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Charlie
Elliott
Chapter Meeting Minutes
See photos
and additional information about the meeting here. |
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ATTENDANCE: Twenty-one guests and members attended the April CE chapter informative, fascinating meeting. BUSINESS: Chapter director, Larry Owens, updated us on the club projects. Especially interesting were his beautiful engineering drawings of his Byers mount Truss telescope design for the 16-inch mirror. WOW, very nice. He discussed some of the reasoning he used in his design to make it lighter and stronger. He also covered some fixes for the Optical Craftsman power adapter. He pointed out that our next meeting is on May 19 is JAKES DAY at CE. Our club is providing a “Planetarium” for the event and will be located in the classroom where we have our meetings. VOLUNTEERS are NEEDED to show and tell and generally be available to discuss astronomy for the JAKES DAY guests who range in age from 3 to 90. You can bring equipment to show – or books and tools you use – or just yourself. Arrival time is 8:30 a.m. and the event lasts until about 4:30 p.m. If you would like to volunteer for all day or part of the day, please contact Larry Owens at planetographer@CEastronomy.org. OR, just come on out and enjoy all the different wildlife presentations at the Charlie Elliott Wildlife Center JAKES DAY EVENT. Our May CE meeting
follows the JAKES DAY event and begins at 5:00 p.m. This month is
ELECTION OF CLUB OFFICERS: If you would like to self-nominate, or nominate someone else, CONTACT DEBBIE JONES at Debbie@CEastronomy.org. After the elections, our Feature Presentation will be “PhotoShop for Astro-Imagers” by Larry Owens. dTime permitting, “What’s Up” by Steve Bieger and “Current Events” by Clevis Jones will follow. Larry discussed the LIVE PRESENTATION software he has written to work with various image acquisition and uplink software to enable anyone to join-in on the “Live from CE” Web-broadcasts Larry has begun doing for astronomical events. Contact Larry if you are interested in participating. SUNSET ALERT was given. 2007 remaining schedule for the CE Meetings is: May 19 (JAKES DAY – volunteers needed, and ELECTION of Officers), June 9, July 7, Aug 18, September 15, October 6 (note: Peach State on the 13th), November 3 (back to 3 p.m. for the winter), December 15. FEATURE PRESENTATION: “A DARK MATTER” by Fred Buls, instructor at Perimeter College. Fred took us on a fascinating journey into the strange and weird dimensions of Dark Matter – what it is (sorta), what it isn’t, and how researchers are trying to figure it out. It has been known since the 1930s that galaxies are heavier than what can be measured by what is observed. Kepler’s 3rd law of motion helped Newton create his theories on gravity which are used to measure mass distribution. To help explain the difference between what is theorized and what we see, alternate gravity theories have been proposed, such as MOND. Space telescopes, such as the X-ray telescope Chandra, open our eyes to new possibilities and explanations – more telescopes are to be launched in the not too distant future. Fred used on-line applets to demonstrate the various topics he was discussing making his talk a mesmerizing imersion into the realm of Dark Matter from the vast Universe to of the basic particles, like MACHOs and WIMPs. Fred’s presentations are not to be missed!!! They are entertaining, educational, and always provoke great discussions. Thank you, Fred! We look forward to your next presentation! What’s Up Tonight and Current Events were not presented. A line of intense storms approaching from the west cut short the meeting so those who wanted to head for home could do so. OBSERVING SESSION: No observing - Approaching storms chased almost everyone home – a few astronomy nuts remained for the after-glow of the meeting. MEETING DATES AND PROGRAMS: May 19 at 5:00 p.m. ELECTION OF OFFICERS FEATURE PRESENTATION: “PhotoShop for Astro-Imagers” by Larry Owens. For years, the Adobe PhotoShop application has been used quite effectively by astrophotographers to enhance both deep sky and planetary images. But the application is so packed with features and tools, that it can be difficult to use. To further complicate things, PhotoShop isn't the best application for certain parts of the process, since it is primarily designed for general photography. Please join us for a tour of PhotoShop tools and techniques, for the astrophotographer. --Larry Owens Place: Charlie Elliott Visitor's Center Next Meeting: June 9, 5:00 p.m. Feature Presentation -TBD FOR UPDATES & DIRECTIONS & LIVE broadcasts: PLEASE check the CEastronomy website for the most current meeting information ! Submitted: Clevis Jones, CE Recording Secretary Secretary@CEastronomy.org |
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Last Updated Thursday, April 19, 2007 |
