The public is invited to come to our free monthly Skywatch event at Northwest River Park in Chesapeake to take a look through our telescopes at planets, galaxies, star clusters, nebulae, and more! Come learn about the sky and about your place in the Universe. In addition we also hold a monthly event called Saturday "Sun" Day at the Elizabeth River Boat Landing and Park in Chesapeake that lets visitors see the Earth's closest star, the Sun. See our Events Calendar for scheduled dates and more information.

Other regular public events include Gardens Stars at the Norfolk Botanical Garden and Night Hike at Northwest River Park. During the height of the tourist season, we collaborate with the Virginia Beach Planetarium and the City of Virginia Beach to host Boardwalk Astronomy on the Virginia Beach boardwalk (near the 24th Street stage). We also do many other outreach events throughout the year at city parks, local schools and libraries. Organizations and members of the public can request that we attend their event by going to NASA's Night Sky Network website and filling out the request form. If you have any questions about scheduling an event please send an email to our Outreach Coordinator (vp and main url of our website without the http or www).

Help us fulfill our club motto of "Bringing Astronomy to the People of Hampton Roads" by supporting our outreach events and donating your time, resources, or both. Thank you!

Donations to the Back Bay Amateur Astronomers are tax deductible as charitable donations on the donor's federal income tax return!

Our monthly meetings are generally held in the Science and Technology Building (Bldg J) at the Tidewater Community College's Virginia Beach Campus when the school is open. Our meeting room is usually JC-12 (on the second floor above the planetarium), but may change depending upon classroom availability. The planetarium is the rounded end of the J Building, opposite the observatory.

Meetings are held on the first Thursday of each month at 7 PM and are open to the public. When classes are not in session at TCC, meetings are held at other locations that are announced on our official calendar. We also usually post the updates on our social media pages Groups.io site, Facebook Group, and our Facebook page.

The BBAA scholarship programs offers financial assistance to graduating high school seniors in our area that demonstrate an avid interest in astronomy. The BBAA awards two scholarships each year. A general $1,500.00 scholarship and the Georgie June Memorial Astronomy Scholarship, increased in 2021 due to our donors generosity, from $500.00 to $1,000.00.

The scholarship recipients are determined in accordance to procedure outlined in our scholarship bylaws. To view the bylaws for the Back Bay Amateur Astronomers Scholarship Committee you can click here. The BBAA Scholarship Committee Chair is Ben Loyola and you can reach him at benito -at loyola -dot com. The scholarship awards will be distributed in the spring to the first and second place student applicants. The scholarship awards shall be in the form of a check payable to the college or university listed on the recipient’s scholarship application, or to such other college or university designated by the recipient to which the recipient has been accepted, or to the applicant if a college or university has not been determined. To apply, download our scholarship application form. If you would like to make a donation to our scholarship fund please go to the BBAA store and scroll down to the section marked "Donate to the BBAA Scholarship Fund".

One application is used for both the General BBAA Scholarship and the Georgie June Memorial Scholarship.

BBAA General Scholarship

Georgie June Memorial Scholarship

Nick Anderson Memorial Scholarship

Nick Anderson Memorial Scholarship

Georgie June Scholarship Fund Raffle

Each year in the spring the BBAA sells raffle tickets with the proceeds funding our Georgie June Scholarship Fund. The tickets cost $5 each and are available for purchase from the four club officers. The prize this year is:

- Popular Science by Celestron StarSense Explorer DX 5" Smartphone App-Enabled Schmidt Cassegrain Telescope. This is a great high-end beginner scope with the StarSense technology that allows the use of a smartphone to help find objects in the night sky.

The drawing will be held during the BBAA monthly club meeting in April.

RAFFLE DATE: APRIL 4th, 2024, 7:30PM-9:00PM (BBAA Club Meeting)

RAFFLE LOCATION: Science BLDG , TCC , Virginia Beach, VA.

The winner does not have to be present, but will be required to make arrangements to pickup the prize at a later date if not present.

The “Rapid Robotic Response Telescope” (RRRT) project is a joint collaboration between Norfolk State University and the University of Virginia to operate a robotic telescope at Fan Mountain Observatory near Charlottesville. The universities have generously allowed the BBAA to utilize the telescope for astrophotograhy. The 24-inch Ritchey-Chretien telescope is designed to operate remotely and studies gamma ray bursts, blazars, and other transient events. When not actively engaged in GRB work, students in the area and our members may use the scope for a variety of projects. The RRRT is apart of the Skynet Robotic Telescope Network. The Skynet Robotic Telescope Network or Skynet, is a global network of fully automated, or robotic telescopes serving professional astronomers and students over the Internet. Skynet telescopes are unique in that they are run by computers instead of by humans. Such telescopes are called robotic telescopes. Each evening, during good weather, the telescopes' domes open and the telescopes record data using request entered by members of the Skynet network. The RRRT Coordinator for the BBAA is Bird Taylor (rrrt and main url of our website without the http or www. For updates on the status of the RRRT, please check out their blog: https://rrrt-fmo.blogspot.com/. To see the current conditions at the RRRT https://skynet.unc.edu/sites/view?id=17. Click on this link to view an article from the Astronomical League's Reflector Magazine that was written by long time club member Ted Forte in September 2005. The article briefly covers the BBAA’s involvement with the project.