The meeting was held at the Charlie Elliott Visitor Center and called to order at 3 p.m. by CE Chapter Director Theo Ramakers. The final attendance was a humongous 37 members and guests (our largest crowd ever), including those who arrived during the presentation and even later on the observing field.

Following welcoming remarks by Theo, Ken Poshedly added to Theo’s comments, explaining to the many newcomers what the CE chapter of the Atlanta Astronomy Club is and what the ALPO is. Ken then introduced our featured speaker for the afternoon, Dr. Julius Benton, observing coordinator of the ALPO Saturn Section, and his presentation, “Current Programs, Recent Observations the 2009 Edgewise Orientation of the Rings of Saturn”. Dr. Benton’s own remarks along with his PowerPoint program made for a most enjoyable and educational afternoon. Dr. Benton’s presentation is available for downloading as a pf file at www.ceastronomy.org.

Following a short break for refreshments was Theo’s “Current Events” segment:
* The Chapter won a “Globe at Night” kit, including a “Sky Quality Meter” for individuals to measure the sky brightness in and around metro Atlanta. A “How Dark is Your Sky” activity will run from March 16-28 and a flier was distributed with instructions on how to use the line art image of Orion on the sheet to determine the brightness / darkness of their sky. All were asked to participate by logging their results on the Internet or sending the results form to the following CE chapter meeting.
* The CE chapter participated in the 2008 Night Sky Network outreach program by showing the universe to over 470 children and adults.
* The CE chapter received a $100 gift from the George Walton Academy.
* There was a recap of recent outreach activities: Marie Lott met with 37 Girl Scout leaders at Misty Mountain Jan 23/24; Steve Ramsden, Jon Wood and Theo met with 25 “young educators” at Rock
Eagle on Feb. 10; a Hightower Trail Elementary School event was set for Feb. 27.
* IYA2009 “100 Hours of Astronomy” CE chapter activities for April 2-5 were announced, including display of some images by member Jim Honeycutt at the Covington Library.
* There was a recap of the Jan. 26 annular solar eclipse with some images taken in the Philippines.
* Clevis Jones was the winner of our own little contest to see Comet Lulin (early morning of Feb. 7). While doing so, a neighbor reported him as a “suspicious peson” with several police cars arriving at his
driveway shortly thereafter while he was with scope; all ended well and no arrests were made.
* Discussion of Saturn’s earlier appearance in the night sky followed with an image by Jim Honeycutt of Saturn with several moons being shown, followed by an image by Lary Owens showing what might be a new
storm in the northern hemishere clouds. Following that were discussion and images of the upcoming transit of Saturn by four of its moons, though the event was only visible on the West Coast of the U.S.
* There were some great images, including Tim Geib’s striking shot of Rosette Nebula, and one of the International Space Station near the Moon (taken Oct. 18, 2008).

Debbie Jones normally does our award presentations, but due to her absence (due to illness), Clevis Jones substituted and presented Night Sky Network “Top Star” pins to the following CE chapter members in recognition for their hours of public outreach they contributed in 2008: Stephen “SunDawg” Ramsden (over 100 hours), Jon Wood (over 25 hours), and Debbie Jones (over 15 hours). Afterwards, Theo surprised
Clevis with his own “Top Star” pin for his more than 15 hours of volunteer time as well. The Night Sky Network (NSN) awards the “Top Star” pins to the member clubs that have logged at least 5 public
outreach events held during the past year where NSN resources were used. More that 400 children and adults were guests at astronomy outreach events such as Hightower Trail Elementary School Space Camp,
JAKES Day at the Charlie Elliott Wildlife Center, and Newborn and Covington Libraries, to mention only a few. Please note that these pins are not meant to ignore the obvious contributions others like Larry Owens and
Jim Honeycutt have made; we appreciate the donation of time and effort by all CE chapter members. Go to http://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/ for more on this worthwhile program.

Member Steve Bieger announced the presentation of the planetarium program “Galileo’s Universe: The New Astronomy” to be shown at Fernbank Planetarium March 5 thru May 16 (info via phone 678-874-7102, or online at http://fsc.fernbank.edu/planetarium.htm). Steve has been working on this project for some time and all of us support him and his worthy effort to contribute to astronomy outreach.

Jon Wood’s “Observing 101″ segment included:
* Upcoming rise/transit/set times for celestial objects in the coming weeks (www.stellarium.org/)
* A lunar calendar (from a subscriber-only area of www.astronomy.com)
* A list of upcoming meteor showers (our next one is the Lyrids on April 22)
* A sky graphic showing the apparent path of Venus in the night sky over the next several weeks
* A sky map of the path of the minor planet Ceres through March 31
* A CCD image of Ceres taken February 14
* Images and sky maps of Comet Lulin (C/2007 N1 or N3)
* A few graphics detailing the recent satellite collision over Siberia
* A flyover movie of the lunar crater Tycho assembled from radar mapping data by the Japanese orbiting satellite Kaguya (wms.selene.jaxa.jp)

The meeting was adjourned at approximately 5:15 p.m.

The next CE chapter meeting will be 4 p.m., Saturday, March 28, when we present Fred Buls, professor at Perimeter College, who will speak on radiometric dating and its use in how we measure the age of our universe.

Respectfully submitted,

Ken Poshedly
CEWMA Chapter Recording Secretary