[sac-board] Re: Minutes for February general meeting

Joe, change the following as indicated -

Monosaurus shold be Monoceros,
15 minuted should be 15 minutes,
TUCam I belive should be ToUcam.

Hope I'm not being toooo picky.

Thanks and good job,
aj



Joe Macke wrote:

>Below are the minutes for review, please check names, titles, dates
>especially.
>
>Thanks,
>Joe
>
>
>                         Saguaro Astronomy Club
>                       Minutes of Regular Meeting
>                            February 6, 2004
>
>The meeting was called to order at 0231UT.
>
>There were 49 attendees at the beginning of the meeting.
>
>1. President Thad Robosson welcomed the membership and asked if there were
>any guests
>present.  Six people identified themselves as guests.  They were invited to
>sign the guest
>book and would receive a copy of the January SACNews.
>
>2. Treasurer Al Stiewig reported that the club's assets include a checking
>account balance
>of $1558.79, $2465.43 in the savings account and $1855.95 as cash-on-hand.
>The
>liabilities are $442.00 in owed subscriptions, $7.50 for a name tag, and
>$50.00 as payable
>donations.  These are figures passed from the previous treasurer.
>
>3. Al also inquired about interest in forming a new subgroup in the club
>devoted to
>astroimaging.  Anyone interested may contact him at amst _at_ att.net or via
>the new club
>e-mail address (see 4. below.)
>
>4. Thad announced that all of the officers and group chairpersons now have
>e-mail
>addresses in the saguaroastro.org domain.  This is courtesy of Bob Erdmann.
>The new
>addresses are on the contacts page of the club web site and the cover of the
>newsletter.
>
>5. Deep Sky Chairman A.J. Crayon reported the Deep Sky group will meet next
>month on March
>11.  Steve Coe will present a talk on the New General Catalog, including the
>notation used
>in the object descriptions and some history of the catalog.  Future
>meetings' topics will
>include how to take notes, i.e. what to write down and dissecting some
>observations and
>interpreting them.
>
>6. A.J.'s new newsletter column "Last Call" will feature observations from
>Auriga next
>month and the following month will be Monosaurus and the western part of
>Ursa Major.
>
>7. A.J. then handed out two observing awards, both for the "110 Best of the
>NGC."  These
>awards went to Rick Tejera and Jennifer Keller.  A.J. pointed out that these
>were the
>first deep sky award plaques to be presented with the new color logo.
>
>8. Finally, the A.J. reminded that the Messier Marathon is next month, March
>20, in
>Arizona City.  You must turn in your check-off sheet before the chairmen
>leave the
>observing site on Sunday morning.
>
>9. Thad presented a list of the upcoming club events:
>     Feb 14      SAC "Singles Night" Star Party at Flat Iron, sunset
>1814MST, moonrise
>0327MST
>     Mar  2      ATM group meeting
>     Mar  5      SAC regular club meeting, Chuck Woods, a contributor to
>"Sky and
>Telescope" magazine will speak
>     Mar 11      Deep Sky group meeting, Steve Coe will speak on the NGC
>     Mar 13      SAC Star Party and Novice Group meeting at Flat Iron,
>sunset 1839MST,
>moonrise 0327MST
>     Mar 20      All-Arizona Messier Marathon, Arizona City AZ
>
>10. Stan Clark reported on an undocumented page on the web site that
>contains directions
>to the observing sites that the club uses.
>
>11. Steve Dodder relayed that Christine Shupla of the Arizona Science Center
>has announced
>that the Astronomy Day at the center will be May 15.  She is looking for
>volunteers to
>setup telescopes during the day and to give talks.  It is intended to be a
>family- and
>kid-friendly event.  Contact Steve or Christine for further information.
>
>12. Steve also reminded the members that he is restoring Pierre Schwaar's
>Binocular Chair
>and had the azimuth bearing at the meeting.  He is interested in reports
>from anyone who
>had the opportunity to use the chair on their experience.  Also if you are
>interested in
>helping with the restoration, contact him, he has maps to his Stone Haven
>observatory in
>Maricopa.
>
>13. Public Events Chairman, Jack Jones still has club T-shirts in all sizes
>and various
>sizes and types of event T-shirts.  All are $15.00 each.
>
>14. Jack thanked those who attended the Eagle Ridge star party, they had
>about 200
>children in attendance.
>
>15. Upcoming public events Jack listed:
>     Feb 26      Desert Ridge School
>     Mar 12      Kids star party at Thunderbird Park, see the newsletter for
>details
>     Mar 27      Cub Scout Star Party at White Tanks Park
>     Apr 24      Semi-annual Public Star Party at Thunderbird Park with
>Glendale Parks
>and Recreation
>
>16. Vice President Jennifer Keller reported that the club received a thank
>you note from
>last month's speaker, Fulvio Melia.
>
>17. Steve Coe said that the Porta-Potty fund was again being used, in
>anticipation of
>observing at Sentinel on February 20 and 21.
>
>18. Steve has a pile of flyers for the April 24 Public Star Party at
>Thunderbird Park for
>the members to use for posting.
>
>19. Steve then announced the Novice Group Meeting on March 13 at Flat Iron,
>in conjunction
>with the usual club star party.  He asked anyone interested in assisting
>novices and the
>novices themselves to arrive about 45 minutes prior to sunset.  Come and ask
>any questions
>you have.  You do not need a telescope or, if you have one, bring it along
>and get any
>help you need operating it.  BRING LAYERS OF WARM CLOTHES, IT WILL BE COLD.
>Sunset that
>night is 1839MST.
>
>20. Steve then presented a 15 minuted talk for novices on astronomy books
>that he
>recommends.  Some of his comments are:
>     Nightwatch by Terence Dickinson - the very best novice book
>     Burnham's Celestial Handbook by Robert Burnham (in three volumes) - the
>best book
>for information about the objects and history;  the history is dated as are
>the positions
>     Night Sky - a updated version of Burnham's
>     Visual Astronomy of the Deep Sky, Clark - written by an optometrist,
>this book
>contains great information for visual observing
>     Starware - a rundown on everything for sale in astronomy, lots of great
>information
>     Choosing and Using Schmidt Cassagrain Telescope - good for anyone
>considering or
>owning a SCT
>     Comets by Donald Yeoman, the definitive reference for comets
>     Rainbows, Haloes and Glories - good pictures and explanations of these
>atmospheric
>phenomena
>     The Modern Moon by Charles Woods (next month's speaker) - modern,
>up-to-date
>information on the moon, good stories
>     Magazines - "Sky and Telescope" and "Astronomy" - everyone has heard of
>them, Steve
>also recommends "Amateur Astronomy" this magazine reports on meetings,
>observers'
>telescopes and what amateurs are doing
>     Finally, reluctantly, modestly, Steve reminded the audience of his own
>book, Deep
>Sky Observing, An Astronomical Tourist.
>
>21. Members contributed to the discussion:
>     Gene Lucas reported that "Half Price Books" (between Target and CompUSA
>near
>Paradise Valley Mall) has a good supply astronomy books, also "Bookman's" in
>Mesa
>     Rick Tejera recommended Backyard Astronomer's Guide by Terence
>Dickinson
>
>22. Steve closed his talk by asking the members for ideas about how to
>present
>astronomical software.  Tom Polakis related an idea that EVAC has used.
>Each month a
>member would be given a short time to demonstrate a specific software
>package, usually one
>per month.
>
>23. Show and Tell
>     a. Rick Rotramel showed video he took at Sentinel January 17.
>     b. Steve Dodder showed nine slides of the gargantuan sunspots recently
>seen and the
>new dome at Stone Haven including one showing the limited field of view
>through the dome
>slot.
>     c. Tom Conner presented 27 images made on film and CCD, with zoom
>lenses and
>telescopes.  The subjects were IC443, IC1805/1848, Jupiter, Saturn, M8,
>Antares area,
>Double Cluster, the Green Bank radio telescopes in West Virginia, the
>constellation of
>Auriga, asteroid Vest in Virgo, M51, NGC5907, NGC6888, Mars, the Moon, M4,
>M15, M57, the
>core of M31, Omega Nebula, Eagle Nebula (M16), an interesting scope mount
>for cameras and
>small telescopes and a new title slide featuring a photograph taken by his
>wife.
>     d. Paul Lind demonstrated images on a laptop computer made with a
>Philips TUCam
>without a clock drive.
>
>A short break was taken at 0351UT.
>
>The meeting reconvened at 0403UT with 55 attendees.
>
>24. Tom Polakis had a few issues of Astronomy magazine for the taking.  He
>also reported
>that his monthly column in Astronomy, "Celestial Portraits," will be ending.
>He has, at
>last, written about all of the constellations.  He says that there are no
>present plans
>for a book, but he may publish one privately in the future.
>
>Jennifer Keller introduced the evening's speaker, Paul Knauth.  He presented
>an
>interesting talk on a theory of highly concentrated brines on Mars, the
>possibility of
>them permeating the megaregolith of the surface and forming carbonates.
>These carbonates
>then may hold evidence of biological processes in the ratios of carbon and
>oxygen
>isotopes.
>
>The meeting adjourned at 0457UT.
>
>Thad invited everyone to JB's at 35th Avenue and Northern for food and more
>talk.
>
>
>
>
>  
>

Other related posts: