Rev. Monsignor Ronald E. Royer
Monsignor Royer is an active amateur astronomer. He joined the membership of the Los Angeles Astronomical Society (LAAS) in 1946.
His first Western Amateur Astronomers (WAA) meeting was at Mt. Wilson Observatory in 1949. WAA’s meeting chair was Dr. G. Bruce Blair of the University of Nevada, Reno, who passed on soon there after. A year later, in 1950, Monsignor Royer constructed an eight inch, f/10 Newtonian reflector.
Inspired by Tom Cave and Tommy Cragg of LAAS and WAA respectively, Monsignor Royer became a member of the AAVSO and is still active.
Monsignor Royer was president of LAAS in 1963 and also completed a 12.5 inch f/6 Newtonian that year. WAA elected Monsignor Royer as president of the organization in 1964 and he chaired the WAA meeting in Denver, Colorado, at the National Amateur Astronomers Convention that August.
On January 15, 1974, Monsignor Royer witnessed the installation of his 4 inch, f/5 astrographic camera at Mt. Wilson Observatory. Technicians piggybacked the astrograph onto the 100 inch telescope to take photographs of Comet Kohoutek.
After development of his astrographic camera, Monsignor Royer began working with tricolor photography. This work inspired Dave Malin of the Anglo-Australian Observatory to experiment with the tricolor process, using color separation plates. Both gentlemen have published their photographs worldwide.
Throughout the years Monsignor Royer has worked with various astronomers including Dr. Alter and Dr. Cleminshaw of Griffith Observatory, Los Angeles. He has also worked with David Dunham, Tom Johnson, Bob Evans and Astronomy Magazine’s Richard Berry.
During his activities with the AAVSO, Monsignor Royer worked with Margaret Mayall and Janet Mattei. Glo Helin of Caltech also has worked with Monsignor Royer and named asteroid # 5208 in Monsignor Royer’s honor.
Monsignor Ronald E. Royer feels honored that he has lived and inspired others, as he was, during this age of astronomy and space exploration.