Kanawha Valley Astronomical Society

Welcome to the KVAS Website!

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     The Kanawha Valley Astronomical Society is a non-profit educational organization. We are dedicated to the promotion of amateur astronomy in and around the West Virginia area and work closely with local schools and the Avampato Discovery Museum at the Clay Center for the Arts and Sciences.

    The Kanawha Valley Astronomical Society operates and maintains Breezy Point Observatory, located at Camp Virgil Tate, near Cross Lanes, West Virginia. This rolling-roof design observatory houses the club's 16" F-4.5 Newtonion Reflector Telescope. Breezy Point Observatory is host to many of the club's monthly meetings as well as a number of star parties each year.

     The Kanawha Valley Astronomical Society is also co-sponsor of Blackwater Falls Astronomy Weekend and Green Bank Star Quest. Central Appalachian Astronomy Club along with Dominion Resources are our partners for Green Bank Star Quest. Blackwater Falls Astronomy Weekend is possible thanks to the cooperation of the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources. Blackwater Falls Astronomy Weekend is held every fall at Blackwater Falls State Park. Green Bank Star Quest is held every summer at the Green Bank National Radio Astronomy Observatory. Both of these events are highly educational and well worth the trip.

Club Scope

Exciting news. The work on the scope that Chuck Spann donated to the club is complete, with the transfer to the new tube with the rotating rings. It works great. It has been put back in the observatory and is ready for club use.

Click on image to enlarge

Meetings

Meetings are held the third Friday of the month. The regular monthly meetings are held at 7:00 PM at the Hansford Senior Center, 500 Washington Street, St. Albans, West Virginia. Occasionally the meeting may be held at the observatory or another location. If so, the address and directions will be noted in the "Next Meeting" area.

Driving Directions: From McCorkle Ave. (Rt. 60) in St. Albans at the foot of the St. Albans/Nitro Bridge proceed through railroad underpass on 3rd. Street to light at 6th Ave. Turn left onto 6th Ave. and proceed about 10 blocks to Washington St. the Hansford Senior will be across the street on your left.

Next Meeting

The next meeting will be on July 15, at 7:00 PM at the Hansford Senior Center. A 30 minute program on "Why the Stellar Life Cycle Matters" will be given. A discussion on Star Quest, Festival, club picnic and Astronomy Weekend will take place. It would be appreciated if you would bring a snack to share.

Thursday, January 7, 2016.
Charleston Gazette/Mail. Area man suggests ancient mounds line up to reveal summer, winter solstice. By Ben Calwell, Metro Reporter.
Metro photo by BEN CALWELL

Scott Blake stands next to a model of the Criel Mound in the South Charleston Interpretive Center.

Blake is researching the possibility that the Criel Mound and nearby Wilson Mound are aligned to mark the summer and winter solstices. As a naturally curious man, Scott Blake likes to leave no stone unturned when his inquistive mind is teased with a mystery. Blake, who resides in the Cross Lanes area, believes that two of the remaining ancient Indian mounds in the Kanawha Valley served not only as burial places but also as a solar calendar for the Adena culture. He’s referring to the Criel Mound in South Charleston and the smaller Wilson Mound, which still exists in what is now Sunset Memorial Park, a private cemetery, also in South Charleston. “They are 1.6 nautical miles apart,” said Blake, during a recent visit to the South Charleston Interpretive Center, which has a large model of the Criel Mound on display. Blake, who is vice president of the Kanawha Valley Astronomical Society, began looking into the possibility that the two mounds mark the winter and summer solstice, when he was asked to prepare a talk for one of the KVAS’s regular club meetings. Seeking a topic, Blake stumbled upon an idea that the two mounds could possibly be aligned to mark the solstices. Diving into books, websites and other sources that describe the field of “archeoastronomy,” Blake began his research and is writing a paper on the topic. Based on his research and observations in the field, Blake said the two mounds, in relation to the sun, are aligned in a way that told the Adena people when the summer and winter solstices began. The two mounds, he said, share the same “bearing line” of 245 degrees southwest by 65 degrees northeast. It’s an example of archeoastronomy, or “how ancient people used the sky as a time piece,” Blake said. “It aligns to the sunrise on the summer solstice -- Wilson to Criel -- and the sunset on the winter solstice -- Criel to Wilson. Due to the mountains, the alignments seem to happen when the sun is about a disc width above the ridge tops,” he said, in a follow-up email. The compass heading of the two mounds is 245 degrees southwest by 065 degrees northeast. “The bearing is important because it conforms to what researchers look for first if they question if a site has potential. The site meets this requirement.” As an amateur in the subject, Blake said he has done as much as he can. “Right now I have gone as far as I can go with the resources I have. I need to take it to the next level. The next step is to completely affirm the site has an alignment with professionals and then see if there is a potential lunar alignment like the Newark and High Bank sights in Ohio,” he said, referring to mounds in Ohio. Eventually, Blake would like the Criel and Wilson mounds to be recognized by the International Society of Archeoastronomy and Culture. Blake said there was a “huge complex” of mounds in the the area in the late 1800s and that Cyrus Thomas of the Smithsonian Institution cataloged all of them east of the Mississippi River. “He documented over 50 of them in the Kanawha Valley,” he said.