Monthly Meetings

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
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