May 25 General Meeting
21 people on Zoom
There are 87 members. No new members last month.
We had a donation of $250 in memory of Donald Kimball, our 1st president, by his grandson.
The Great Give gave us a total of $1652.20.
Shop Talk
What does anyone have a question on?
Andy Buynak needs to lie on the ground to see through the finder sometimes. What are options to help? Discussions about 3 or 4 legged stool.
Greg Barker had a story about viewing at the airport and had the feeling there was someone watching him. Turned around and there was someone watching him.
Also a story about being very dark and hearing a deer snort about 10 feet away.
Al Washburn – Mowhawk Mt – really dark – must pay attention because you can’t see the trip hazards.
Laurie Averill – trip to Palomar CA several years ago – at night – very dark – heard a mountain lion – got back into the car quickly
Bob Carruthers – loves to sketch small pieces of the Moon
Fred Danowski from the Milford Public Library was in attendance and told a few stories.
On Thursday, ASNH will be doing a virtual event with them with the meteorites.
Ray Kaville mentioned that we can watch the June 10th eclipse live on YouTube.
Greg and Mike talked about the Sun spotter and different filters to view the Sun.
This sparked a group discussion about how to view the Sun.
There was a discussion about viewing double stars and which are the nicest.
Bob Carruthers talked about a homemade scope with a Bob Rice mirror.
Mike Amato went to Westport’s public night. Viewed through the large telescopes.
Saw the ISS and the Chinese space station.
Andy Buynak talked about the Elon Musk satellites.
The new ones are painted black and shielded so they don’t reflect back to the earth as much.
Jim Mazur – this week Mercury is very near Venus. Venus is very bright.