John Kalas (Board Member at Large)

John KalasJohn has been a resident of Tucson and a member of the Tucson Amateur Astronomy Association (TAAA) for over 20 years.  He is married and has two grown children.  A mechanical engineer by training, he worked at Rain Bird Corporation in Tucson for 13 years and retired in 2008.  John has served the TAAA in many capacities over the years including president of the organization from 1998 to 2001.  He is one of the four Perseus Group members who purchased land in Cochise County, AZ where each donated 4 acres to the club for its 16-acre dark-sky observing site called the Chiricahua Astronomy Complex.  John has been the director and construction coordinator for the astronomy complex from its inception in 2008 to the present.  He also coordinated the club’s Astronomy Services program for 17 years which generated over $128,000. of revenue for the club, nearly all of which has been used to develop the Chiricahua Astronomy Complex.

John enjoys visual observing and dabbles in lunar and planetary imaging using a webcam and DSLR camera.  He built a cottage adjacent to the club’s Chiricahua Astronomy Complex which includes a large roll-off roof observatory capable of handling four telescopes.