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

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

May marks the month when the Chapter will elect its new Officers for the next 12 months. I would like to thank the current board for doing a wonderful job. We accomplished some nice goals in the last 12 months, saw the chapter grow with some YOUNGER individuals interested in astronomy, and held some major outreach events. And to top it off, we presented ourselves to the world on a complete new website, and overall, we had fun doing it

As in previous years, Debbie Jones has volunteered to head our election committee. She will collect the names of the nominees for the new board, and conduct the elections during the meeting on May 16th. All current board members will run for another year for the same positions currently held, if no other nominations have been made. So if you would like to volunteer for one of the 3 board positions, director, observing supervisor or secretary, please send an email to Debbie at debbie@ceastronomy.org. Debbie will also accept nominations from the floor during the meeting. So get busy if you have time run for one of the offices and send Debbie an email!!

Clear Skies
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!

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

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