|
|
|
Charlie
Elliott
Chapter Meeting Minutes
See photos
and additional information about the meeting here. |
|
ATTENDANCE: Eighteen guests and members attended the September Charlie Elliott Chapter meeting at Perimeter College (I-20 & Exit 98). A special thank you to Fred Buls and Perimeter College for allow us to use the college facilities !
BUSINESS: Steve Bieger presented a preview of the one hour special PBS presentation of “Seeing in the Dark” that will air on channel 8 on Tuesday, September 18 at 9 p.m., with reruns on September 23 at 2:00 a.m., Oct 17 at 7:00 p.m., and at 3:00 a.m. on Oct 20. Clevis Jones showed two short movies of the BRILLIANT fireball that lit the night skies of New Mexico on Sept 13 to four times the brightness of the full Moon !
Director, Larry Owens, opened the meeting announcing that 20 plus Scouts from Troop 231 would be on the CE observing field at sunset for some observing through our telescopes, and discussions about the night sky. He encouraged everyone to join in right after the meeting.
Programs Scheduled: October meeting: Patrick Durusau on the HUGE amount of scientific data available to anyone on the Internet (October’s meeting is at the CE Visitor Center) November meeting: Dr. Richard Schmude on Mars (Mars close approach is in December). December meeting: Pot Luck and Larry Owens Planetary Imaging Workshop
SUNSET ALERT was given.
2007 remaining schedule for the CE Meetings is: October 6 (note: Peach State on the 13th), November 3 (back to 3 p.m. for the winter), December 15.
FEATURE PRESENTATION: “Super Nova 2006gy: A Super-Dupernova” presented by Fred Buls, instructor of physics and astronomy at Perimeter College. “Supernova 2006GY, which took place in NGC 1260, a spiral galaxy that's 238 million light years away, is the most luminous supernova ever observed, peaking out at about 100 times a typical supernova luminosity. It's thought to have been a ‘pair instability supernova.’ This is a type of thermonuclear supernova that theorists for decades have claimed should end the lives of very heavy stars, and SN2006GY is the first compelling candidate.” Partial quotes from a couple of our members: Steve Bieger, “Taking on a discussion on astro physics is sometimes a challenge but I think Fred worked us through the details very nicely, all the way up into the fusion diagrams and the graphs of the hydrogen helium ratios. I think it all came together very well. All of us have read numerous articles on stellar dynamics in one form or another. [My] hat’s off the Fred for tying such concepts together and making sense of it all. To paraphrase Joni Mitchell, "we are star dust". We can certainly appreciate that concept even more now. I … would love to hear a sequel to this in the future with more details about stellar evolution, [Chandrasekhar] limits, etc. How's that for a hint!!” And Larry Owens, “The presentation was fascinating. To be reminded that we are made of the remains of supernova always provides a renewed and personal connection to the greater universe. Fred is certainly in the right profession! A sequel would be super! I second the motion.”
What’s Up Tonight Steve Bieger, in light of the sunset meeting with the Scouts, gave a somewhat abbreviated presentation starting with “It is International Astronomy Day”. He quickly covered his usual Events, Featured Constellations including a couple of guide lists for targets in them, Featured Objects including ‘Peach Not So Fuzzes’, Observing Techniques covering calibration of field orientation techniques and tools. Lastly, in Featured Sciences he discussed The International Year of Astronomy 2009.
Current EventsClevis Jones speed up (to everyone’s relief) his presentation on Endeavour, Discovery, Mars Rovers, Iapetus, Kaguya, & Aug. Lunar eclipse.
OBSERVING SESSION: WHAT A GREAT SHARING OF THE NIGHT SKY! Scout Troop 231, thanks for coming by – hope you’ll come again. Thank you volunteers!!! Several hours after the Scouts left, the volunteers dragged themselves away from the dark, clear, dry, and cool evening. WOW!
MEETING DATES AND PROGRAMS: October 6, at 5:00 p.m. Feature Presentation by Patrick Durusau: There is a sea of scientific and astronomy data available world wide on the Internet that can be used for personal or professional discoveries. How does one obtain useful results when searching this convoluted and disjointed treasure house, Topic Maps? Please join Patrick for an in-depth discussion on how to obtain results. Patrick focuses his energies on topic maps and related technologies both in ISO and OASIS standards. For more complete information on Patrick, please see: http://www.durusau.net/general/background.html Place: Charlie Elliott Visitor’s Center
November 3 meeting is a TIME change to the 3:00 p.m. winter scheduleFeature Presentation – Dr. Richard Schmude on Mars (Mars close approach is in December).
For Meeting updates, Directions, & Live broadcasts: PLEASE check the CEastronomy website for the most current information !
Submitted: Clevis Jones, CE Recording Secretary Secretary@CEastronomy.org
|
     |
|
Last Updated Thursday, September 20, 2007 |
