Star Party Speaker give their talks on Thursday, Friday and Saturday
at 11am and 2pm

Spring 2026 Speaker List

John O’Neal

“Resources for Amateur Solar Astronomers”

John will be talking about resources available to amateur solar astronomers including two books aimed spacifically at amateurs of all levels.

John Raymond

“The Golden Suns of Sagitta”

Sagitta is a small constellation in the summer Milky Way. We will take a look at the many celestial treasures located here suitable for binoculars and small telescopes. 

John Raymond is a past president of the Richmond Astronomical Society and long time attendee of SRSP. 

Timothy Slay
“IMAGE PROCESSING AUTOMATION WITH PIMAGIC AND ASTROMAGIC”

PiMagic Studios has introduced two complimentary tools to simplify and automate your image processing. PiMagic is a plug-for Pixinsight with a “smart” mode that calibrates, stacks, optimizes and stretches images automatically, preparing them for upload to PhotoShop for final adjustments. AstroMagic is a PhotoShop plug in that creates adjustment layers and loads the tools you need for final adjustment. These tools can improve your processing efficiency dramatically and provide excellent and (almost) effortless results.

“TELESCOPE AUTOMATION WITH NINA AND TARGET SCHEDULER”

Many of us use NINA for image acquisition with the NINA Advanced Sequencer.  The Target Scheduler plug-in takes your telescope automation to the next level, allowing you to schedule multiple targets for each session and optimize image acquisition based on the target’s position, moon phase and distance, environmental conditions and other factors.  The plug-in also provides image grading and extensive reporting capability.   All this functionality is provided by a plug-in that is easier to use than NINA’s embedded sequencer (and it’s free).

 

Walter Fowler

“Chasing the Spanish Sun”

More information coming