May 5th we did retrieve the pinhole camera at East Newton Elementary school. Everyone was excited to find out what the camera had recorded between February 1st and May 5th. Here is the result and one can nicely see the path of the Sun through the sky, the sunny and cloudy days, as well as days with some scattered clouds. The reording period started off with a number of cloudy days.(See the lower end of dark arcs at right). We would like to thanks Mrs. Thompson for arranging for us to bring this project to her school.

This was our 6th year of Solar Outreach at Anna Ruby Falls. 9 of our members did participate with 10 scopes. Frank did let the visitors see Venus in bright day light which not many expected. The Sun showed two small spots but a few large filaments did dress up the sun very nicely for this event. About 500 visors did get to see and learn today what happens on the Sun. A number of them were very excited and told us they will for sure pay us a visit at one of our meetings and observing sessions. A great event and thanks the Michels, Marie and Tim Lott, Bob Jacoby and Dominic, Mark Dove, Frank Garner with his greandaughter and friend, and Theo for coming out to this great spot in North Georgia to show the visitors what’s up there in daytime.  Click the image to go to the Gallery for more pictures and an image of the Sun taken at the event.

The April meeting conveyed at 5:00 PM EDT at the Charlie Elliott Wildlife Center. Thirty-four members and guests were in attendance.  Steve Siedentop, Chapter Director, opened the meeting and announced the Board is proposing changes to the clubs By-laws as follows:
□ Clarify the roles of Club elected Officers.
□ Adding a new position to oversee the clubs Facilities and equipment.
□ Adoption of an annual operating planning process and budget.
□ Overhaul of the chapters Outreach program to better balance our commitments with volunteer capacity to support.

Steve also reminded attendees that annual officer elections will occur at the May meeting and asked for nominations to be submitted to Steve. He also announced the existing officers have volunteered to serve another year.  Steve then reminded attendees that CE officials have elected to install a locked gate at the entrance to the observing field. The code to the lock will be provided to all paying members.  Lastly, Steve reminded that it is time to renew dues and urged all members to do so as soon as possible. An updated membership roster will be placed on the clubs web site before the May meeting.

John Towne, Observing Supervisor, delivered the ‘What’s Up’ presentation featuring the Constellation Virgo. John’s image of the Pleiades was featured as our image of the month. Johns presentation is available on the clubs website.

Up next was Jack Fitzmier, Chapter Astronomy League coordinator who presented AL observing awards to:
Dan Thoman – Basic Level Outreach
David Whalen – Basic and Stellar Level Outreach
Marie Lott – Binocular Messier Program
Congrats to all for their accomplishments and hard work!

The April meeting conveyed at 5:00 PM EDT at the Charlie Elliott Wildlife Center. Thirty-four members and guests were in attendance.

I received this thank you note from Mrs. Veasey in regard to our outreach last Friday after she received the “quick Jupiter image”.

That is incredible. I don’t think I have ever seen Jupiter in such detail. Breathtaking!
Thanks again for bringing all your people and scopes and presentation and expertise to make our astronomy night the best ever! We really appreciate what your club does for us. I hope that you are able to do this for many groups, as you provide such an amazing service to the community. Some people have never had any opportunity to see anything like this, and you open up worlds to them.
Soon we’ll have to start thinking about next year’s date. The calendar person at the school always wants things like this on the calendar by the end of the school year!
Friday night was so beautiful. We lucked out! Mother nature was very cooperative.
Again,thanks for everything.
Marjorie

The centerline of the Tornado warning yesterday afternoon went straight over CEWC. I went out this morning to check and see if there was any damage to our Scope building. No damage at all Rusty told me Saturday afternoon that they were setting up a second Gate. I have added pictures where the North side of the field has two openings and a wooden frame is added on the side of the East side of the field. Lastly there is a little outhouse next to the scope building. Don’t know if that will stay or will be removed.

Back to Heard Mixon with sunny cloudless skies, to give the students a better understanding of our Sun and also give them a feeling of the relative sizes of the planets compared to the Sun as well as the distances between them. Today the Sun showed some real nice prominences and as the sessions went on the proms changed dramatically. Especially a detached prom which grew in front of our eyes. The kids liked what they saw and were surprised about the proms and filaments. They went back into the classrooms having learned a little more about the Solar System and our Star. Please click the image below to go to the gallery.

Frank Garner and Theo Ramakers went to Flint Hill for the 4th grade Astronomy Days. The first day we made 1/2 hour presentations in the class room in which we took the students on a trip through the Solar System and showed close ups of the planets and explained to them what they were seeing. We also discussed the effect of gravity in those places. Outside they observed the Sun in visible light and Ha. Our relative size and distance activity concluded each class and the students went away having learned something they really did not know yet. Please click the image to link to some pictures from the event.

We have seen a good number of images taken in the last month, but David Whalen has been very persistent in trying to get better with imaging Jupiter. Last Saturday the seeing was great and David captured his best Jupiter so far. With seeing as bad as it has been for months, this was very rewarding for David. The image was taken with his C1100, a DMK41AU02AS, 500 frames captured with ICapture and stacked and processed in Registax6. Very nice job David!!!

CEA had its yearly NASA/NSN Award Presentation as part of the March Potluck Dinner Meeting.
In 2013, 20 Members did participate in CEA’s outreach and our statistics are great:
Participating Members 20
Total Events 80
Public facing members 226
Volunteer hours 1,181
Miles Driven to Events 13,818
Reached out to 18,350 individuals

The following is a list of individuals who earned their NASA/NSN Award Pin and the number of events each member logged. One needs to participate in at least 5 events to qualify for the award and pin:
Dominik Giacobbe 5
Marilyn Edwards 5
Jon Edwards 6
Jack Fitzmier 6
Tim Lott 6
Jim Lancaster 8
John Towne 16
Marie Lott 23
Steve Siedentop 23
Frank Garner 56
Theo Ramakers 67

The following members did participate in less than 5 events:
Bob Jacoby, Jeff Rebitzke, Steve Phillips, Kyle Cavin, Bruce Wengryn, Valerie and David Whalen, and Annette and Pierre Michel.

A special award went to Maria Zorka, Morgan Cline and Paul Blackney for their generous donations to our outreach program in 2013.

Thanks to everyone who helped in bringing astronomy a little closer to so many people.
Clear Skies,
Theo Ramakers,
CEA Outreach Coordinator