It’s hard to overstate LeRoy Yanna’s impact on the the Madison Astronomical Society. The club’s current dark sky site, the Yanna Research Station (YRS), was named in his honor after Yanna donated much of the Green County land on which the observatory rests. 

LeRoy became interested in astronomy about age 14 but said he couldn’t find much information to feed his curiosity. Growing up between Fennimore and Montfort in eastern Grant county, it was a local veterinarian who came to his assistance by recommending a book on telescope making. Yanna sent away for the book and began studying, and soon after began making the first of 14 telescopes he would build during his lifetime. Yanna joined MAS around 1960 after being invited to give a talk on telescope making. By 1964 he was on the board and eventually would serve as vice president. He is last listed as being on the board in 1969. 

Yanna’s involvement with the group in the 1970s is not known but he rose again to prominence in the early 80s when the light pollution in Fitchburg was increasingly making the Oscar Mayer Observatory an untenable location for the club’s observing activities. Yanna heard that MAS was looking for a new site and approached the officers with the idea of selling a parcel of his land in northeastern Green county, about 20 miles south of Madison, to the club. Over the next month Yanna hosted several members and officers on nighttime visits to his property so they could assess the quality of the location and the skies. Yanna’s property received an enthusiastic endorsement from this “dark site committee.” The board decided to go ahead with the purchase.

At the September 1984 meeting of the Society, that offer to sell  turned into a gift when Yanna stood up and announced his intention to donate the land outright. The club’s prime observing site has been known as YRS ever since. Yanna remained active in the group until his death in 2005.

My own enduring memory of LeRoy is of his presence at all MAS picnics held at YRS until his death. LeRoy’s lawn chair was the focus of the arc of chairs that formed around him. His ever-present smile and the twinkle in his eye set the tone for those events.

2025 marks the 40th anniversary of our dark sky site, an important milestone for the club. Thanks LeRoy.

(This post relied heavily on materials in the MAS historical archives. Compiled by John Rummel, September, 2025).

Back to the In Memoriam page.