Members

This page is for members of the Tallahassee Astronomical Society, but anyone is welcome to browse! This is where we keep "housekeeping" information, like our Bylaws, Position Descriptions, and what not.  To pay annual dues, please visit our Dues Page.

TAS has been in existence since the late 1960s.  We are member-run, volunteer, private non-profit 501.C3 organization.  We have an elected Board of Directors to provide general guidance to the club, but most of our decisions are made collectively. Our activities are based around community activism, education, and personal growth and enrichment. You can read more below. 

The Night Sky Network (NSN) is an online resource for astronomical societies (like ours) provided by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.  TAS uses our site on Night Sky Network to maintain our activities calendar, club roster, dues tracking, and other "back office" functions, as well as for contacting our members and sending out meeting information.  

TAS Members are automatically enrolled on the NSN with your contact information hidden from anyone except the TAS Executive Board.  You should go onto the NSN site and set up your own personal login (click here), so you can edit your NSN profile to set your own preferences for:

• whether other TAS members can see your contact information, including your email and phone number

• what events you want to be notified about

• how you want to be notified -- email, text message, or both (or none, if you choose not to be notified!)

• you can even upload a photo of yourself! Consider doing this - it's surprising how many of us only meet at dark site events and never even see each other's faces.  

The NSN will also let you:

• Enter and track your volunteer hours (including mileage) to gain recognition for your service

• Get One-touch directions to events as well as time of sunset, moon phase, weather forecast, and simple sky chart.

• “One-stop shopping” for regional/national amateur events

• Download club events to your personal iCal or Google Calendar

TAS is experimenting with loaning our limited number of telescopes (and occasionally other equipment) to members.  This could be a good way for new astronomers to test out new equipment before making a major purchase.  For instance, help determine if are you a refractor person, or a reflector person?  Do you prefer Dobsonian or equatorial? Do you really want to lug a 40 lb telescope around?  Would you like to  borrow a scope for special observing programs?  Remember, also, TAS also has a well-equipped observatory at the Cypress Landing Astronomical Park, and the Leon County Library has telescopes for loan as well. 

If you are interested in participating in an equipment loan program, please contact webmaster@tallystargazers.org for more information. 

Have you bought a telescope, and now you have no idea what to do with it?  How to use it, what to look for, what to look at? 

Or perhaps you are interested in just learning more about the heavens.  Do you yearn to tap into the deeper mysteries of night sky -- the hidden seasonal order of constellations, the arcane lore of celestial coordinates, predicting the motions of the planets (and their satellites?) Does it ever blow your mind to think our Sun is a star, only 90 million miles away from us, and you'd love to know how to safely see what, exactly, is going on with that star?  

Perhaps you have these skills and want to share them, or want to use your experience in the service of citizen science projects.  TAS offers not only a friendly face to help you figure how to use that telescope, but also programs to help get the most from your astronomical experience. When you join TAS, you are also part of the Astronomical League, a national "club of clubs," with access to their vast array of observing programs and resources.  They offer observing programs suitable for children, for beginners, intermediate or advanced observers -- all kinds of programs, for all kinds of people, with all kinds of interests. You really should see it for yourself.

To see what the Astronomical League can offer, as part of your TAS participation, check out these AL Observing Programs on their website.  The Astronomical League is your gateway to an astronomical Shangri-la, and TAS is your gateway to the Astronomical League! We are here to answer questions, give advice, and help you get started. It's a journey we are all on, together! Finally, here is a presentation made at a TAS meeting in 2023 describing the Astronomical League Observing Programs.

You can see our club bylaws here. The position descriptions for club officers are described in the bylaws and summarized here:

Board PDs

If you are interested in volunteering for a leadership position, feel free to contact the person currently in that position for more information about how the duties are being fulfilled at the present time. 

TAS partners with Leon County to operate the Cypress Landing Astronomical Park, affectionally known as "CLAP", which serves as our "darksite" away from the worst of city light pollution.  CLAP provides a wide field of view for stargazing with naked eyes, binoculars, or telescopes.  It features a 14 inch Celestron SCT telescope in a permanent dome, as well as sites for individual telescope set up.  TAS members who pay a slightly higher annual dues can have access to the dome telescope after completing "Dome Training." 

To learn more about CLAP, contact observing@tallystargazers.org . Our darksite events are can also be found on our NSN calendar.  There is a map to the CLAP below. It is located at 16900 Ro Co Co Rd, Tallahassee FL 32309, on the shores of beautiful Lake Miccosukee.  Don't worry though - our astronomers are almost never eaten by alligators.....  Mosquitoes, on the other hand....

Minutes and Notes from our club meetings can be found below. 

July 18, 2023

April 17, 2023

February 22, 2023

January 9, 2023

December 19, 2022

Please click here to complete our Meeting Survey