This is a reminder for next week’s meeting and observing of the Charlie Elliott Chapter of the AAC.

Please make sure. if you have not done so yet, to mark your calendars for next Saturday’s meeting.  this will be a Pot Luck Dinner meeting.  We will show a NASA movie about the “New Horizons” mission to PLUTO and beyond!!   Don’t miss this one.  Everyone who attends will have a chance to win a CD about this mission, so you can review this also with your friends at home!!!

Jon Wood will continue his ride in the Universe with his continued Observing 101, and Clevis Jones has stepped up, since I will not be able to attend this time, to do again one of his famous Current Events.

After the meetingas usual observing at the observation field where this week we expect a number of members of the AAC to stop in on route to the PSSG for a DSO at Charlie Elliott.

So come on out and enjoy the good food and the night sky at Charlie Elliott!!!

Clear Skies
Theo

The website has been updated. You will find agenda information for the September Meeting on the Home page.

Please take notice, this will be a Pot Luck Dinner Meeting and Jim Honeycutt will present “The Life of the Stars”.

Also the Presentations page and Events pages have been updated with the latest information. Check these pages for links to Dr. Schmude’s presentation as well as the Current Events if you were not able to attend.

I don’t know if you have noticed it, but we have been updating Jack Horkheimers link on a weekly basis.

For those of you who have not closely looked at the website, you will find information on events and alerts on the “blog” or Alert page. So if you need to check on something other than the next meeting, you will probably find it here.

Hope to see you soon.
Clear Skies,
Theo Ramakers

We are getting ready to propose meetingdates to Charlie Elliott’s managment.
Following is a list of the new moon dates and the suggested date for our meeting. The first date is the date of the new moon, the date following this is the proposed date for our meeting.

Please let me know if you have a conflict with any of the proposed meeting dates (anniversaries, birthdays etc.) so we can try to make change the schedule so it works for all, if not most of us.

Here the dates:
New Moon ,/ Proposed CE meeting date

January 26, 24
February 25 , 21
March 26, 28
April 25, 25
May 24, 23 or JAKES Day
June 22, 20
July 22, 18
August 20, 22
September 18, 19
October 18, 17
November 16, 14
December 16, 19

Clear Skies
Theo

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)

Thanks everyone for a great meeting last Saturday. Thanks to Fred Buls for a great presentation!! We like more Fred!!!!

We have a change in our Feature Presentation for our next meeting! Dr Richard Schmude Jr. has been so kind to come to CE and give us another talk about Jupiter. As most of you know, Dr Schmude Jr. is the current ALPO Jupiter Section Coordinator and has studied the planet in great detail, partially using information supplied by amateur astronomers as we all are. With Jupiter so close to its opposition, and the current activities on Jupiter, makes this a well placed presentation. Thanks Jim to postponing your presentation!

The website is updated with new meeting info and the pictures of the last meeting. Also the Member Pages Tab have been updated and the new Jack Horkheimer movie for July 28-August 3 has been linked.

We hope that you enjoy the new website. This is the site we want your image for. So go to CE if you have a chance and make an image of the night/evening sky and submit it for our website background challenge!!

Clear Skies and if I don’t see you at one of our events before than, see you on August 30th for our next meeting!

Theo

Thanks to our members Stephen Ramsden, Jon Wood and Theo Ramakers for finishing the 2nd week’s presentations and observing sessions for the Summer Camp participants at Charlie Elliott!

The weather did not cooperate much. For the morning solar observing we had to wait several times for up to 45 minutes to catch a break in the clouds. However the wait was well worth it. The kids were able to see three good sized filaments on the surface of the sun, one of them a big arc.

The evening presentations went well with a trip though the inner and outer solar system, the Phoenix landing, and some not so common images of the Moon and Jupiter.

Outside the clouds had moved in, except for a small opening around Jupiter, so everyone was able to see Jupiter with three moons and a little later 4 moons, when Io’s transit ended. The clouds kept us busy trying to find the best spots to see. A faint M57 could be seen once in a while, and a faint coming and going Alberio also. Despite the adverse cloud conditions, the observing session was well accepted by all!

For pictures of yesterday’s event click here.

Thanks again to everyone who was able to contribute time , including the staff at Charlie Elliott and especially Julie Duncan, to make this another successful astronomy event.

Theo Ramakers

Reminder:

Join us for our next meeting July 26, 2008 at 5:00pm at CE

Meeting Agenda

“Probes to the Planets”
Lecture: Fred Buls, Instructor in Astronomy, Perimeter College will be our featured speaker for July with a presentation called: “Probes to the Planets”.
The study of the Solar System is a distinctive part of astronomy in that the objects of interest are close enough to send probes. Some orbit their target, some land, others just pass on through while collecting data. The instruments on board these probes can tell planetary scientists about the history of the objects and of the whole Solar System. We’ll see some of these probes close up, see how their instruments collect data, and what this data can tell us.

“Observing 101″
Jon Wood, Chapter Observing Supervisor>

“Astronomy Current Events”
Theo Ramakers, Chapter Director

Place: Charlie Elliott Wildlife Center, Visitor Center.

“Observing after the meeting”
Join our members at the observing field, starting just after the meeting
Everyone is welcome.
Place: Charlie Elliott observation field

The evening of July 20th, chapters members Jon Wood, Stephen Ramsden, Frank Garner and Theo Ramakers showed approx. 16 young and adult campers of the Garden Club of Georgia the Universe at Charlie Elliott. The vistitors who were camping at Charlie Elliott’s camp site, were able to take a first hand look at Saturn, Jupiter, Alberio, M13, M57,and other deepsky objects. After many OOh’s and Ahhhh’s they left but not after having seen the expanse of the Milky Way and the moon which was just rising over the horizon!

We took another opportunity to show youngsters and adults the beauty of the Universe at Charlie Elliott WC.

Thanks,
Theo Ramakers

A thanks to our Chapter’s participants Stephen Ramsden, Clevis Jones, Jim Honeycutt, Jon Wood and Theo Ramakers for a great outreach event at Charlie Elliott!! This was actually 2 events in one. In the morning, Stephen and Theo showed the 20 children of CE’s Summer Camp the sun. We did not see any sunspots, but the SolarMax and the PST showed some nice little flares and the comments like “That’s cool” and “WoW as well as “I have never seen anything as cool as this” were heard several times.

In the evening, in our “Planetarium Room” in the Visters Center, Jon and Theo showed an annimated visit of the inner and the outer planets of the solar system . This presentation was followed by a NASA movie “Ringed Worlds” about the Cassini mission to Saturn and a short clip about the Landing of the Phoenix on Mars last May 25th.

Than it was of to the observing field where the kids saw the Moon, Jupiter and 4 moons, Saturn and its rings, M57, Alberio, Scorpio’s jewel box and other deep sky objects. The views were hindered by the almost full moon, but the views were appreciated by all. Than the evening was topped off when the entire group saw the Hubble Telescope fly by at 10:18pm.

Here the link to the images of the event.

Thanks to all the participants, and a special thank you to the staff of Summer Camp, especially Julie Duncan, the Director of Residential Programs at Charlie Elliott, for letting us be part of your Summer Camp 2008!

Theo Ramakers

Just a reminder, CEWC Summer Camp is two days away. This year we have been asked to give classroom presentations, and follow up with observing at the field on two days: Wednesday July 16, and July 23.

Classroom presentation is scheduled in the Visitors Center, from 6:45 until 8:15 pm, then on to the
field for some spectacular views of the heavens from 8:45 until 10:00ish.

Let me know if anyone can assist either in the classroom setting, or with telescopes on the field.

As the campers won’t be able to stay out too late, the more time we can give them at the eyepiece, the better. The kids were fantastic last year, as I’m sure they’ll be again this year. So drag out those scopes and join the fun.

We have not received many takers!!! Show Charlie Elliott’s management that you care!!!! and send mean email that you will be there!!

Thanks and Clear Skies,
Theo