MINUTES OF THE JULY 26, 2008 MEETING OF THE CHARLIE ELLIOTT CHAPTER OF THE ATLANTA ASTRONOMY CLUB

The July 26, 2008 meeting of the Charlie Elliott Chapter of the AAC was called to order at 5:15 p.m. by Chapter Director Theo Ramakers. Present were 20 members and guests; overcast weather prevailed, thus, no activities were scheduled on the the observing field following the meeting.

Following the welcoming remarks by Theo, Debbie Jones took the stand and explained the AL’s requirements of the Messier Club program. Following the explanation, she did once more present an award to a longstanding member: Ray Major.

Ray had completed the requirements for Honorary Messier Club from the Astronomical League some time ago and was awarded the Honorary Messier Club membership. He received the pin and certificate along with a letter signed by the President of the Astronomical League. Ray was congratulated for this excellent achievement. This was an inspiration to all of us!

Next on the agenda was the feature presentation by Fred Buls on “Solar System Probes”. Fred’s presentation provided a very detailed look at U.S., European and Asian probes, and included details of even the various multi-instrument probes. Check out Fred’s great website at http://facstaff.gpc.edu/~fbuls/astindex.html

There was a brief recess after Fred’s program. After the recess, official proceedings continued:

* The minutes of last month’s meeting were unanimously approved.

* Larry Owens was encouraged to continue his imaging class at Oxford College in Covington. This class is now scheduled for 2 p.m. on Saturday, August 23, with imaging on the observing field at CEWMA after conclusion of the class. All who are interesed — members and non-members — are welcome and no registration is required. The college computers are pre-loaded with Registax software, but those who have laptops with Photoshop are especially encouaged to bring them, as the college does not have this program available. Please see the blog page at www.ceastronomy.org for details of the class.

* Theo Ramakers provided a wrap-up about the good work contributed by our members at the CEWMA Outreach programs on July 9, 16, 20 and 23; recognized imaging work by Clevis Jones (solar image testing), Stephen Ramsden (more solar imaging), Jon Wood, Carlos Flores and Jim Honeycutt (whose lunar image was featured on the cover of the latest issue of the Journal of the Assn of Lunar & Planetary Observers), Larry Owens (with a neat time-lapse series of images called “One Hour
in the Life of Jupiter”); Theo also presented a NASA video about the GLAST project (Gama Ray Large Area Space Telescope), invited all to explore the chapter’s revamped website at www.ceastronomy.org and announced that Carlos Flores has donated a number of astro DVDs to the chapter.

* In his latest installment of “Observing 101″, Jon Wood covered a number of sky events over the following weeks; repeated the announcement from last month that the sign-up form mailbox for those; and presented a great series of visual slides on his upgrades to his web page at http://ceastronomy.org/blog/observing; he also spoke highly of various software programs which he himself finds useful including Celestia, Lunar Phase Pro and the Virtual Moon Atlas.

* The next meeting will be 5 p.m., Saturday, August 30, at the CEWMA Vistors Center. The featured speaker will be Dr. Richard Schmude Jr. and his program will be the latest on planet Jupiter. See
www.ceastronomy.org for further details.

The meeting was adjourned at 7:30 p.m.

(Submitted by Ken Poshedly, CEWMA AAC chapter recording secretary)