Columbia College
Retired
Central Missouri Astronomical Association
Board Member
Astronomy on the Santa Fe and Oregon Trails:
Early American expeditions into the west used surprisingly sophisticated astronomical techniques to both find their location and to create maps. Both Zebulon Pike (1807) and John Fremont (1843) took along refractor telescopes and set up portable observatories as part of their explorations. The Pike and Fremont expeditions both feature accurate astronomical observations made over hundreds of miles, in spite of nearly incredible difficulties.
Val is from Columbia, Missouri, and is a two-time Chairman of the Mid-States region of the Astronomical League. He has been a member of the Central Missouri Astronomical Association since 1978. For the last two decades he has been a volunteer staff member at the University of Missouri’s Laws Observatory. Now retired, he taught astronomy for twenty years at Columbia College, in Columbia, Missouri.