AstroAssembly 2026

Saturday, October 3rd
at 
Seagrave Memorial Observatory
47 Peeptoad Road, North Scituate, RI 
and
Streaming via Zoom
(Zoom link will be emailed to registrants on October 2)

Presentations by all speakers will be shared on Zoom.
Advance registration is required for Zoom participation.
Advance registration is encouraged for in-person attendance.

AstroAssembly 2025 
Photo by Jim Hendrickson

 
AstroAssembly is the annual convention and fundraising event for Skyscrapers, Inc., owners and operators of Seagrave Memorial Observatory, located in North Scituate, RI. The first “Amateur Astronomical Convention of the Skyscrapers” was held on August 2 & 3, 1952. Through the years, we have welcomed many notable speakers, including well-known astronomers, astrophysicists, scientists, and, even astronauts. This annual event brings together amateurs from all over the New England area to reconnect with old friends, learn something new and just have an enjoyable day.

The festivities will begin with AstroAssembly Eve  on Friday night for those in the area;
registration for AstroAssembly is not necessary to attend.

All day Saturday at Seagrave Memorial Observatory
Swap Table (please bring your own table)
Solar Viewing
Astro-Imaging Contest
Homemade Telescopes (bring yours!). 
 

9:00 AM Registration Open
Morning coffee and pastries provided.
Registration includes evening pizza and snacks.
Members: $25
Non-members: $35
 

Morning Presentation

10:30 AM  Steve Hubbard, Skyscrapers, Inc.
"4 years of Planning for a 90-second Eclipse"
 

Four years ago, Steve and his wife, Sue, reserved and started planning for a trip to view a total eclipse of the Sun in Spain. Was all of that time spent planning and paying worth it?

In this talk, Steve will explain why yes, it most emphatically was, and give you a brief travelog of parts of Spain and of course some pictures and descriptions of a very unusual Solar Eclipse. 

Steve Hubbard has been a member of Skyscrapers since 1973 and has traveled to see 6 total solar eclipses in various parts of the world. This has given Steve and Sue an opportunity to visit parts of the world they might not have considered and they hope to see more eclipses in the future. 

12:00 PM  Deli Lunch 
Choice of Grinder (Italian Deluxe, Turkey or Roast Beef),
Spinach Pie 
or Salad (Garden, Garden w/ Grilled Chicken).
$17 per person.
Pre-order and payment with registration required.
 

Astro-Imaging Contest: Noon to 4:00 PM
See our website for more information.
 

Afternoon Presentations

1:15 PM Mahmoud Hallak, Brown University
"Reaching for Automation: Modernizing Observational Astronomy at Brown"

This talk will be about the recent upgrades to the Brown University Observatories. This includes robotic and fully automated observing, designing an all-sky camera, revised astronomy labs, and upgraded equipment, as well as many photos to show off!

Mahmoud Hallak is an Instructional Laboratory Specialist at Brown Physics. He's also a Brown alumni and spent much of his time at Ladd Observatory assisting in the public nights. 

2:30 PM  Dr. Jacqueline McCleary, Brown University
"A New View of the Universe with Roman"

With its high resolution and wide view of the sky, NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will open a new window on everything from extrasolar planets to the large-scale structure of the Universe. In this talk, I will introduce Roman and the technologies that make it unique, and explore some of the major questions it was designed to answer.

I will also discuss how Roman complements observatories such as Hubble, Webb, and the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, and how its enormous astronomical surveys will enable discoveries well beyond its primary science goals. Finally, I will describe some of my own work preparing to use Roman observations, including efforts to understand how dust between galaxies affects our view of distant exploding stars and what that means for using those explosions to measure the history of the Universe.

Jacqueline McCleary is an assistant professor of physics at Northeastern University and an observational cosmologist. Her research uses gravitational lensing to study dark matter in galaxy clusters, drawing on observations from ground-based observatories, stratospheric balloons, and space telescopes. She also studies dust in the extended halos of galaxies and its effects on precision measurements of the Universe. Jacqueline received an M.S. in astronomy from New Mexico State University and an M.S. and Ph.D. in physics from Brown University. Before joining the faculty at Northeastern, she was a postdoctoral researcher at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and subsequently a Future Faculty Fellow at Northeastern. 

3:45 PM  Dr. Mario Motta
"A Special Tour of Mt. Palomar Observatory"

This past March, I was invited to join David Levy to observe the lunar eclipse of March 3rd, and spend the day with a very private insider tour of the Mount Palomar Observatory by the former operator and director of the 200 inch Hale telescope, Jean Meuller. She had the keys to everything on mount Palomar. In addition to the tour of the telescope from vantage points not available to a visitor, we also went into every nook and cranny and hidden room, discovering many historical treasures. I also have interspersed the images with Russel Porter's fabulous engineering drawings that illustrate hidden engineering details of the telescope that was the largest telescope on earth for over 50 years. I was privileged to be invited for this private tour and will share many hidden details of this magical and historical observatory.

Mario E. Motta, MD, FACC

Dr. Motta had been in practice at North Shore Medical Center in Salem, Massachusetts, since 1983, recently retiring in 2022. He is a graduate of Boston College, with a BS in physics and biology, and of Tufts University Medical School. He is board certified in Internal medicine and Cariology, and is a fellow of the American College of Cardiology, and of the American Society of Nuclear Cardiology.  He is an associate professor of medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine. Dr. Motta has long been active in organized medicine, both at the American Medical Association (AMA) and at the Massachusetts Medical Society (MMS), holding a number of posts through the years. He is a past President of the MMS. He was elected and served 8 years on the AMA council of Science and Public Health, and then was elected to the Board of Trustees of the AMA in 2018, recently completing his term. In May of 2023 at its annual meeting, the MMS awarded Dr Motta its highest honor, the “Award for Distinguished Service.”

Dr Motta also has a lifelong interest in astronomy, and has hand built a number of telescopes and observatories through the years to do astronomical research, including his entirely homemade 32 inch F6 relay telescope located in Gloucester, MA. He has been awarded several national awards in astronomy, including the Las Cumbras award from the Astronomical Society of the Pacific in 2003, and also the Walter Scott Houston award from the northeast section of the Astronomical League, and in 2017 the Henry Olcott Award from the American Association of Variable star Observers (AAVSO). He has served as a president of the ATM’s of Boston, and has served as a council member of the AAVSO, and is a past president as well. He has also served on the Board of the IDA (dark sky international). He has worked on light pollution (LP) issues, and published a number of papers on LP as a member of the AMA council of science and public health. He served on a UN committee (COPUOS) representing the AMA on light pollution for a worldwide effort to control LP and satellite proliferation. Finally, several years ago the International Astronomical Union awarded Dr Motta an asteroid in part for his work on light pollution as well as amateur research, asteroid 133537MarioMotta.

Saturday Evening

5:00 PM Socializing w/ Lite Dinner
Pizza, snacks, soda, water and coffee included with basic registration.

6:00 PM  Raffle and Astro-Imaging Awards
 

Evening Presentation

7:00 PM David Aguilar
"Whatever Happened to Pluto?"

In 2026 we know what a star is. We know what a galaxy is. We know what comets, meteors, supernovas, black holes and quasars are. But, we still do not know what a planet is and most of us live on one. Twenty years ago the International Astronomical Union voted in a new definition of what they hoped would end the debate whether Pluto was a planet or not. With daily discoveries of new exoplanets orbiting distant stars beyond our solar system, confusion still reigns. What exactly IS a planet? And the answer is, "we don't know". So why was Pluto kicked out of the club and demoted to the dwarf category?  You are not going to believe it when you hear what really happened at that IAU meeting in 2006 and why NASA  is now calling for Pluto to be reinstated as a full fledged member of our solar system. Buckle up kids - this is going to be a fun and bumpy ride!

David A. Aguilar is an internationally recognized naturalist/astronomer, author, onscreen science contributor and space artist with the unique ability to open minds to the vast frontiers of space and their potential effects on our own world. He is the former director of science information at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and past director of marketing communications for Ball Aerospace in Boulder, Colorado and was the special director of Media for NASA's New Horizons Pluto Mission.  David has written and illustrated 12 award-winning children’s books for National Geographic / Random House, is an avid telescope maker and has consulted and appeared in the History Channel’s Universe series and has been honored with his own asteroid for achievements in furthering science education. He was also the science consultant for the TV series “UFO Hunters.” www.aspenskies.com

~ 8:30 PM  Observing at Seagrave Memorial Observatory
The observatory’s telescopes will be available for observing (weather permitting),
or set up your own telescope on the grounds.

 

More details are available on our website when you register.

Skyscrapers, Inc. (Amateur Astronomical Society of Rhode Island) is a
501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Your contribution is tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.