My interest in astronomy came about when I was in middle school. One clear Texas night in my small town I took my father's binoculars and looked up at the moon. I was hooked. My parents bought me a little KMart TASCO telescope refractor on a EQ mount. I had no idea how to use it but I looked at the moon, Jupiter, Saturn, and Mars. It also had one of those plates where you could project an image of the sun. One year on vacation my parents took me to the McDonald observatory in Texas and I thought I would be a professional astronomer when I grew up (didn't happen).

I live in Bonney Lake and wanted to share my passion with others so with a co-worker we started a local astronomy club and I convinced the SAS board to let us become the first SAS chapter.

One of my passions is finding entry level equipment to recommend to new people wanting to get into visual observing and astrophotography. My current telescope is a EVOguide 50ed sitting on a AVX mount with a asi533mc-pro imaging camera and a asi120mm-mini for guiding. I also like playing around with entry level AltAz GoTo mounts to show that people can do astrophotography with them.

My current projects are starting up a Family Astornomy Night at our chapter for kids and parents. I am also looking at creating a inexpensive DIY PushTo for those little table top dobsonian telescopes.

Hello SAS! I am beyond excited in sharing my enthusiasm and passion for space and astronomy with our greater Seattle community. Communication, engagement, and intentionality will be a primary focus as we work to promote STEM outreach and diversity in our efforts to serve our community regardless of socioeconomic status. 

Raised in Seattle, with frequent time in Suwon, South Korea, I have a passion for understanding the latest discoveries, exciting others about astronomy, and finding peace and amazement in stargazing with my telescope. (I am an entry level astrophotographer as well) Nothing calms me more than hearing the original Cosmos theme with Carl Sagan's voice. 

Graduating from Seattle University in Economics, my professional career has featured a decade of work in the finance and tech fields. After this period, my passion for community engagement has led to nonprofit work in the employment and internship field for homeless young adults and underserved youth in South Seattle.

In my spare time, I enjoy mountaineering, adventuring with my pup, bicycling, live local music, and Seattle sports. Please feel free to reach out as I'd love to hear from you! - Aaron

My name is “Dave” Ingram and I am the SAS, Vice President of Education.   

I work with Aaron and the SAS Board and with our wonderful outreach volunteers to properly welcome new members at every level of experience to the “Society”.   I already know that you are curious about the stars just like I am. 

Together, we can share what attracts us all to the night sky.  The Society provides a wide, thoughtful selection of educational opportunities that can guide you to learn, to share and to enjoy our being an SAS amateur astronomer.  

I was raised in clean air and under starry skies in Indiana farm country; a true “Hoosier”.  My high school buddies and I studied science and math.  In our free time we worked farm jobs, “bucked” bales of hay, tended dairy herds and built model planes, model rockets.  We even blew a few up.  With the help of our physics teacher, we also ground mirrors and built Dobsonian telescopes from “Edmond Scientific plans.   

In Missouri, I attended a small-college and earned a degree in Literature with a minor in Education.   

In 2011, after 30+ years I retired from Boeing.  In the summers of 2012-2014 I was an astronomy Volunteer in Park (ViP) at the Glacier National Park, MT..  Together with 3 other ViPs, I shared the Sun, the Milky Way, aurora borealis, the Moon, planets and stars with over 20,000 guests under some of the darkest skies in America’s National Park system. 

I am what you would call, a dedicated “all-season, visual” stargazer, sharing my passion for astronomy and science with my grandkids and with any other children and adults who are still “kids-at-heart”.  I participate in over 30 SAS “astronomy outreach” events a year.  I strongly support the International Dark-sky Association www.darksky.orgwith my time and money often traveling the four-state area (ID-MT-OR-WA) and the USA to promote the “dark sky movement which advocates citizen involvement in protecting and restoring dark night skies for us and for all future generations.   

If you are like me, and you love exploring the celestial sphere; if you want to learn how to share the adventure and grandeur of astronomy, please reach out to me.  I’d love to get to know what drives you to infinity and beyond the stars! -- Dave  

Hi there! My name is Jenn.

I identify as Korean American and my pronouns are she/her/hers. I joined Seattle Astronomical Society (SAS) and the Board to honor my late Father's love of astronomy and the importance of providing education to the community.  My hope is to spread my love of astronomy to our members and to encourage active members and volunteers to participate within our organization. I believe in supporting our most marginalized communities by providing resources, education and hold space for our amateur astronomy enthusiasts who identify as such. My hope is to see love and passion for astronomy continue to grow in marginalized communities. Everyone deserves equitable access to the education and understanding of Astronomy.

My love for astronomy began as a young child when I would go camping with my Father in the Ozarks (Arkansas). My favorite memory with my Father is being home in the woods and turning off the electricity pole. The sky would be so dark you could see the whole sky light up. When I was a preteen, I would watch episodes of Star Trek Voyager on PBS and thought I would be a Starfleet Captain like Captain Janeway one day. Of course, there are many reasons to love astronomy, but these are a few of mine. Also, astronomy is so cool! 

If you have any questions, comments or concerns about the organization, please feel free to email membership@seattleastro.org

Living in the Florida panhandle I had my share of dark skies and I was obsessed with science fiction, watching the Star Trek: The Next Generation TV series every Sunday with my family. Still, it wasn't until I was a teenager and visited a family member in Put-in-bay (a section of South Bass island in Lake Erie) that I saw the true dark sky for the first time, and ever since I've been fascinated with what lies beyond. 

I have a background in event marketing and public relations, however, my career changed to User experience design. My passion is to share the love of astronomy and make it more accessible and approachable to everyone, someone's skill or knowledge level shouldn't hinder them from being included in learning more. 

Some of my most awe inspiring early memories were looking up at the night sky while my dad pointed out stars and constellations or driving off-road with him to find good meteor shower watching spots. I was mesmerized by all the remarkable things we could see and even more so by all the things out there we couldn't. Until I left home for college, my dad and I maintained a nightly tradition of taking out the trash together so we had an excuse to stand out in the front yard and marvel at the night sky, sometimes for hours. 

However, as I grew up I went the practical career route and am currently a User Experience Researcher in tech, which pays the bills but doesn't feed the insatiable curiosity about our universe. In 2019 I was expressing this frustration to my dad, and he suggested I join SAS. I joined a few months before the pandemic, which limited how much I was involved, but still gave me access to the equipment library and cemented my conviction to make astronomy a more significant part of my life.

Two years ago I bought a 12" Dobsonian and on the rare clear night here in Seattle, I dragg it out onto the roof and feel the same giddy excitement I had as I kid as I look up at all the wonder.
And the only thing better than feeling that excitement is the opportunity to share that wonder and excitement with others and to help people feel that astronomy is approachable regardless of your background or experience.

My interest in astronomy came about when I was in middle school. One clear Texas night in my small town I took my father's binoculars and looked up at the moon. I was hooked. My parents bought me a little KMart TASCO telescope refractor on a EQ mount. I had no idea how to use it but I looked at the moon, Jupiter, Saturn, and Mars. It also had one of those plates where you could project an image of the sun. One year on vacation my parents took me to the McDonald observatory in Texas and I thought I would be a professional astronomer when I grew up (didn't happen).

I live in Bonney Lake and wanted to share my passion with others so with a co-worker we started a local astronomy club and I convinced the SAS board to let us become the first SAS chapter.

One of my passions is finding entry level equipment to recommend to new people wanting to get into visual observing and astrophotography. My current telescope is a EVOguide 50ed sitting on a AVX mount with a asi533mc-pro imaging camera and a asi120mm-mini for guiding. I also like playing around with entry level AltAz GoTo mounts to show that people can do astrophotography with them.

My current projects are starting up a Family Astornomy Night at our chapter for kids and parents. I am also looking at creating a inexpensive DIY PushTo for those little table top dobsonian telescopes.

In addition to the SAS, I'm a member of the Springfield Telescope Makers and return to Vermont annually to assist with the Stellefane convention and judging the telescopes entered into the competition. I am interested in telescope making, mirror grinding, all things mechanical, and many things electrical! 

I grew up in an Eastside suburb of Philadelphia, lived near Chicago for a few years, then spent 33 years of my adult life in upstate NY between Albany and Schenectady. In 2012 I moved to the Seattle Eastside and have been involved with the SAS since then.

I’m an active observer and I completed the Astronomical League's Herschel 400 list in 1994 (certificate # 102). I still enjoy observing galaxies and star clusters, but since moving to Seattle I've been observing double and multiple star systems more often. These are interesting and beautiful even from the city. I’m also an amateur telescope maker and I’m interested in understanding, measuring, and improving optical performance of amateur telescopes. My first telescope was a 6 inch Newtonian reflector that I built in 1971 while still a graduate student. I made the mirror for that telescope and still have and use it, but aperture fever is powerful and today my primary telescope is a home built 13 inch reflector on a Dobson style mount.

I grew up north of Spokane in a little town called Nine Mile Falls. We had nice dark skies there and my dad and I were always outside at night with our little refractor looking for the moons of Jupiter or the rings of Saturn. My love for astronomy started there with my dad and has continued on throughout my life.

I graduated from Western Washington University with a degree in English. After college I did a year of volunteer work with Americorps working in elementary schools teaching reading to English Language Learners. I enjoyed this so much and after my year of service I was hired by the school to continue working with these students.

I'm currently interested in Astrophotography and have been working for the last 3 years to learn more about it. It's challenging but so interesting and I hope one day to have more than a collection of fuzzy blobs for my efforts!

I grew up in South Central PA amd became an Astronomy enthusiast in 1974 when my 6th Grade teacher was an Astronomy buff.  He made  a tiny plywood sided, carboard geodesic dome Planetarium in the back of fhe classroom. My parents bought me an Edmunds Scientific 3" reflector for Christmas that year and I joined the Astronomical Society of Harrisburg, maintaining my membership through High School. I was also fortunate that my High School had a large planetarium and I was a member of the Planetarium Assistants Club assisting classroom teaching and conducting shows for the public. I went to the United States Coast Guard Academy for college and once on active duty, I moved about the country and joined various local Astronomy Clubs and even helped with public shows at a little elementary school planetarium in Juneau. AK.  After retiring from the Coast Guard, I moved back to Seattle. I do most of my observing at my cabin in the Okanogan Highlands in the Aeneas Valley near Republic, WA. My biggest astronomical interesting is the observation and tracking of visual commets. I have observed over 70 different comets and I have recieved the Astronomical Leagues Silver and Gold Comet Observing Awards. I've been a volunteer at the Theodor Jacobsen Observatory since 2005 and I try to bring a telescope down to and join the Green Lake Star Parties as often as I can.