Our Board and Members

President Emeritus

Andy Edelen

Andy was the club president from 2008 to 2015 when he moved to Oregon. His interest in astronomy started with Carl Sagan's "Cosmos" and he has been outside looking up ever since. His primary interests astronomy-wise are galaxy clusters and peculiar galaxies, and he spends much of his time ferreting these out from the sky with a 12.5" Discovery Dobsonian scope with Terry Ostahowski optics. He has been the telescope operator for the Northern Arizona University Campus Observatory. An astronomy die-hard, Andy prowls the pages of Uranometria 2000.0 looking for obscure and faint objects to observe, and is often seen sitting on the ground at observations, looking through telescopes pointed near the southern horizon.

President/EditorHarry Treece A longtime member of AASI and the club's coordinator with NASA's Night Sky Network, Harry recently added a C11 to his list of observing gear, as a complement to his ETX125. Harry also built and hosted AASI's first webpage.

Vice President

Fred Isberner

Although he observes with a 9.25" Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope from home, Fred is a frequent traveler, and has observed solar eclipses in places as varied as Colorado and the Faroe Islands. Fred took the prototype telescope from the Citizen CATE Experiment to the Faroes for its first test run in March 2015, and will be manning the scope and its recording gear for the August 21, 2017 solar eclipse.

Treasurer and Membership

Bob MorefieldFounding member of AASI and long-time astronomy buff, Bob has done it all in astronomy. He observes, tinkers, makes presentations, and builds scopes. He's observed through everything from classic Unitron refractors to the 60-inch scope at Mt. Wilson Observatory, and observed from sites as far away as Australia. His observing notes go back fifty years.

Jim Rury

• A longtime member of AASI, Jim owns what can safely be considered the biggest binoculars in southern Illinois (25 x 100s), as well as a 12"

Schmidt-Cassegrain and a 5" refractor. His eyepiece collection is the stuff of envy!

Les Russell

Les is a regular at AASI meetings, and his 5" Meade refractor is one of the club's sharpest planetary scopes.