1. Chris Stevenson.

In January, hopefully, Dr. John de Bruin will give us a talk on extra-solar planets.

Observations:

Ben Llewellyn: saw Saturn with his scope at Topsail.
Fred Smith: occultation; saw the beginning.
Gary Oakley: end of occultation.
Chris Stevenson: saw all of occultation. Has pictures. Missed the "graze".
David Caruk: saw ingress of occultation. Geminids.
Garry Dymond: Comet Macholtz.

Question for membership:

Should we obtain an LCD Projector for Garry's work with the Planetarium? A decent one can be obtained for $1000. There are some places to consider: University, Costco, Dicks, etc. The motion was carried. Most members thought it was money well spent, especially considering the money the Planetarium programmes bring in.

2. Randy Dodge. Turner Video.

Randy showed a video that involved Dr. David Turner from the University of St. Mary's. Dr. Turner has spoken at one of our meetings. The video concerned St. John's Church in Lunenberg, which burned down. In the process of trying to reconstruct the church, it was discovered that the stars on the ceiling were a set of obscure stars in Perseus, somewhat strangely rearranged. After calculating, Turner discovered they were Perseus stars, as would be seen at sunset on Christmas at this church.

3. Garry Dymond. MIAC Meeting in Calgary.

Garry and delegates also managed to view the Tagish Lake storage facility (had to put on the clean room garments!). Garry put a poster on display and spoke a bit about what MIAC is all about. South of Calgary, the Calgary Centre has a facility for a 1.8 metre dome. Inside, they have a 1-1/2 foot Baker-Nunn, and their 16 inch telescope. Outside, there are 17 equatorial mounts, which are also used by the teaching facility close by. Garry also showed us the meteorite with a "tail" that was shown on Astronomy Picture of the Day.

4. Robert Babb. The Sky Next Month.

Comet Macholtz is now well in the visible range. Saturn. ISS will have a good pass over Newfoundland on the morning of December 18. The Clear Sky Clock now has more Newfoundland locations. Chris suggested we compile some sky pollution data via the square of Pegasus and send this in to the Clear Sky Clock (the Italian worldwide study relied upon doesn't include Newfoundland).

5. Wine and Cheese.

Other Minutes: All Previous Next

Please send any additions or corrections to:

David Bourgeois

This document was generated using AFT v5.095 and Vim on: Sun Jan 2 23:28:07 NST 2005