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Location: Chemistry/Physics Building, MUN

Time: 8:00 pm

Present: 14 signed in plus 40 or more Scouts

1. Fred's Introduction. This is our Christmas Show and Tell. Fred touched on a couple of themes, including our education mandate and the benefits of being a member.

2. Observations. A Scout leader saw the moons of Jupiter. A few people managed to see the partial solar eclipse in December. Fred talked a little about astronomy before telescopes were available. You can do quite a few things with naked-eye observing.

3. Telescopes. There were quite a few new scopes brought in by their new owners. One of the Scout leaders had a new scope that came with a CD of Starry Night. There was a 60mm Meade (no computer) bought at Wal-Mart for about $200. One couple brought in a Meade with a computer and so far had managed to see craters on the moon and Jupiter. Randy spoke for a while on the different sorts of telescopes, in particular electronic ones. Also touched on was the utility of binoculars versus some of these small department store scopes that often have only the same size of objective or only slightly larger. Randy emphasized that the most usable power (particularly in Nfld.) is about 200x (though it depends on the size of the objective if you can even get that high). He gave the example of trying to view the Andromeda Galaxy, very large but not really visible in smaller scopes except as a dim, extended fuzz. Size, or collection of light, is far more important. Fred spoke about the need for a good, steady tripod. He demonstrated with the Ruth Northcott. It also makes things easier if you have a good eyepiece that provides some eye relief (distance from the eyepiece). Everyone cautioned on the extreme hazards of solar viewing and gave advice as to how to do that safely. Fred touched on Newtonians versus refractors, and how with astronomical scopes images are upside-down and why that is a good thing. Moving from naked-eye objects to telescopic ones, Fred gave some examples of the sort of things you could expect to see. Randy talked a little bit about constellation navigation (ie. hold any Sky and Telescope maps above your head). He asked all the Scouts to look at the Sky Charts in the middle of the old Sky and Telescopes each had received. The Scouts were able to take these home and each would be usable for the appropriate season.

4. Coffee Break.

5. Fred wanted to remind people that we will be at Chapters on the 21st.

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Please send any additions or corrections to:

David Bourgeois: mailto:dbourgeo@nl.rogers.com