This is a reminder for our meeting and observing for this Saturday. Phil Sacco will present “The Wonders of the Night Sky”. The meeting and presentation are open to everyone, members and no members, and is free of charge. Come on out and share the beautiful night sky with us.
Clear Skies,
Theo Ramakers

We have been informed that the camp, and with that the outreach which was scheduled for July 14th, for the “Girls of the Great Outdoors”, has been cancelled.
Clear Skies
Theo

Just a quick reminder for Tuesday’s outreach event at CE. Solar at 10 A,M., hands-on workshop with the kids at 7:30, observing around 8:30 or 9:00 P.M.
Come if you can make it.
Theo Ramakers

We had a great meeting yesterday with a number of new visitors, much delicious food (Thanks to all those great cooks!!), a great presentation by Richard Schmude Jr., and our new observing supervisor Steven Phillips’ Observing 101 and Theo’s Current Events. Stephen Ramsden received the Master Outreach Program award from the Astronomical League and those who hang in there at the observing field until after 11:00 when the clouds moved a little out of the way, were awarded with some beautiful objects in the night sky. A great night for our Chapter! The website has been updated with presentations, pictures etc with the exception of Steven’s presentation and the minutes of the meeting, but I am sure they will be there very soon also
Thanks for all that attended or did visit us at the field after the meeting!
Clear Skies
Theo

Thanks to Marie Lott, Annette and Pierre Michel, Frank Garner and Theo Ramakers for participating in Charlie Elliott’s JAKES Day. We had some great kids with a lot of very interesting and good questions!! Check here for some pictures.
In addition, we had a surprising number of attendants for the meeting, despite the ongoing “Georgia Star View” in Griffin. Check the past Events page for more information and pictures of the meeting and observing after the meeting even though some clouds made observing a challenge. Over all, a long but very rewarding day !!! Thanks to all.
Clear Skies
Theo

Several individuals have made use of the good weather and have been out to Charlie Elliott over the last weekend. Annette and Pierre Michel and Theo were out on Friday and on Sunday evening Stephen Ramsden, Frank Garner, Steve Phillips, Nat Burdge, Raghu Cowlagi and Theo made it out until midnight. It was a great night to observe. So if you feel the itch… pack it up and go to Charlie Elliott! Here some pictures of Sunday evening.
Clear skies,
Theo

This is a reminder for this Saturday’s meeting and observing. We will have four mini presentations this month all related to astronomy from how to build your own scope to polar align your EQ mount without seeing Polaris to a quick rundown of using PhD Guiding for astro pohotography. This will be a very interactive meeting. Following th meeting we will continue some of the activities onto the observing field such as capturing the data for some planet images. In addition, this will be the last time Jim Soboleski will be at the meeting before he goes off to Afghanistan, so come on out and wish him good luck and a safe return!
Clear Skies,
Theo Ramakers

Quick update since this is the last night of the first half of GaN for 2010. The last three days have been cloudy an hour after sunset but we have pretty clear skies right now heading into twilight. Sunset is 19:47 for our latitude so the optimum time got the GaN measurement would be 20:47 or close thereafter. AND, the moon is still merely a tiny sliver so no interference there.

We’ll start another run tomorrow and go through March 31. Enjoy Orion while we can!

We’ve been accumulating data for GLOBE at Night over the past 10 days. Theo has been using the Sky Quality Meter and getting a variety of readings in the general vicinity of Charlie Elliot, Social Circle and Mansfield. I have more qualitative data from around the Atlanta area, both at home in Chamblee and also at Fernbank Science Center.

Clouds and weather have impacted at least 5 days and the seeing has been fair to poor most nights. But I still get mag 3 or 4 in the city area. Theo is getting lots of mag 6 readings out there in the country. More to come in the coming week. We can do another round in the second half of March.

Next update will cover our submitted data in more detail.

Wow, what an evening it was. Congratulations to Larry for a job well done!! First Light for the 16″ truss project with the Beyers mount. It looks fantastic, and the seeing through it is also fantastic. This coupled with Suki’s and Larry’s hospitality made for a great evening. Amazing the albedo features we could make out on Mars. Its actually better than the C14. Guess what, we also spend time looking at M42 , but nothing compared to the view of Saturn. Larry actually had to twist my arm to stay for Saturn to clear the view, since he would not let me cut the tree down that was in its way, but for sure it was worth the wait and the trip to Alpharetta! Click here to take a look at the pictures in the gallery.

Thanks again to the Owens, and I am sure I am also speaking for Debbie and Clevis Jones, Ken Poshedley, and Shankar who stopped by also. I hope the rest of our friends will get a chance to take a peek through its eye piece soon.

Clear Skies
Theo Ramakers