This is a reminder for our Pot Luck Dinner Meeting and Observing after the Meeting for next week Saturday at 5:00 p.m.. Jim Honeycutt will be the featured speaker with his presentation: “The Distance Ladder”. Ken will keep track this month of the dishes that we will bring, so please post a message or email him with the choice of dish you will be bringing, so he can send updates with the menu so far. Romaine and I will bring a chicken pot pie, biscuits and cookies. I am looking forward to the meeting and be able to catch up on a lot of things in the chapter, and to meet some new members/vistors.

See you next week, Clear Skies,
Theo Ramakers

The next NSN Telecon is Thursday evening June 18th: Dr. Eliot Quataert introducing Black Holes

To join the Teleconference on Thursday, June 18th at 6:00 pm PDT (9:00 pm Eastern) call the toll-free conference call line: 1-888-455-9236
Call anytime after 8:45 pm (Eastern) the evening of the telecon. An operator will answer and:
- You will be asked for the passcode: NIGHT SKY NETWORK
- You will be asked to give your NAME and the CLUB you belong to, and number of people listening with you. Please make sure you mention the Charlie Elliott Chapter of the Atlanta Astronomy Club.

The PowerPoint to accompany Dr. Eliot Quataert’s talk is available here:

Thanks to Stephen Ramsden and Marie Lott, for putting on the Charlie Elliott Summer Camp Solar Event. I only could help with being there and providing support. Clevis, Stephen and Jim Sobeleski did respond for the evening program, but we ended up calling off the observing for the evening because of the weather. Theo did an inside presentation for the kids by showing them some NSN provided movies and a talk about our solar system.

Everytime we do such an event and cannot provide the “field experience” I feel we are missing a major component. But the weather has its own mind and does what it does. Overall I believe the kids did like what we showed them, but without any solar activity and the second movie at night being a little long, it sure tested their attention span. However I did appreciate the questions that came still after the long movie…

Clear Skies
Theo

This is a reminder that we are on for Wednesday June 10th for our outreach program for Charlie Elliott’s Summer Camp. This is a group of 11-12 year old kids. From 11:00 a.m. till about 1:00 p.m. solar observing and an evening program in the Visitor Center followed by observing on the field. The forecast is for chance of thunderstorms with a 40% chance of rain, so it is unclear if we can observe outside. What will go on are the inside activities which might be extended, if we cannot observe.

So if you would like to participate with the inside or observing activities, let me know and we will figure out what to do.

If the forecast changes, come on out and bring your scopes to the field and let the kids see why we have this hobby!!

Thanks,
Theo Ramakers

The next NSN Telecon is tomorrow May 28th: The Birth of Star Clusters with Dr. Steve Stahler

The speaker Dr. Steven Stahler, is an Associate Research Astronomer in the Department of Astronomy at the University of California at Berkeley. Dr. Stahler recently co-authored a paper on understanding the origin of open clusters, using the Pleiades as a study model of stellar mass distribution.

To join the Teleconference on Thursday, May 28th at 6:00 pm PDT (9:00 pm Eastern) call the toll-free conference call line: 1-888-455-9236
Call anytime after 8:45 pm (Eastern) the evening of the telecon. An operator will answer and:
- You will be asked for the passcode: NIGHT SKY NETWORK
- You will be asked to give your NAME and the CLUB you belong to, and number of people listening with you. Please make sure you mention the Charlie Elliott Chapter of the Atlanta Astronomy Club.

The PowerPoint to accompany Dr. Stahler’s talk is available here:
http://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/download-view.cfm?Doc_ID=371

View the Online Version of The Birth of Star Clusters Telecon here:
http://www.astrosociety.org/nsntelecon/
I hope you enjoy the Dr. Stahler’s presentation.
Clear Skies
Theo Ramakers

The first of two summer camp events at Charlie Elliott will come up in about two weeks. Our first event is on Wednesday June 10th for a group of 11 – 12 year old kids. In July on the 22nd there will be a second camp for 13 – 14 year olds.

We are planning a solar session around lunch time as we did last year and an evening session with a short presentation in the visitor center followed by observations at the field. As you know these events are always great for the kids as well as for those who come with their scopes or present. Please let me know if you can spare a few hours on either date to help in letting these kids see something in the Universe they never have seen before.

Thanks and Clear skies
Theo Ramakers

The meeting minutes for the May 2009 meeting and the event report of JAKES Day 2009 has been posted on the Past Events page. Click here for the report. You can see the pictures from the event by clicking here.

May 16th was JAKES Day, Charlie Elliott’s outdoor festival. Several of the Chapter members setup at the conference room in the Visitor Center in anticipation of the participants of the Museum Scavenger Hunt. On the big screen we showed the live broadcast of the SST 125 mission to repair the Hubble Telescope with the 3rd EVA in progress. Jon Wood had setup his scope connected to his laptop. The chapter’s images, which were used at the Covington library exhibition, were displayed on the wall and being used in the one on one discussions with visitors to explain the solar system and the individual planets, while posters and other material of the NSN network was appreciated by all visitors. A table with books, maps, pictures completed the setup

Since it was cloudy outside, Stephen could not show the sun through his solar scopes but we used the material from the NSN to explain the sun, its relative size and distance to the planets as well as discussions about the individual planets. Jon Wood had setup his scope and controlled it from his PC running Stellarium and the kids loved this, as well as “flying” throught the solar system using Celestia. The material provided by NSN was great in our explanations and was appreciated by all.

At the end of the event 110 visitors young and old had learned a lot about our solar system and astronomy in general. Thanks to Debbie and Clevis Jones, Stephen Ramsden, Jon Wood, and Theo Ramakers who made this event a great success. Click here for some images of the event.

Clear Skies
Theo Ramakers

This is a reminder for our next meeting on Saturday May 16 at 5:00 p.m. at the Charlie Elliott WC Visitors Center. This month we will screen the PBS documentary “400 Years of the Telescope”, which aired in April and was made in celebration of the 400th anniversary of Galileo’s telescope. As usual, Jon and Theo will present their “Observing 101″ and “Current Events in Astronomy and Space Exploration”.

In addition we will elect the Chapter’s officers for the next 12 months. So, if you would like to nominate someone, send your choice to Debbie Jones at Debbie@CEastronomy.org, or make the nomination on the floor during the meeting.

Last but not least, we need help with Charlie Elliott’s JAKES day, their anual outdoor festival. We are trying to have some solar scopes outside the Visitor Center around 10:00am until around 3:00 or 4:00pm for the visitors to take a close up of the Sun, and if we are lucky, sunspots might have moved “around the corner” and be visible. (the sun has been active in the last days)

Inside in the meeting room we will show the movie we viewed in the last meeting and we will have some tables with images, star maps, books etc and a regular scope. We will use this to explain to interested individuals what we do, what we use, and answer any of the questions they might have. We also will help the youngsters answer the questions on their Museum Scavenger Hunt sheet. The CE staff has decided to use the same questions from last year:
At an average distance of 92,957,000 miles away, how long does it take light from the Sun to get to the Earth?
a. 499.012 seconds b. 8.317 minutes c. 8 minutes, 19 seconds d. All the above
and
Which planet has a beautiful system of rings that are visible from Earth through a small telescope?
a. Neptune b. Uranus (Yur-a-nus) c. Saturn d. Jupiter

We also will be handing out some nice gifts to the visitors from the Night Sky Network.
Please come out and give us a hand, even if it is for a short time! This event qualifies for the Night Sky Network and the AL awards

Clear Skies
Theo

Next week Saturday, May 16th is JAKES Day at Charlie Elliott. This is one of the times where we can re-pay Charlie Elliott’s staff for the hospitality they show us all year. We have planned for Solar viewing from 10:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. (Stephen has already volunteered). At the same time we will show inside the Visiters Center a movie, show images, books , telescopes, star maps and other Night Sky Network goodys to all interested. At 5:00 p.m. we will have our May meeting.

If you can spare some time to help out during the day, either outside with a solar scope, or inside discussing Astronomy, or if you want to come a few hours earlier for the meeting and help, please let me know asap so we can plan accordingly.

Clear Skies
Theo Ramakers