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Flattop Mountain Refurbishment
Dr. Myron Wasiuta
Next CAS Meeting
Wednesday, August 5th at 7 pm
At Leander McCormick Observatory -
Abstract:
Myron's largest project to date and the topic of tonight's meeting is the
restoration of an observatory on Flattop Mountain, about 20 miles NW of Charlottesville. Built in 2005 by former CAS member Dean Wilder, it is now owned by Michael Dongieux and houses a 16" Ritchie Chretien telescope on a Paramount ME mount. Myron will discuss the efforts to restore this observatory to working order and his plans for its future. -
CV:
Myron is 63 and a practicing optometrist in Culpeper at MyEyeDr. He has 4 children with his wife Terry of 33 years. An avid amateur astronomer, he loves to engage in outreach and public education. He has taught astronomy at the University of Mary Washington, and has been president of several astronomy clubs including the Northern Virginia Astronomy Club
(NOVAC), Birmingham Astronomical Society, and is the current president of the Rappahannock Astronomy Club. Other astronomy accomplishments include observing privileges at the US Naval Observatory from 1992 to 2001, and won an award at Stellafane in 2002 for a homebuilt 16-inch dobsonian.
In 2016 he founded a MSROScience-non-profit that operates a small remote observatory in Spotsylvania County dedicated to providing free telescope time to students, amateur astronomers and educators. Each year this non-profit sponsors a gifted student from the Virginia Governor's School for help with their astronomy related Capstone or Culminating Project. It has also provided telescope time to college students and their professor from John Abbott College in Canada who were working
on exoplanet observations. Currently this observatory operates three remote telescopes: a 4-inch apochromatic refractor, a 10" Ritchie-Chretien Cassegrain, and a 14" Celestron Hyperstar on a refurbished ASKO telescope mount donated by Randolph-Macon College's Peeble Observatory.