Reports of Monthly Meetings
By Donna Pursley
October 25, 2022
There was a rocket launch on the 24th. Next one will be on Nov 6th.
Tony Melillo passed away on 10/19/22. He was 77.
CSP business
Most of CSP accounting is in, just waiting for a few more items. So far, the profit from CSP is $2063.64. Mowing was done very well, the tent was used, it was VERY WINDY. The food selection was very good. Could have had a little more. The winner of one of the telescopes in the CSP raffle donated it to a youth.
New Business
We have 91 Members: September – Mathew Bardoe October – Jeffrey Messikian, Alan Pinto. Jeff came to the last star party to take pictures, is enjoying the hobby, picking up different hobbies, including amateur radio. Al is kind of a returning member, was a member of WAS, looking to get back into it. He enjoys tournament chess, 9-ball and model rocketry. He saw the very bright ISS recently.
Shop Talk
Chris Predom is still looking for the right spot to view the asteroid/Mars graze on Dec 7-8. The moonlight walk in Madison had 189 people. Silver Sands had about 15 people. Monroe Wheler Library has an 8” Orion telescope and needed some help with it. The shipping date for ordering a new Orion Starblast is now in January 2023. We had a planet walk event for the Milford Girl Scouts. Nice but very dewy. Chris likes to watch the moon over a period of time to see the features change. He watched the terminator recede off the mt. peaks. Took about ½ – 1 hour. Al Washburn showed some images of pictures he took with a camera and his binoculars. They were very nice.
Events for the rest of the year
November 4 – Silver Sands
November 5 – Young’s Park
November 12 – Hammonasset
December 10 – Colchester
The meeting was over at 19:57.
November 29, 2022
22 people attending on Zoom.
Cheryl Barker read the Treasurer’s report: We are still paying for CSP, VoIP and storage.
We talked about Harriet Katz who passed away in September. She had been a member since the early 1980’s.
Mars will have an occultation of the Moon on December 7. Chris Predom and Pete Kandelfer talked about different locations to view this. The event should be best at 10:45pm. They visited many sites to try and find a place where we could see the event and that would let us stay there after dark. The site that worked out the best would be a graze line for a few minutes. If we went further North, there would be a full occultation. Further South, Mars would be further from the Moon. This all also depends on the weather. Stellarium and Sky Safari show how it would look. Some people were interested in going and Greg was to send out directions to the site.
93 Members to date: New members for November: Kevin Clay, Ronan Lawlor, John Leet, Red Bergeron, Amara Banks, Mike Murtha. John was at Young’s Park and Hammonasset. He has a few scopes of different kinds and has been to Cherry Springs and the southwest US.
Shop Talk
Al Washburn went to EHHS to view the lunar eclipse. Andy Buynak has some pictures of the Moon at sunrise. Al Pinto has nice 10×30 image stabilized binoculars. Very good to view the Pleiades.
The Solstice Zoom meeting information has been sent out. Chris or Greg will send an email about the Mars graze.
Events
Colchester on December 10. It is listed for 7pm but Greg will check to see if it is really earlier. 63 people have signed up so far. If anyone can help out, that would be great.
Al Pinto said that there is a Christmas Eve conjunction between Mercury, Venus and the Moon.
Peter Adamo said that Christmas has come early at his house with a new Celestron. He asked about the software for the remote control and others made some recommendations.
Jeff said that most apps use the Ascom Interface.
Does anyone know about using a Teleview Paracorr Coma Corrector? No one did but some have heard good things about it. Chris said that you have to make sure that you get the right setting.
The meeting was over at 20:08.
December 17, 2022: Winter Solstice Gathering
There were 15 people on Zoom.
Moon/Mars occultation
A few saw Mars close by the moon but for most it was too cloudy. The Colchester event was also clouded out. Greg and Cheryl went there and there were 75 people at the dinner but the clouds didn’t allow for any viewing.
We lost 4 members this year: Al Sacharow, Tony Melillo, Harriet Katz and Bob Carruthers.
Some history about Al Washburn’s annual astronomy quiz. The first quiz was on December 22, 1992. Jim English won the quiz with 100%. This is the 30th quiz. There are now 10 questions. The prizes were a book on Space Exploration and a book on Discovering the Universe. Peter Adamo won first prize with only 1 incorrect answer. Al Pinto won second prize with 2 incorrect answers.
Al Pinto received a nice present from a cousin – a Sky Atlas that was very informative.
The next public event will probably be in April.
The meeting was over at 19:36.