In a few months, the Astronomical Society of the Pacific will celebrate its 125th anniversary and its 25th year on Ocean Avenue.
The organization may not be known by many, even to those familiar with the area, because it did not put a sign on its building, at the corner of Ashton Avenue and Ocean Avenue, until April of this year.
“We tend to be a very nationally-focused organization,” said James Manning, the society’s executive director. “But after 25 years in the neighborhood, we thought it was time to announce our presence.”
Founded on Feb. 7, 1889, in San Francisco as the first national astronomy society in the United States, the society provides resources and training for astronomy educators and public outreach officials across the country.
“We are such a tiny staff that we can’t go out and do all of the programming ourselves, but it’s a great feeling to empower others and see how other places are changing because of the training we provided them,” said Suzy Gurton, the society’s astronomy education manager.
As part of one of its programs, Astronomy from the Ground Up, the society has trained nearly 1,000 museum educators and park rangers.
“Great Basin National Park is now doing weekly astronomy programs, and they have some of the best skies in the country,” Gurton said. “They weren’t doing any astronomy programming before they took our workshop. To see programs blossom and make a difference is great.”
The organization’s other programs include Project ASTRO, which pairs professional and amateur astronomers with educators across the country, and the NASA Night Sky Network, a nationwide community of over 450 astronomy clubs. The organization’s publications include publications for amateur astronomers and other more technical publications for professionals.
Through its programs and publications, the society aims to advance science literacy through astronomy.
“Science literacy is a big issue these days,” Manning said. “It is about critical thinking, understanding how things work, and knowing how to find information and make decisions based on facts and not feelings.”
The current pursuit of advancing science literacy is the organization’s most recent goal, and it’s one that requires the organization to keep pace with a constantly changing field.
One recent change, the evolution of education in the United States toward a standardized testing model, has some worried that astronomy will be one subject pushed out of schools.
“When I was executive director, there was a much greater demand from teachers,” said Andrew Fraknoi, the society’s executive director from 1978 to 1992. “Now teachers teach to the test and always have to ask, ‘Is this in the standards?’”
At the same time, Manning thinks that astronomy education will be a good fit for the next generation of science standards, which, he said, will focus more on understanding the process of scientific thought rather than memorizing facts.
Astronomy’s place in the public sphere has an uncertain future.
“There is currently less public awareness of basic astronomical subjects like the fact that calendars are based on astronomical cycles,” Gurton said. “However, the awareness of science is growing because of things like the Hubble Space Telescope and the fabulous images they publish.”
Money is an ever-present issue for the astronomical society, as it is with any non-profit. During his tenure, Manning is credited with having made the society’s financial base more secure.
As part of the solution, Manning brought in a director of finance, “to provide some of the strategic financial oversight that it’s important for any organization to have.”
“(Manning) has an incredible eye for numbers,” said Kathryn Harper, the society’s director of development and communications. “He doesn’t miss anything, and he brought in a real fiscal discipline to the organization that was very much needed.”
The organization is still not as financially secure as it would like to be, though. According to Harper, more than 60 percent of the organization’s funding currently comes from the federal government in the form of several grants from NASA and the National Science Foundation.
“A healthy non-profit shouldn’t get more than 30 percent of its funds from any single source; you want a really diversified revenue portfolio, otherwise you’re at the mercy of something like the government shutdown,” Harper said.
During the 16-day government shutdown in October, the society was unable to invoice any of their expenses toward their federal grants.
“It was pretty painful,” Harper said.
After 6 1/2 years as executive director, Manning will resign on the society’s anniversary to pursue other interests.
“The executive director job is a pretty all-consuming job,” Manning said, “so this will provide me an opportunity to pursue some of my interests that I haven’t been able to pursue to the degree I would like to.”
The search for a new executive director will be on a national scale. After collecting
applications for the position, the organization’s board of directors will review and interview the candidates before eventually choosing Manning’s successor.
Timothy Ferris, a Pulitzer Prize-nominated-science writer, journalist and lecturer, will be the keynote speaker for the society’s 125th anniversary celebration at the Delancey Street Restaurant on Friday, Feb. 7, 2014.
