The Rio Rancho Astronomical Society will host its February monthly meeting on Feb. 4, starting at 7:30 p.m. 
The meeting will be hybrid, at Rainbow Park Observatory, 301 Southern Blvd., and online. The link for the online portion of the meeting will be posted at rrastro.org.
Special guest speaker Jack Drummond of Leidos and formerly of New Mexico State University and the U.S. Navy will give a presentation titled “Looking Back over My Shoulder: An Indulgent Retrospective of an Astronomer’s Career.”
Drummond will recall his youth, education and settling into the Starfire Optical Range on Kirtland Air Force Base, with emphasis on the evolution of the perspective of the small bodies of the solar system, the stuff between the planets.
He led a double life — Drummond was really a softball player and coach, disguised as an astronomer for more than 35 years. He will take recount his softball career in Tucson, on Kirtland AFB and in Albuquerque, all the while engaged in asteroid research and high angular astronomy.
“I have ended my career by observing and calculating orbits for satellites of asteroids with the smallest telescopes to participate in such studies, first with the SOR 3.5 meter and now with the 1.5 meter telescope,” he said. “It has been fun!”
The public is welcome to attend both the in-person and online meeting, and telescope viewing will be available at the observatory following the meeting, weather permitting. For more information, visit rrastro.org.
