    57 Years of Skyscraper Memories
    Presented by long time Skyscraper member Rick Lynch

    Rick is one of our longest serving members and will be presenting a retrospective of his over 50 years of membership with many images of all our old-timers and famous visitors we have had at Skyscrapers over this time period.

    Join on Zoom

    Skyscrapers, Inc. is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

    Topic: July Monthly Meeting
    Time: Jul 11, 2026 06:30 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
    Join Zoom Meeting
    https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83782123826?pwd=goMjXfKQYV81DMqJwkbu8OySVdk3yb.1

    Meeting ID: 837 8212 3826
    Passcode: 914557

    Join instructions
    https://us06web.zoom.us/meetings/83782123826/invitations?signature=z_NvTV5LIf7Xne8zEc7MR_UDd8zuYxfwVsviFJ_PXU0