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AANC stands for the
Astronomical Association of Northern California.
Purpose: The AANC was created to facilitate the flow of astronomical information among the various segments of the astronomical community (public, amateurs, educators, commercial vendors, and professional astronomers) in the Northern California area.
AANC helped coordinate regional activities such as:
ASTRONOMY DAY— a worldwide celebration of astronomy.
AANC created this "Day" in 1973.
MESSIER MARATHON STAR PARTIES — Try to find all 110 Messier Objects in a single night.
AWARDS — Annually, AANC chose an AANC Amateur, Commercial, and Professional of the Year, honored for enriching the activities of amateur astronomy in northern California.
SPECIAL EVENTS — AANC helped coordinate special activities related to unusual celestial occurrences such as comet viewing, close approaches of Mars, spacecraft encounters --Voyager, Galileo, etc.
ANNUAL ASTRONOMICAL CONFERENCES AND/OR WORKSHOPS — Which served to provide opportunities to learn more about astronomy via talks, lectures, demos, etc.
ANNUAL STAR-B-QUE — Each year AANC held a Star-B-Que, usually at Fremont Peak State Park where they presented the Annual Awards, gave out door prizes, held a gastronomical contest of competing astronomically themed dishes such as Jupiter pie & Stonehenge Cake, and enjoy a weekend of observing fun.
REGIONAL STAR PARTIES — Enjoy exciting observational astronomy at a dark sky site.
History:
The Astronomical Association of Northern California was founded September, 1971 at Fremont Peak, by local amateur astronomers, John Bally, discoverer of a comet, Doug Berger, founder of Astronomy Day, John Dobson, Creator of the Dobsonian Telescope Revolution, Frank Miller, an officer of the Western Amateur Astronomers, Joe Farkas, President of the Eastbay Astronomical Society, and two very active observers of the area, Gerry Rattley, and Bruce Rhodes. The original guiding principles were:
To act as an intercommunication media for various astronomy groups of the area, thereby allowing greater participation in activities.
To hold two annual conferences a year, one that would be oriented towards astronomy, and one that would be oriented towards telescopes in connection with a star party.
To serve as a coordinator for projects such as seeing testing, occultations, star parties, etc.
See also The Founding of AANC—recollections from Doug Berger.
Organization:
AANC was a "club of clubs" in which delegates from many of the area astronomy clubs, educational institutions, and commercial vendors of the area meet every other month to exchange views and announcements. We also worked together to organize annual activities and other functions described above. A newsletter that included a brief overview of the previous meeting along with other relevant information was mailed approximately once every two months. We maintained the AANC Northern California Resource Guide listing astronomy clubs, planetaria, observatories, and astronomical businesses in northern California.
When it was active AANC received $20 dues from member groups,
Updated 2023 Oct 10
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