[sac-board] Minutes for February general meeting
- From: "Joe Macke" <joe01@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "SAC Board" <SAC-Board@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 7 Feb 2004 01:47:14 -0700
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.
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