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.

The meeting minutes have been submitted by the secretary and uploaded. Please click here to download and read them.

Theo Ramakers

The minutes of the March 28th meeting have been posted. Click here for the pdf.

The meeting was held at the Charlie Elliott Visitor Center and called to order at 3 p.m. by CE Chapter Director Theo Ramakers. The final attendance was a humongous 37 members and guests (our largest crowd ever), including those who arrived during the presentation and even later on the observing field.

Following welcoming remarks by Theo, Ken Poshedly added to Theo’s comments, explaining to the many newcomers what the CE chapter of the Atlanta Astronomy Club is and what the ALPO is. Ken then introduced our featured speaker for the afternoon, Dr. Julius Benton, observing coordinator of the ALPO Saturn Section, and his presentation, “Current Programs, Recent Observations the 2009 Edgewise Orientation of the Rings of Saturn”. Dr. Benton’s own remarks along with his PowerPoint program made for a most enjoyable and educational afternoon. Dr. Benton’s presentation is available for downloading as a pf file at www.ceastronomy.org.

Following a short break for refreshments was Theo’s “Current Events” segment:
* The Chapter won a “Globe at Night” kit, including a “Sky Quality Meter” for individuals to measure the sky brightness in and around metro Atlanta. A “How Dark is Your Sky” activity will run from March 16-28 and a flier was distributed with instructions on how to use the line art image of Orion on the sheet to determine the brightness / darkness of their sky. All were asked to participate by logging their results on the Internet or sending the results form to the following CE chapter meeting.
* The CE chapter participated in the 2008 Night Sky Network outreach program by showing the universe to over 470 children and adults.
* The CE chapter received a $100 gift from the George Walton Academy.
* There was a recap of recent outreach activities: Marie Lott met with 37 Girl Scout leaders at Misty Mountain Jan 23/24; Steve Ramsden, Jon Wood and Theo met with 25 “young educators” at Rock
Eagle on Feb. 10; a Hightower Trail Elementary School event was set for Feb. 27.
* IYA2009 “100 Hours of Astronomy” CE chapter activities for April 2-5 were announced, including display of some images by member Jim Honeycutt at the Covington Library.
* There was a recap of the Jan. 26 annular solar eclipse with some images taken in the Philippines.
* Clevis Jones was the winner of our own little contest to see Comet Lulin (early morning of Feb. 7). While doing so, a neighbor reported him as a “suspicious peson” with several police cars arriving at his
driveway shortly thereafter while he was with scope; all ended well and no arrests were made.
* Discussion of Saturn’s earlier appearance in the night sky followed with an image by Jim Honeycutt of Saturn with several moons being shown, followed by an image by Lary Owens showing what might be a new
storm in the northern hemishere clouds. Following that were discussion and images of the upcoming transit of Saturn by four of its moons, though the event was only visible on the West Coast of the U.S.
* There were some great images, including Tim Geib’s striking shot of Rosette Nebula, and one of the International Space Station near the Moon (taken Oct. 18, 2008).

Debbie Jones normally does our award presentations, but due to her absence (due to illness), Clevis Jones substituted and presented Night Sky Network “Top Star” pins to the following CE chapter members in recognition for their hours of public outreach they contributed in 2008: Stephen “SunDawg” Ramsden (over 100 hours), Jon Wood (over 25 hours), and Debbie Jones (over 15 hours). Afterwards, Theo surprised
Clevis with his own “Top Star” pin for his more than 15 hours of volunteer time as well. The Night Sky Network (NSN) awards the “Top Star” pins to the member clubs that have logged at least 5 public
outreach events held during the past year where NSN resources were used. More that 400 children and adults were guests at astronomy outreach events such as Hightower Trail Elementary School Space Camp,
JAKES Day at the Charlie Elliott Wildlife Center, and Newborn and Covington Libraries, to mention only a few. Please note that these pins are not meant to ignore the obvious contributions others like Larry Owens and
Jim Honeycutt have made; we appreciate the donation of time and effort by all CE chapter members. Go to http://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/ for more on this worthwhile program.

Member Steve Bieger announced the presentation of the planetarium program “Galileo’s Universe: The New Astronomy” to be shown at Fernbank Planetarium March 5 thru May 16 (info via phone 678-874-7102, or online at http://fsc.fernbank.edu/planetarium.htm). Steve has been working on this project for some time and all of us support him and his worthy effort to contribute to astronomy outreach.

Jon Wood’s “Observing 101″ segment included:
* Upcoming rise/transit/set times for celestial objects in the coming weeks (www.stellarium.org/)
* A lunar calendar (from a subscriber-only area of www.astronomy.com)
* A list of upcoming meteor showers (our next one is the Lyrids on April 22)
* A sky graphic showing the apparent path of Venus in the night sky over the next several weeks
* A sky map of the path of the minor planet Ceres through March 31
* A CCD image of Ceres taken February 14
* Images and sky maps of Comet Lulin (C/2007 N1 or N3)
* A few graphics detailing the recent satellite collision over Siberia
* A flyover movie of the lunar crater Tycho assembled from radar mapping data by the Japanese orbiting satellite Kaguya (wms.selene.jaxa.jp)

The meeting was adjourned at approximately 5:15 p.m.

The next CE chapter meeting will be 4 p.m., Saturday, March 28, when we present Fred Buls, professor at Perimeter College, who will speak on radiometric dating and its use in how we measure the age of our universe.

Respectfully submitted,

Ken Poshedly
CEWMA Chapter Recording Secretary

The meeting was called to order at 3 p.m. by CE Chapter Director Theo Ramakers. The final attendance number was 19 members and guests present with 4 additional persons attending the post-meeting observing session.

Following welcoming remarks by Theo was the featured presentation, “Meteorological factors affecting visibility”, by Dr. Chip West, meteorologist in charge, Atlanta Center Weather Service Unit, Atlanta Air Route Traffic Control Center in Hampton, Ga. Dr. West did a great job of tying together the relationships between cloud types and other atmospheric phenomena with how well or not the night sky will appear.

Among his PowerPoint slides was an Hourly Weather Forecast Graph at
http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?site=ffc&map.x=193&map.y=124&FcstType=graphical which besides sky cover forecasts (in percent) includes forecasts for windchill, dewpoint, temperature, wind speed and gusts, relative humidity, precipitation potential, thunder, rain, snow, freezing rain and sleet.

Following a short break for refreshments, Theo’s “Current Events” PowerPoint segment included a great recap of:
* The recent Venus/Moon – Jupiter/Mercury conjunctions.
* A list of CEWMA – IYA 2009 Outreach Program events where volunteers are needed
* The CEWMA Volunteer Awards luncheon which Chapter Director Theo Ramakers and Chapter Observing Supervisor Jon Woods and their spouses attended.
* A comparison of the 1969 Presidential Inauguration Parade which included an Apollo 7 float and the 2009 Presidential Inauguration Parade which included a prototype of NASA’s Lunar Electric Rover
* An announcement of a request to extend the Space Shuttle Program through 2010
* Slides of the Constellation Program tests; this will be NASA’s new generation of spacecraft that will carry humans to the Moon, Mars and beyond.
* Slides of the Space Shuttle Discovery on its launchpad with lift-off tentatively set for February 12; STS-119 will fly the S6 truss segment and install the final set of power-generating solar arrays to the International Space Station.
* Images of Saturn and Mars
* Plans to modify the CEWMA web page

Jon Wood’s “Observing 101″ PowerPoint segment included:
* Upcoming rise/transit/set times for celestial objects in the coming weeks and was compiled using the software program Stellarium (available at http://www.stellarium.org/)
* An computer-generated image of a transit of Saturn by Titan
* An update on several comets including C/85P/Beothin (has failed to brighten as expected and has likely gone forever), C/2007 N3 (Lulin) (a morning comet) and C/2006 OF2 (Broughton) (an evening comet visible in small telescopes).

Afterwards, Theo led discussion of several ideas to enhance the chapter’s website
* A change to rename the “Events” tab as “Past Events” and to move the current “Outreach” tab to the main menu bar with the “Past Events” tab; this will hopefully prevent confusion for those looking for what future events the club has scheduled.
* Discussion about adjusting the website’s aspect ratio for older monitors; webmaster Larry Owens will look into this.

CEWMA rep Alesia Rast announced that the chapter’s observing field will be relocated across the road from its present site after logging operations have been completed no later than 18 months from now; the new observing field site will be within the “safe zone” and off-limits from hunters.

Alesia also ask that all who volunteer at any CEWMA note their hours and inform Alesia; she can be reached at 770-784-3059.

The meeting was adjourned at 5:45 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Ken Poshedly
CEWMA Chapter Recording Secretary

The meeting was called to order at 3 p.m. by CE Chapter Director Theo Ramakers. The final attendance number was 30 members and guests present.

Following welcoming remarks by Theo was his PowerPoint presentation of a look back at the previous year of events and activities where members of the AAC’s CEWMA chapter participated, including great images of the February lunar eclipse, the launch of the Space Shuttle Endeavour and the great time experienced by those who helped with the High Tower Elementary School Space Camp, plus much more. The presentation was left running durng the pot-luck dinner.

Afterwards, Theo announced that:
* This year, 2009, has been designated the International Year of Astronomy, with a “100 Hours of Astronomy” event planned for April. From the official IYA website: “The 100 Hours of Astronomy Cornerstone Project is a worldwide event consisting of a wide range of public outreach activities, live science center, research observatory webcasts and sidewalk astronomy events. One of the key goals of 100 Hours of Astronomy is to have as many people as possible look through a telescope as Galileo did for the first time 400 years ago. 100 Hours of Astronomy will take place from 2-5 April when the Moon goes from first quarter to gibbous, good phases for early evening observing. Saturn will be the other highlight of early evening observing events.”
* The January 24 CEWMA program will feature Dr. Chip West, meteorologist in charge, Atlanta Center Weather Service Unit, Atlanta Air Route Traffic Control Center in Hampton, Ga, and his program is called “Meteorological factors affecting visibility”.

The featured speaker for this evening, Rich Jakiel, covered “The First 2 Billion Years”, the beginnings of the Earth, the formation of the Moon, our atmosphere, the oceans and so on to possibly the first microbial life.

Jon Wood’s “Observing 101″ PowerPoint segment included upcoming rise/transit/set times for celestial objects in the coming weeks and was compiled using the software program Stellarium (available at http://www.stellarium.org/).

The meeting was adjourned at approximately 5:30 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Ken Poshedly
CEWMA Chapter Recording Secretary

Minutes of the November 29, 2008 Meeting of the Charlie Elliott Chapter of the AAC

The meeting was called to order at 3:25 p.m. by CE Chapter Director Theo Ramakers. There were 16 members and guests present.

First on the program was a presentation by Steve Bieger’s presentation, “Galileo’s Wonderful Universe”, a project now under production as a two-part planetarium program to be shown at Fernbank Science Center sometime in 2009. It follows the early development of the scientific revolution, where the old ideas of the universe were turned upside down and made irrelevant, thus giving birth to the field of modern astronomy. “Galileo’s Wonderful Universe” will be a chronology of the lives and science of five very famous people who, in their time, contributed to monumental leaps forward in human understanding and thus brought about what could truly be called a revolution.

A break for refreshments followed.

The next presentation was Part II of Steve Ramsden’s “History of Solar Observing” series. Part I (presented in September) covered religious beliefs and lore of early civilization’s sometimes mythic relationship with our nearest star up to and including an overview of modern solar observatories and available options for amateurs interested in solar observing and photography. Part II dealt with the types of observable phenomena on the solar surface from filaments to prominences to active regions. He also explained the methods by which amateurs could see these various features.

Jon Wood’s “Observing 101″ PowerPoint segment included upcoming rise/transit/set times for celestial objects in the coming weeks and was compiled using the software program Stellarium (available at http://www.stellarium.org/).

Theo Ramakers’ “Current Events” segment noted upcoming and past natural and manmade celestial activites, this time including:
* Sidewalk astronomy / outreach events with CEWMA members
* Updates on the Mars rovers
* News of two independant observations and images made by two amateurs of a new ray crater on Mercury
* A Jon Woods image of the recent Venus and Moon sky grouping
* Solar images by Stephen Ramsden
* An image of the newly discovered extra-solar planetary system discovered by direct imaging rather than measurement of “star wobble”; the system was discovered in November and the star, HR8799, is in the constellation Pegasus (coordinates 23h 07m 28.7s 21 deg 8′3″); see also http://www.keckobservatory.org/images/article_pictures/231_403.jpg and http://trustyservant.com/archives/242
* Some stunning images of the launch of the space shuttle Endeavour by member Angela Poore
* An image of the Space Shuttle Endeavour docked to International Space Station taken by Theo through his hand-guided scope from the CEWMA observing field on November 20
* An update on the plans of the European Space agency

The meeting was adjourned at approximately 6:30 p.m. The solar and current events presentation can be viewed on the CE astronomy website: http://ceastronomy.org/blog/events

The next gathering of the CE chapter of the AAC will be a pot luck dinner meeting at 3 p.m., Saturday, December 27; the speaker will be AAC member Rich Jakiel and the topic will be “Messengers from the Gods”.

Respectfully submitted,

Ken Poshedly
CEWMA Chapter Recording Secretary

The meeting was called to order by Chapter director Theo Ramakers at 4:05pm. 17 members and guests attended the meeting and 62 persons took advantage of the observation field since the last meeting. Following a welcome to all attendees, a request to change the April meeting date was discussed. The request was made to avoid a conflict with the annual star party of the Flint River Astronomy Club. The request to change our meeting date was approved to the weekend preceding the old date. We now need to check with CEWMA if they will allow the change. The home page of the CE website has been updated with the chapter meeting dates for 2009

Following a short introduction of Paul Tankersley by Theo, Paul started his presentation about Narrow Band Imaging in the City. Paul’s extensive presentation discussed this topic in much detail. He explained why he got interested in this, the evaluations he went through, the challenges one has to overcome when imaging from light polluted areas, the equipment he needed for this and finally the process when doing this the right way. His presentation was very complete and everyone had a chance to see his beautiful album of images made by Paul over the one year he has been doing this.

We all enjoyed Paul’s presentation very much. You can review Paul’s presentation on our website in the Presentations Page. After thanking Paul and his wife Gail for coming out to Charlie Elliott, bringing donuts, and showing us this very exciting part of observing the night sky, Jon Wood did his continuation of the Observing 101.
In addition to reviewing the night sky for November, location of Venus and Jupiter, Jon discussed the discussion he had with the management of Charlie Elliott about the hunting season and the fact that the observing field is not located in the Safety Zone. We are sharing the observing field with everyone. It was explained that the wildlife is very active around sunset and sunrise. This means to be very cautious around these times of the day during hunting season, and it would be better to come a little later than earlier. We have added the hunting season information on our website. A link to this section has been added at the home page of the site: . http://ceastronomy.org/blog/directions . The information can also be found at the website of CEWMA: http://georgiawildlife.dnr.state.ga.us/hunting.aspx.
Jon also discussed a new focusing tool he is using: the Bahtinov mask. This focus mask is based on the principle of moving diffraction spikes. His presentation included screen captures of in and out of focus objects and gave a great overview of the ease of operation. A URL for a generator of a mask template is : http://astrojargon.net/maskgen.aspx

The last item of the agenda was Theo’s Current Events in Astronomy and Space Exploration. Theo discussed the advancement of some foreign countries in space exploration, notably China with the first manned space flight and India with the launch of their first mission to the moon and gave an overview of recent and current outreach events. A review of recent images made by chapter members was followed by a status review and images of Odessey, Phoenix, and Cassini. An overview and movie about of the Indian mission Chandrayaan to the moon completed this month’s Current Events. A link to this presentation can be found on the Events page of the website.
After the meeting it was out to the observing field, where several additional observers joined and some students and parents from George Walton High took the opportunity to see some nice sky objects.

Respectfully submitted by
Theo Ramakers
Director, Charlie Elliott Chapter of the AAC.

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)

MINUTES OF THE JUNE 7, 2008 MEETING
OF THE CHARLIE ELLIOTT CHAPTER
OF THE ATLANTA ASTRONOMY CLUB

The June 7, 2008 meeting of the Charlie Elliott Chapter of the Atlanta Astronomy Club was called to order at 5:20 p.m. by chapter director Theo Ramakers. Present were 28 members and guests, with an additional 5 persons arriving at the observing field afterwards.

This being a pot-luck dinner / meeting, business was suspended until mealtime was completed.

Official proceedings resumed at 6:15 p.m. with the following CE chapter announcements:

*  Larry Owens said that there has been no new progress on the Byers Truss Tube scope project.

*  Jon Wood stated that the 12.5 in. Optical Craftsman Newtonian reflector may be outfitted with a new drive corrector soon (details to follow as they develop).

*  The CE chapter may help with an upcoming summer camp event at the CEWMA.

*  The CE chapter may host a group of Mansfield fourth graders at the January 2009 meeting, with observing on the field afterwards.

*  CEWMA rep Alesia Rast announced that CEWMA management is keeping tabs on and welcomes the apparently increased activity by the CE chapter with CEWMA and other events; of all the various groups currently meeting at CEWMA, the CE chapter is the most active; the sign-in mailbox station may be reinstalled at the observing field to get more accurate counts. The increased activity also bodes well for CEWMA management being open to the possibility of a permanent storage structure for the CE chapter’s 12.5 in. Optical Craftsman Newtonian reflector; we were reminded, however, that the observing field is not a safety zone and the possibility of bullet or other damage to the structure and its contents during hunting activities should be considered; more discussion will follow between the CEWMA management and the CE astronomy group before any plans are finalized.

*  The next session in “Top Gun Imaging” by Larry Owens will concentrate on acquiring and keeping the object on the CCD chip; the previous session dwelt on collimation, and resulted in futile efforts by Theo to collimate his own scope before learning it required factory repairs. The “Top Gun Imaging” series of on-field workshops deals with becoming a top-notch (“top gun” imager); for more info on this activity, either contact Larry at larry@ceastronomy.org or visit and join the Charlie Elliott astronomy e-mail list at http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/charlie_elliott_chapter/ for details.

*  The CE chapter meeting schedule for the rest of 2008 is July 26 (topic: “Solar System Probes” by Fred Buls), August 30, September 27, October 25, November 29 and December 27.

*  Theo and several others discussed improvements to the chapter’s website operated by Larry Owens, including personal blogs (online web logs).

The remainder of the evening included the following presentations:

*  Observing the Moon, Part II, Theo’s follow-up presentation on Moon observation. Some of the features covered this time were “libration” (the slight rocking motion of the Moon during its orbit around Earth that permits us to see up to 59% of the lunar surface over time), the Straight Wall under various lighting conditions and the challenges of observing Banded Craters (the subject of a special observing program fostered by the Assn of Lunar & Planetary Observers).

*  A review about the free software program “Virtual Moon Atlas”, available at
www.ap-i.net/avl/en/start

*  Observing 101 by Jon Wood, which began with a quick review of basic scope configurations and a few comments on different scope designs. Next was “A Quick and Dirty Polar Alignment (for setting up an equatorial mount without the benefit of a view of Polaris), then an illustrated discussion of polar drift alignment followed with plenty of “twists and turns”. Jon also proposed and asked for comments on a new CE Observing Challenge to enhance the enjoyment of members’ observing over the next year. New Challenge Object lists and an overview of the Challenge Objective will be posted on the CE chapter’s web site soon (Jon will let us know as soon as these items have been uploaded). Also, we’ll have some great prizes to be awarded for each Challenge category, thanks to our friends at Camera Bug (404-873-4513, or www.camerabug.com).

The meeting was adjourned at 8:30 p.m. for observing and departures.

(Submitted by Ken Poshedly, CE recording secretary)