Here is a listing of articles which mention NOVAC, its members, or their efforts.

Venus Puts Stargazers in Seventh Heaven , By By Sean Salai, Washington Times Staff Writer, Monday, June 7th, 2004
Area astronomy buffs are gearing up for tomorrow's Venus transit across the sun as though it were the Super Bowl of the natural world.
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Mad for Mars: Stargazers Flock for a View, By David Montgomery, Washington Post, August 27, 2003; Page C01
"Technically, it's closer, but practically -- ehhhh," said Elizabeth Warner, director of the University of Maryland Observatory. "The average person wouldn't notice a difference between two years ago and today. Some people think they're never going to see Mars again in their lifetime. That's not true."
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Mars Watch, National Public Radio, All Things Considered, August 26th 2003
Early Wednesday morning, Mars will come the closest it has been to our planet in nearly 60,000 years. Mars is now shining at its absolute brightest, so astronomers and curious stargazers have taken to looking sky-ward in the past several days, to see details on Mars' surface that have never been clearer. NPR's Melissa Block spent one recent evening with some amateur astronomers from the Northern Virginia Astronomy Club, looking at Mars and observing their fascination with our closest planetary neighbor.
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Training an Eye on Mars, John F. Kelly, Washington Post, Aug 25, 2003; Page B01
At 2 o'clock on a recent morning, Bob Bunge ambled into the inky darkness of his Bowie back yard and prepared to meet an old friend. He swung the end of a massive home-built telescope skyward, gazed over the branches of a silver maple tree, then zeroed in on Earth's nearest neighbor. More

The Tao of Astronomy, Sky and Telescope Magazine, September 2003, p.10
While the world around him sleeps, Kevin D. Dohmen savors the quiet joy of gazing deep into the night. 
Driving home from swimming at our YMCA, I overheard my seven-year-old son, Taylor, and his best friend, Samantha, discussing their fathers’ idiosyncrasies.  Sammy said something about her dad yelling at the officials while watching football on TV. As their giggling subsided, Taylor said, “Yeah, well, my dad spends all night outside with his telescope” “Yeah?” she asked. “That’s weird.” “He gets excited about these fuzzy things,” Taylor said. “What’s that about?” They giggled some more. I just smiled and continued driving. More

Star Struck, Washington Post Weekend, By Nicole Arthur, February 21, 2003; Page WE30
"You and I are flesh and blood, but we are also stardust."- Helena Curtis
This unexpectedly lyrical passage appeared in the introduction to my college biology textbook. An English major behind enemy lines, I was willing to take my poetry where I found it. Besides, it was a comforting way to think about the galaxy. When you frame our relationship to the stars this way, astronomy is a lot less like hard science and a lot more like genealogy.  More

The Hazards of Astronomy, Sky and Telescope Magazine, September 2002
Kevin D. Dohmen knows the warning signs — but he stargazes anyway
Astronomy doesn’t readily fit into the same hazard category as, say, bungee jumping, mountain climbing, or scuba diving in shark cages off the Great Barrier Reef. Until January 2001, when my wife bought me a computerized ETX-90 for my 43rd birthday, I saw astronomy as purely sedentary, even boring. More

Dissecting Light Pollution, Sky and Telescope Online,  Arthur R. Upgren
Every astronomer knows the artificial skyglow that hangs over populated areas, washing out almost everyone's view of the universe to a greater or lesser degree. In the last two generations, light pollution has spread from a problem in cities to a major astronomical disruption almost everywhere.
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The Celestial Season's Fling, Washington Post, By Ian Shapira, April 22, 2001 B01
"Mercury is always a trickster. It's always a personal triumph if you get a peek at it because it sits so low on the horizon," said John Avellone, 61, a Northern Virginia Astronomy Club trustee. More

Starlight Memories, Geoff Chester, Sunday, February 25, 2001; Page B08
The night sky is the world's largest national park with its stark beauty available to anyone who steps outside and looks up. More

Astronomers Try to Illuminate Region on Threats to Night Skies, Washington Post, September 2000; Page B01
Saturn's not bright enough this early in the evening to punch through the halo hanging over the D.C. area. "It would be right about over there," said Pete Johnson, a Centreville software designer and president of the Northern Virginia Astronomy Club, pointing toward the glow above Washington fed by lights shining at office buildings, burger joints, malls, homes and highways. More

New Light-Pollution Maps  Sky & Telescope Magazine, August 2000, Page 94
New and improved light-pollution maps of the United States, made from
mosaics of visual and near-infrared satellite images, are now being worked
on. More

Discovery light beam abandoned, company official says  by The Gazette
Discovery Communications' planned Silver Spring tower will not be capped by a beam of light shooting into the sky, despite architectural renderings of the tower that showcase the beam, a senior company official said last week. More

Local Skies Heavenly for Astronomers by Graeme Zielinski - The Washington Post
Pete Johnson, head of one of the largest astronomy groups in the nation, remembers how he used to be able to go out onto his Fairfax County lawn as a kid and look deep into the skies. More

Darker Skies for the D.C. Area  Sky & Telescope Magazine, July 2000, Page 28
The movement to reduce light pollution – to modify or replace glary outdoor light fixtures that send “waste light” sideways and upward into the sky – continues to gain momentum. In the area around Washington D.C., it is beginning to approach something like critical mass, with a flurry of new laws and practices recently passed or proposed. More