The last few years the Hopewell Middle School in Alpharetta sidewalk astronomy event has been a hugh success. In addition to the evening session, several events took place during the year to give the kids the opportunity to see the Sun through different filters. Hopewell has invited the AAC again for an evening of Sidewalk Astronomy for February 17, 2009 at 7:00pm . So come out a bit earlier and let them see what’s up there. Please post a message if you can help out this year!!

Address of school:
Hopewell Middle School, 13060 Cogburn RD, Alpharetta, Ga 30004 (678) 297-3240

Directions:
Setup is at the same location as last year:
Go north on Highway 9, turn left on Cogburn Rd. Go about a half mile and turn left onto Hopewell plantation Drive. After turning onto Hopewell Plantation Dr, go past the 4th house on the right. The entrance to the track field will be just past there.

Clear Skies,
Theo Ramakers

We have been asked to make a presentation on astronomy and bring some scopes for observing to the education meeting at the Rock Eagle 4H Center in Eatonton the evening of February 10th at 6:30 p.m. The address is 350 Rock Eagle Rd., Eatonton, GA 31024 and information on how to get there is included in the Directions pdf.

Jon had some problems with his mount that he is trying to solve, and I am still waiting for my motor from Celestron. However, we will facilitate the presentation. We could use some help with the observing if we don’t get our scopes working. So if you have a few hours to spare that night, please let us know if you can join us and bring your telescope. I hope you will join us for this second outreach program of the International Year of Astronomy. (Thank you Marie for doing the first).

This is a reminder for the Charlie Elliott Chapter meeting and observing for Saturday January 24 at 3:00pm at Charlie Elliott’s Visitors Center.

Have been outside and wondered why the night sky objects you wanted to observe were not as clear as you thought they would be? Join us and Dr. Chip West for his presentation on “Factors impacting visibility”.

Theo Ramakers

Not everyone had the chance to watch the “2008 – the Year in Review” presentation during dinner at the last Pot Luck Dinner meeting. This 1/2 hour presentation showed our activities as we went through the year.

We have published this presentation in movie form (.wmv) on the Multi Media page of the Chapter’s website. The movie is 133MB and if you have fast DSL or Broadband internet access, the movie will stream to your PC and it will play fine after initial buffering. If the movie does not start or there are too many pauses because the connection is too slow, you might consider downloading it to your PC (you can delete it again afterwards) and play it direct from your PC. You can also access the movie by clicking or starting the download from here.

So turn up the volume on your PC, kick your feet back and enjoy!

I would like to wish everyone of our Chapter a Happy New Year!

I hope that 2009 will be better for many than 2008 was. As you know, 2008 went out with a double conjunction. I went to the observing field last night for a few minutes to get a last image of the conjunction for 2008.
Click here, and on the full image icon for a better view of Jupiter and Mercury, to see how Venus, the Moon, Jupiter and Mercury lined up for this in the last three days of the 2008.

Clear Skies,
Theo Ramakers

The website has been updated with the information for next month meeting. Richard’s presentation is also uploaded and can be found for reviewing on the Presentations page. http://ceastronomy.org/blog/events

The pictures of yesterday’s meeting are also upoaded and can be seen from the Events page by clicking on the relevant link. I am looking for a volunteer to make the pictures for following meetings, (you can borrow my camera) I am not too good making the pictures without the flash

And don’t forget to take a look at the new episode of Stargazer for the next week. You’ll find the link it in the middle of the “Home” page.

Clear Skies,
Theo

Hello everyone,

Because of next week’s holiday, we are starting the reminders for our Pot Luck Dinner Meeting on December 27th a few days earlier. This is a reminder that it’s time to start thinking about what to bring to this quarter’s Pot Luck Dinner for the Charlie Elliott Chapter meeting. It starts at 3:00PM at the Charlie Elliott Visitor’s Center, next week Saturday, December 27th. Everyone is welcome. Plan on being there and show off the astronomy related presents you received, or see what others got and if you need help in how to operate, I am sure we can help. We also have a very exciting program for the last meeting of the year. And if the weather allows, share the views of the Universe with the others after the meeting at the observing field. The AAC will join us at the observing field with their December DSO.

To get things started, just let me know what you plan to bring, desert, drinks, covered dish, etc) and I’ll add that to our menu and post it on the Charlie_Elliott_Chapter Yahoo group as I get your emails. Early next week, I may send out an email with the summery of the menu so far.

So, give it some thought, post a message or email me, and we’ll add this to the list!

Clear Skies,
Theo Ramakers

Charlie Elliott has send an invitation for all current CE volunteers to attend an appreciation luncheon on January 17, 2009 from 10:00am – 2:00pm at the Shepherd Conference room at Charlie Elliott Wildlife Center. If you did volunteer in any of our activities with CE such as JAKES Day, Summer Camp, etc. bring your better half and enjoy the company of the staff and other volunteers at the wildlife center.

Please RSVP Linda May by January 6, 2009 at 770-784-3059, or via email. Click here to download the CE calendar for January 2009.

Stephen Ramsden’s Solar Observing presentation, presented in the last meeting, is now also listed on the Presentations TAB of our website. Please note it requires Powerpoint version 2007.
http://ceastronomy.org/blog/events/presentations

Theo

Check this out. There is an Iridium flare forecast of mag. -4.5 (for my location) tomorrow at 5:34pm at 211 degrees SSW and an altitude of 23 degrees in Sagitarius. (Iridium 30). This should come well within the field of view of Venus which is at -4.3. Jim Honeycutt gets the best view, the center line of the flare comes right over his house!

For me not as bright as the one from last week, but I guess this could be a nice pairing with Venus.
Theo Ramakers