This month our members elected a new Board and we like to gratulate Mr. Steve Siedentop as the new Director. Many thanks to the outgoing director Larry Owens for his service to the Chapter. Marie Lott and John Towne will continue for another year. Marie Lott and Theo Ramakers presented the new draft presentation from the NSN’s Planet Quest tool kit and discussed the new tools included. John Towne’s “What’s Up” concluded the meeting. In the meantime clouds had moved in so no observing after the meeting this month.

This year we were again part of JAKES Day at Charlie Elliott. About 50% of the 850 visitors came through our station and observed the Sun through 4 Solar Scopes and had the opportunity to learn about Mars and what happens on the sun inside the Discovery building. A great event with a lot of publicity for our Chapter.

We went for three days to Trickum Middle School with presentations about NASA’s MSL Curiosity Mission to Mars as well as observing the Sun. On the 13th, the students were able to see a leaping prominence that reached 120,000 miles above the surface of the Sun, a real treat!! 720 6th graders attended the session, many of them with a real interest in astronomy and/or space exploration. We would like to thank Mr. Patterson again for inviting us this year. (Sorry the school does not allow pictures of the students)

We went for a two day event to McConnell Middle School for the second year. A great School with students who are very much interested in science. The first day three of the four groups of 40 students not only attended the presentations about NASA’s MSL-Curiosity mission, but also were able to observe the sun through white light and H-alpha solar filters. The remaining 5 groups were not able to see the sun because of cloud coverage, but were very interested in learning everything we presented about Mars and the Sun. Thank you Mrs. Sandidge for inviting us again this year!! Click the picture to go to the gallery.

The White County News covered our Solar outreach event at Anna Ruby Falls. Here a picture of the article written by Ivy Rutzky in the White County News.

We had a great day of clear skies for National Astronomy Day at the Fernbank Science Center! Visitors were able to see the star closest to our planet (a.k.a. the Sun) through a total of 7 white light and hydrogen alpha telescopes. Parents and children alike were amazed at what they were able to see, particularly through the hydrogen alpha telescopes. One of our young visitors won a Celestron Astromaster telescope and plans to join us at Charlie Elliott to learn how to use it. The observatory was also open and visitors were able to see Jupiter in the middle of the day. A few club members noticed the “little” 14 inch Schmidt Cassegrain riding piggy back on the main telescope.
Steve Siedentop

This was our second year of participation in the Kates Club event at Charlie Elliott. About 100 children and teenagers were bussed from Atlanta to Charlie Elliott Wildlife Center for a day of activities. We did participate with solar observing and other astronomy related activities. Frank and Theo had a wonderfull time with the youngsters. A very successfull event for an even better purpose. Click the image to go to the gallery.

A nice day for our meeting and observing. About a dozen attended the meeting. After some announcements and John Towne’s monthly “What’s UP” presentation, Larry Owens made his presentation about how to make time lapse movies. Such as the one he did for meteor showers and other events. He also showed some nice clipse of others who have very successfully done this. After the meeting about a dozen telescopes were setup at the Jon Wood field and those who did not have scopes with them shared in the views. Click the image to go to the gallery.

A great Day again for the 4th annual Anna Ruby Falls event, which was postponed because of bad weather in March. Skies were clear, with just a few exceptions. About 400 visitors took advantage to take a look at the Sun and learn a lot about where our energy comes from. Click the image to go to the gallery.

We were invited to come to Veterans Memorial Middle School in Covington on 2013-04-10. We presented the students how NASA gets a moving laboratory the size of an SUV from Earth to Mars and lands it safely. Than it went outside and the students learned about our Sun and the relative distances in our solar system. Some very interested students and a very dedicated teacher!