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Location: Chemistry/Physics Building, MUN
Time: 8:00 pm
Present: 20
1. Randy's Introduction. GA 2004. We need help for committees. Membership benefits for newbies. We also have an upcoming course (BOGs will be available).
2. GA 2003. About 250 participants. There were some outings such as an observatory trip. Randy and Chris Stevenson were both present for our Centre. We should be aware to avoid booking difficulties. Our GA in 2004 will be the last week of June, first week of July.
3. Observing. Ben Llewellyn: saw Mars Labour Day weekend, halo, no features. Ray Will: there seems to have been more detail last month than now. Storm? People seem to have agreed it is probably due to looking at the "boring" side of Mars. Likes his new Antares eyepieces (Garry D. likes their barlow). Brian Payton: Mars plus halo. Randy Dodge: Mars over last few months. Donna B.: Northern Lights last night.
4. Gary Case on SBQ. There were a couple hundred park-goers who had a look through our telescopes at this year's Star-B-Que. Most people gave a "wow" reaction, just from looking at the crescent moon. Other objects, plus the sun (some reasonable number of sunspots), were also shown. Many members stayed late after most of the public had gone in order to get in some viewing together. Unfortunately, the solar system hike had to be cancelled. One of the high points was when an entire troop of Girl Guides showed up at 3 AM in order to have a look at Mars! There were four or five book prizes given away, and the Guides managed to win three of them.
There were a number of observing outings in August/September with from 3 to 12 people. Many new people dropped by.
Other planets are also visible this month. Comet Linear T7. Gary wondered whether the Observing Group couldn't take on some less common projects that are still interesting, such as lunar observing. Reports could be presented on what people are doing.
5. Garry Dymond on Mars. Mars Reports. Gary showed some pictures of his trip this summer. Garry visited Jack Newton and got to use one of his scopes. We also got pictures of Jim's dome out in Twillingate, including the interior. Garry spoke a while on fireball cameras, what they look for, what we hope to recover, how a network is set up, and some pictures of the physical installation.
6. Gary Case. Demo of the Celestron Nexstar 114 GT (the talk was useful for many scopes that have GOTO capability). Some links Gary mentioned:
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