We had a great time at Summerour Middle School in Norcross, where Valorie Whalen, Marie Lott, David Whalen, Charlie Cottingham, Frank Garner and Theo Ramakers showed about 100 students and their parents with 6 telescopes the beauty of the night sky including Jupiter with a transit of Io, the Orion Nebula, the Pleiades and not to forget our Moon. Inside the visitors learned more about NASA’s MSL mission and how Curiosity navigates on the red planet and what the night sky looked like that evening. A great and very rewarding evening for all of us. Thanks to Mrs Marjorie Veazey from Summerour and those who helped at this event.

53 Members and guests attended a great March Potluck dinner meeting. After some opening remarks by Steve Siedentop, CEA’s Director, Jack Fitzmier gave a short book review of Jim Sowell’s book “The Naked Eye Sky” which was donated by the Camera Bug. A repeat presentation of the “Big-O” 16″ telescope reconstruction project was given by Larry Owens. A tremedous effort! Thanks Larry for getting this scope back in use for our CEA members and visitors! Theo Ramakers followed with a short presentation to remind recent members who Jon Wood was, how he inspired so many, and how basically he was responsible for the large outreach efforts in the Atlanta area. Next was the NSN award presentation for those who participated in CEA’s outreach in 2013 (See seperate post), and those who participated in 5 or more events also received the NSN Keppler Dark field Pin. Theo announced the last donation to CEA by Larry Owens: a 10″ Meade LX50. This scope will come in very handy in our outreach at the field. John Towne followed with his always interesting and well prepared “What’s Up” for March. After the meeting it went to the Jon Wood Field for the dedication ceremony of the new CEA Scope Building and the revealing of the 16″ scopes. Members and guests were in awe about the crisp image the scope gave of Jupiter and M42 and Larry and Theo made the “First Light image of the scope at the Jon Wood Field.

Van, Frank and Theo spend a few hours on Sunday afternoon to move the first CEA scope to the Jon Wood Field. They assembled the scope and rolled it from the pad right into the new building. We’re getting ready for the first observing night at CE
Clear Skies,
Theo

The weather was cloudy but the contractor was ready for our building. It took them 6 hours to set it up. It has been a long haul, but all is over and now we can start on the subsequent projects to make star gazing at the JWF more enjoyable. Click the image to see the gallery.
Thanks for all who helped with this project.
Theo Ramakers

27 Members and guests attended a great meeting. The feature presentation was deliverd by Dr. James Sowell from Georgia Tech. on “The Aloah Telescope”. A telescope program available to schools for remote observing the Moon, Jupiter and Saturn using a remote telescope in Hawaii. Steve Siedentop presented John Towne’s monthly “What’s Up” for February. Click here for his the February target list. Theo Ramakers gave an update on the Outreach program but the award ceremony had to be postponed because the pins were delayed probably because of the weather. Observing after the meeting had to be cancelled again because of the clouds. Click the thumbnail to go to the gallery.

Don’t forget the NSN conference call on 2014-01-27 at 9:00 PM. Connie Walker will give a presentation about the Globe at Night. CEA has participated in this event for many years and hopefully we will find some volunteers to participate again this year.
Call in information for NSN members:
1-888-455-9236
You will be asked the passcode: Night Sky Network
You will be asked your name and your club: Charlie Elliott Astronomy and the number of people that are listening with you in the same room.
Addtl. resources are made available at: http://1.usa.gov/1aluKyk
See you at the conference call!
Clear Skies,
Theo Ramakers

Eight CEA members went to Hightower Trail Elementary to help celebrate the school’s 10th anniversary of the program and to show the students what Astronomy is about. 9 Telescopes on the playground allowed the kids to see some real beauties of the night sky including Jupiter and its Jovian moons. Inside they learned about Mars and its moons and the effect of gravity. In addition they got an update on NASA/JPL’s MSL/Curiosity mission. A very successful event. Congratulations Hightower for repeating this program every year!. A noteworthy note: Some of the students participating in the early program, did have the opportunity to interview one of the International Space Station’s crews in an uplink a few years ago, and some of Rockdale’s teachers were chosen to participate in a 0-G flight with their gravity science project.

40 Individuals attended our meeting in Conference room B at Charlie Elliott Wildlife Center’s Conference Center despite the cold and bad weather. Stephen Ramsden gave his very inspiring talk on Solar Astronomy Outreach showing some awesome clips and images. John Town was as good as always, with his presentation “What’s Up” for January. Theo Ramakers finally gave a status update on the Telescope building at the Jon Wood Field and a short presentation about the outreach CEA did in 2013 and gave recognition to those who helped making this a success for 2013. Click the image to go to the gallery for images of the meeting. Because of the bad weather observing was cancelled.

Click here for the Minutes of the Meeting. The first time in many years that we had a meeting in the Campbell Building at CE. Over 30 individuals showed up for the meeting, dinner and raffle. Steve had some opening remarks followed by Theo Ramakers with an update on Outreach and the Mutual Events of the Jovian Moons in 2014/2015. An event table has been uploaded to the CE website listing over 500 events. Steve presented John Town’s “What’s Up” for December but the most attention received the raffle of the many door prizes. Thanks to all those companies and individuals who made the donations. The Grand Prize, an Explore Scientific AR102 Apochromatic Refractor was won by Frank Garner. And finally not to forget: the dinner was fantastic! Thanks all! As always, click the image to go to the gallery.
Theo Ramakers

Frank Garner and Theo Ramakers went to George Walton Academy to a Cub Scout meeting of Pack 705. Their intentions were to learn all that is required to earn their Astronomy Belt Loop! We had a great time with the 25 scouts and their parents!. Following a clip in which they learned about the relative sizes about planets and stars, they learned all they need to know about the solar system, and the universe. Then they actually setup the scopes after they learned how to setup a scope, and we went outside to let them focus on the tree tops since it was cloudy. A great event for the scouts and us!! Thanks for inviting us Deanna! Please click the image to go to the gallery.