4 June 2026 – Club Meeting Presentation
— Thursday night, 7:00 – 8:30 p.m.
This free speaker presentation will be offered in-person at the
UNC-Asheville Reuter Center and virtually online. Registration is not required; use this Zoom link to watch the presentation remotely.
Although parking is free for this event at the UNC-Asheville Reuter Center, you must register your vehicle with a “Visitor 5pm – 6am” permit type at this link. Once registration is complete, visitors will not need to print or display a permit; the system utilizes camera-based License Plate Recognition technology. All vehicles must park front-end in, so that the license plate is visible.
An Astronomy Guest Speaker Series Event – a collaboration of the Astronomy Club of Asheville and UNC-Asheville
Variable Stars, the AAVSO, Eclipsing Stars, and Backyard Astrophysics
– presented by
Don Collins, PhD,
Professor Emeritus, Warren Wilson College
Cataclysmic variable stars (CV’s) are bizarre systems that vary their light output (as well as ultraviolet and x-rays) in dramatically rapid sequences (hours and minutes – not days!). The presentation will discuss variable stars in general, as well as the strange behavior of CV’s.
Dr. Collins will also discuss how amateur astronomers can contribute significantly to the research of variable stars through the AAVSO (American Association of Variable Star Observers).