Knoxville Observers is a not for profit hobby group located in Knoxville, Tennessee. KO is dedicated to fostering the love and enjoyment of the night sky to its members. We also spread astronomy education to the public with various events. We are different then a society in many ways. We are a hobby group. A hobby is something you do in your free time for fun. Because of that KO is much less formal then astronomy societies. We are about sharing the fun of astronomy and helping beginners develop their joy of the night sky.
The priority of KO is star parties. Observing, photographing and imaging the night sky are the biggest joys of
amateur astronomy. Because of that we put huge effort into organizing star parties. We have star parties every weekend except if there is a significant moon, well sometimes we will observe even with a moon. Our star parties have many helpful, smiling people who are eager to share their knowledge and views through their telescopes. Most of our star parties are held at dark locations in the East Tennessee area. For more information on star parties visit the KO events page .
The meetings are supplements to our star parties. The meetings are held on the 3rd Tuesday of every month at 8:00 at Test America. Check the events page for the latest on upcoming meetings. We have fun programs that inspire ones love of the night sky. Most of our meetings are hands on workshops such as collimating a Newtonian, preparing star charts on the computer, planning an observing session, enhancing a CCD image and many others. We will also have member and guess speakers giving talks on all aspects of astronomy. The meetings have at least ½ hour set aside for social time and refreshments. We believe this is very important. Social time is where friendships are forged and a great way to ask other members for help. One thing you won't find at our meetings is over seriousness and politics. We don't have business meetings or a reading of the minutes at the monthly meetings. On rare occasions we may have business such as officer elections. That is quickly presented, voted on then we get to the fun stuff. After all we are a hobby group not a city council. We have a Prime Directive just something in writing that discribes our offices. Read it here.
We hope to meet you and see you at the next star party or meeting.