B.C.A.A.S. MEETING MINUTES

February 9, 2006

Dave Brown called the meeting to order at 7:35 PM and asked visitors to introduce themselves. We had about 35 in attendance. Dave noted that there are now several groundhogs that are predicting the weather – but they can’t seem to agree.  Our club star watch on January 8 was a good viewing night. Even though the Dark Sky Clock and forecast was iffy, it ended up being clear, and the seeing got better as the night went on.  In Dave’s 20” DOB, Saturn was incredible, with the Encke Division peaking out at times. Orion was also beautiful.

Dave provided a handout of February sky events produced by Dave Mitsky. On February 17, Venus will be a maximum brightness. On the 18th, there will be an occultation of the Moon with Spica, the brightest star in Virgo. This will be visible in the easternmost part of North America.

Two public star watch dates have been confirmed. Kaercher Creek Park will be held on May 5, with a rain date of June 3. The June 3 date was chosen as a backup because of the Northeast Astronomy Forum being held May 6 and 7. We will have our star watch at the Berks County Heritage Center on August 5, with a rain date of August 6.

Dave passed around a sign-up sheet for the trip to Cherry Springs Park on April 22. He will also send out an email.

Barb Geigle noted that we haven’t received the newest Night Sky Network Toolkit yet, but it should arrive soon.  There was an excellent teleconference last with Dr. Ned Rosendhal of the Space Telescope Science Institute about our current and future telescopes in space.

Gene Salvatore announced that our speaker for May will be Steve Walters. His presentation will explain what is involved in taking high resolution images of deep sky objects and what it is like climbing Mount Everest.

Linda Sensenig stated we have a balance of $9,965.94 in the bank. Her dad, Clarence, is home from the hospital. He has a compression fracture in a disk in his spine and will need to wear a back brace for a few months.

Dave suggested that we look into possibly using some of our money on something that would benefit everyone in the club. It was previously discussed about getting a trailer to keep our equipment in. Another suggestion would be a new telescope.  Also, we could give a cash prize for winners of the Science Fair. The Science Fair is coming up in March. Mike Bashore noted that he has 2 prize packages left from last year, which he will use this year.

Barb noted that there is a comet that was discovered on January 1 that will be visible at the end of February. It is currently at magnitude 7.3 and may reach naked eye visibility. She will email the information to Mike to post on the web.

Tonight’s speaker was Ray Harris, a member of our sister club, LVAAS. His presentation was on the history of star charts and included slides showing the beautiful artwork that some ancient star charts included.

Respectfully submitted

Barbara Geigle, Secretary

 

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