by Victor Davis, Program Chair

Astrophotography Beyond the Fundamentals
The October, 2026 monthly meeting of the Amateur Astronomers Association of Princeton will take place in the lecture room in Sherrerd Hall on the campus of Princeton University on Tuesday, October 13th at 7:30 PM. As usual, the meeting is open to AAAP members and the public. Participants can join the meeting in-person at Sherrerd Hall or log in to the Zoom session as early as 7:00 pm to chat informally before the meeting begins. The evening’s guest speaker will be astrophotography expert and author Charles Bracken who will help to expand our knowledge of astroimaging beyond the fundamentals we learned at last month’s meeting.

Options for Attending the Meeting
You may choose to attend the meeting in person or participate via Zoom or YouTube as we’ve been doing for the past few years. (See How to Participate below for details). Due to security concerns, if you log in before the host has set up internet connectivity on-site, you may need to wait in the Waiting Room for a few minutes until the host is prepared to admit you into the meeting. You’ll need to unmute yourself to make comments or ask questions. It’s polite, though not required, for you to enable your camera so other participants can see you. The meeting will be recorded and edited for posting to our club’s YouTube channel.

Join us for our “meet the speaker” dinner
Mr. Bracken will join club members at Winberie’s Bar and Restaurant, 1 Palmer Square, for our traditional “meet the speaker” dinner.  Our reservation is for 5:45 pm Tuesday, October 13. Please contact Tom Angle (tcangle@icloud.com) to let him know you plan to attend.

Here’s the anticipated agenda for October 13, 2026’s monthly meeting of the AAAP:

What astronomical objects are good targets for astrophotography? Which are most fulfilling to capture in images? Will you ever run out of objects to image? Which objects are most overlooked by astro-imagers and why? Charlie Bracken describes his quest to research, capture, and process images of more than 1,700 deep-sky objects for his book The Astrophotographer’s Universe. He’ll describe lessons learned and his perspectives on this technical and aesthetic passion.

Charles Bracken
Charlie is the author of several books on astrophotography, including The Deep-sky Imaging Primer, The Astrophotography Sky Atlas, The Astrophotography Planner, The Visible Universe, and The Astrophotographer’s Universe. He has been imaging for more than 15 years, and he has lectured on astrophotography globally, helping people get the best out of their equipment and skies. He lives in Bucks County, PA and also images via remote setups in Utah and Chile. You can find him on Astrobin (CharlesBracken) and his website is digitalstars.wordpress.com.

Mr. Bracken will have copies of “The Astrophotographer’s Universe” for sale and signing at the meeting.

How to Participate (Links)
Zoom & YouTube Live
Topic: October 13, 2026 AAAP Club Meeting-Charles Bracken Astrophotographer
Time: Oct 13, 2026 07:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting
Meeting Chat Link
Meeting ID: 839 4409 5122
Passcode: 005635
Join Instructions

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Click the above icons for Zoom and YouTube

AAAP Video Library
AAAP’s library of monthly meetings is available on the club’s YouTube channel. Last month’s meeting featured Dr. Michael DiMario and Prof. Robert Vanderbei presenting “Fundamentals of Astroimaging.” The edited video (AAAP Sept 8 2026) is at http://youtu.be/UfTktZlx5Ao and runs 1:48:17.

A look ahead at future guest speakers:

Date	Featured Speaker	Topic
October 13, 2026	Charles Bracken Astro-photographer and author deepskyprimer@gmail.com	Mr. Bracken is an amateur astrophotographer and author of “The Deep Sky Imaging Primer” now in its third edition. He will present his perspectives on astroimaging. We expect to have copies of his book(s) for sale for the author to sign at the conclusion of his presentation. Thanks to Tom Angle for suggesting this speaker.
November 10, 2026	Stacy McGaugh Professor Department of Astronomy Case Western Reserve University http://astroweb.case.edu/ssm	Prof. McGaugh seeks alternatives to cold dark matter to explain where the universe’s “missing mass” may be secreted. He’ll be joining us virtually. Thanks to Rex Parker for suggesting this speaker.
December 8 2026	Joel Hurowitz Associate Professor Graduate Program Director Acting Principal Investigator, Mars 2020 PIXL Team Department of Geosciences Stony Brook University joel.hurowitz.stonybrook.edu	Prof. Hurowitz will speak virtually to our club about his research using the Perseverance rover and about astrobiology on Mars.   Thanks to Rex Parker for suggesting this speaker.
Sometime in 2027	Becka Phillipson Assistant Professor in Physics Villanova University rebecca.phillipson@villanova.edu	Prof. Phillipson, originally scheduled to be October 2025’s guest speaker, is an unconfirmed prospect to try again in 2027   Prof. Phillipson leverages statistics, nonlinear dynamics, and machine learning to study the explosive and highly variable characteristics of exotic astrophysical objects such as black holes and neutron stars.     Thanks to Bill Thomas for suggesting this speaker.

As always, members’ comments and suggestions are gratefully accepted and much appreciated. Thanks to Ira Polans and Dave Skitt for setting up the online links and connecting the meeting to the world outside Peyton Hall.

victor.davis@verizon.net
program@princetonastronomers.org
(908) 581-1780 cell