Press Releases
Official announcements from the Phoenix Astronomical Society — club news, public events, and outreach milestones. Every release is posted here as a PDF you can read or download.
Members of the media are welcome to contact us for interviews, photographs, or background on the club.
2026
Tom Polakis on the ingenuity behind studying objects that show no detail through even the largest telescopes — photometry, radar imaging, and stellar occultations — from the first asteroid discovery in 1801 to modern science. Held February 5, 2026.
2025
PAS opens its fall season with monthly lectures at Paradise Valley Community College, workshops on choosing and using a telescope, and star parties held in Phoenix city parks with the Parks and Recreation Department.
- A Full House Opens the PAS Lecture SeasonPDF · 331 KB
Vice President Mark Johnston drew a full house at Paradise Valley Community College with images and video from his visit to Chile’s largest telescopes, opening the club’s monthly lecture series.
Effective immediately for the new school year, all PAS events are held in Building Q, room 120A — the former Maricopa County Library at 17811 North 32nd Street.
- Astronomy Scholarships AnnouncedPDF · 32 KB
PAS is again offering two $1,000 scholarships to Paradise Valley Community College students studying astronomy or a related field, funded by selling donated telescopes to members.
- PAS Announces Annual Election ResultsPDF · 41 KB
Members gathered at Paradise Valley Community College for the end-of-year meeting and celebration to hear the new leadership team: Stuart Brackney president, Mark Johnston vice president, Chris Ford secretary, Richard Sauerbrun treasurer, and Richard Meyers editor of the PAStimes.
2024
- Free Dark-Sky Star PartyPDF · 48 KB
A free public star party at a dark-sky site — bring a telescope, or come without one and share the view through a member’s. Pre-registration was required so attendees could be emailed if clouds forced a change. Held June 8, 2024.
Vatican Observatory Foundation board member James Renn on how the 1.8-metre Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope at Mount Graham joins the search for extraterrestrial life, and what its astronomers — and the Pope — think finding it would mean. Held April 4, 2024.
- Free Lecture: “What Is Next in the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program?” with Dr. James W. HeadPDF · 98 KB
Brown University planetary geologist James Head, who helped select the Apollo landing sites, on China’s far-side lander and rover, the Chang’e 5 sample return, and the upcoming Chang’e 6 mission. Held March 7, 2024.
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory cosmochemist Gregory Brennecka on what meteorites reveal about the original structure of the solar system — an effort he calls “cosmolocation” — and their role in shaping life on Earth. Held February 1, 2024.
2023
Former Mount Wilson telescope operator Matthew Ota on the nineteenth-century observer who discovered numerous comets and dark nebulae, Jupiter’s moon Amalthea, and the star that bears his name. Held January 4, 2024.
- Free Lecture: “Back to the Moon! An Update on Lunar Exploration” with Dr. David A. WilliamsPDF · 98 KB
ASU research professor and Psyche mission deputy imager lead David Williams on past lunar exploration and the robotic and crewed missions ahead, with an update on Psyche. Held December 7, 2023.
Former PAS president Kai Staats, director of research for the Space Analog for the Moon and Mars at Biosphere 2, on building the world’s only sealed and pressurized Mars habitat analog.
- Free Lecture: “Diamond Dust and Other Relicts of the Dawn of the Solar System” with Dr. Rhonda StroudPDF · 134 KB
ASU professor and director of the Buseck Center for Meteorite Studies Rhonda Stroud on stardust from supernovae and stars older than the Sun, preserved in primitive meteorites and studied under advanced electron microscopes.
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PAS secretary and lifetime Astronomical League member Alex Vrenios on the League’s seventy-plus observing programs, how to document your observations, and the difference between seeing and transparency.
- PDF coming soon
2022
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PAS member Ted Blank on how astronauts aboard the International Space Station prepare and eat their meals in zero gravity, with a short history of space food.
Lowell Observatory volunteer Klaus Brasch, who has an asteroid named for his work there, on how multi-mirror, segmented, and space-based telescopes transformed astronomical imaging in the late twentieth century.
- PAS Launches Online Membership SignupPDF · 493 KB
Memberships can now be bought and renewed through pasaz.org, paid by PayPal account or by debit or credit card, with a receipt and welcome kit sent by email.
The board voted unanimously on June 9 to resume normal operations — in-person meetings at Paradise Valley Community College, telescope workshops, and star parties — for the first time since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
PAS member and NASA Solar System Ambassador Ted Blank on the design, deployment, and flights of Ingenuity — the first aircraft to fly on another planet — and its work scouting ahead of the Perseverance rover.
Retired spacecraft systems engineer Mike Mackowski on the National Space Society’s case for permanent human settlement off Earth, and the milestones it has set toward that goal.
- Free Lecture: “Migratory Planets and Chaos in the Young Solar System” with Dr. Renu MalhotraPDF · 603 KB
University of Arizona Regents Professor Renu Malhotra on the evidence that the giant planets migrated dramatically early in the solar system’s history, and the tension that creates with the orbits of the inner planets.
PAS member Alex Woronow demonstrates the Stellina, a compact telescope that finds its own position, focuses, plate-solves, and images hands-off without add-on software, along with early results from it.
University of Washington astronomer and author of The Last Stargazers on Betelgeuse’s Great Dimming of 2020 and the questions it reopened about red supergiants.
2021
ASU research professor and director of the Ronald Greeley Center for Planetary Studies on how the solar system’s rocky, gas, ice, and dwarf worlds formed, and what NASA’s planetary missions found there.
Retired biomedical scientist and Lowell Observatory volunteer Klaus Brasch on the missions to Mars, Europa, and Enceladus driving the search for life beyond Earth.
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution senior scientist emeritus James Lynch on how relativity and then quantum mechanics reshaped our picture of space and time — not just how they behave, but how they are built.