A great potluck dinner meeting with the feature presentation presented by Clay S. Turner: “Astro Photo Talk” (images (c) C Turner), a short update on our Outreach and AL activities, followed by Steve Phillips “September 2011 – Observing 101″ . With clear skies, members of the chapter with a lot of scopes and 3 binos made it to the Jon Wood Astronomy Field, where a large group of students and parents of the Stone Mountain Middle School joined us for observingClick here for some pictures. A great meeting and evening.
Clear skies,
Theo Ramakers

In order to make it easier to access the last (current) observing presentation made by our observing supervisor, I have added a page to our website. The page can be accessed by clicking the first link on the observing page. You will be presented with a list of all presentations since 2010 and we will update the list as time goes on. Older observing lists can be seen at Steve Bieger’s lists from 2007-2008 which is the last link on the observing page.
Clear Skies,
Theo Ramakers

Our next chapter meeting and observing is on Saturday June 4th starting at 5:00 P.M. in the Vistors Center at CE. Marie will be sharing the presentation “Stargazers, Starfarers, and Kepler“ about the search for exoplanets, originally given by Dr Jeff Van Cleve as part of the Night Sky Network teleconference series.
From NSN: “The Kepler Mission is specifically designed to survey a portion of our region of the Milky Way galaxy to discover dozens of Earth-size planets in or near the habitable zone and determine how many of the billions of stars in our galaxy have such planets. The challenge now is to find terrestrial planets (i.e., those one half to twice the size of the Earth), especially those in the habitable zone of their stars where liquid water and possibly life might exist.
So come on out and enjoy the nice presentations and join us at the Jon Wood Field after the meeting to observe the night sky.
Clear Skies
Theo Ramakers

This event was cancelled in March because of the weather and rescheduled for the last day in April. A beautiful day for solar observing and 350+ people took advantage to learn more about, and take a closer look at our Sun through our Solar Scopes. Thanks to David Carswell for inviting us and thanks to Marie and Tim Lott, Alan and Sally Bolton, Annette and Pierre Michel, Frank Garner and Theo Ramakers for showing the visitors the sun and the beautiful prominance that grew in size as we observed the sun throughout the day.
Thanks again and Clear Skies,
Theo Ramakers

Frank and Theo reached out to their local community at the Social Circle Library. On Saturday morning, April 9th they offered a solar program including solar observing and a presentation about NASA’s Stereo mission. On Thursday evening it was an evening program, and the attendees learned about unusual images. They also learned some more about the planets and their moons in the solar system, the International space Station and the Shuttle. And after the presentation, because it was stil light, they offered the attendees a look at the features of the moon through a telescope. We were happy to reach out to about 20 individuals in our own community, including some very smart young students!! Thanks to all that attended and to Norma Reed for inviting us.
Clear skies,
Theo Ramakers

This is a reminder for our meeting and observing for this coming Saturday. The weather forecast is great, so bring your scopes and catch up on what we’ve missed the last time around. Jim Sobelovski will present “Supernova” so you get to know all about these great events.
See you Saturday!
Theo

Frank and I will be at Summerour Middle School this morning and afternoon with a Stereo-360 presentation and Solar observing for the 6th grade.
Clear skies,
Theo

We have postponed the solar observing for the Memorial Middle School for tomorrow. The forecasted cloud coverage does not allow us to go ahead with this part of the outreach event. We will post an update when we know the new date. Frank and I will go ahead with the inside presentations.
Clear Skies (we could use)
Theo Ramakers

A bunch of us are going to Charlie Elliott for some observing and watching the meteor shower. Come on out and don’t forget the bug repellant and the lawn chairs. You won’t be alone out there
Clear Skies,
Theo