Tonight’s guest speaker was Rod Streeper who is the North America operations manger for Redshift 7.  His talk was “Redshift 7.”  Lucky for us, Rod lives in Shelby NC and was able to drive in for our program.  Rod’s talk began with what is a planetarium program and what does it do.  He covered specific aspects of Redshift 7 such as what catalogs are included, how the graphics work, images included, how to plan an observation session, and how to do scope control.  Redshift 7 is targeted to a basic to medium skilled user.  Rod showed some of the videos included in the product as well as some of the simulations available.  One very interesting feature shown was the new version for the Apple iPad.  Rod passed around an iPad which was running Redshift 7 to the group to try out.  At the end of the meeting, a drawing was held for a free copy of Redshift 7.  Richard Ossowski was the winner.  At the break, Rod had copies available for purchase at a special discount price.  Many members took advantage of this offer.

In the business part of the meeting, Doug Lively talked about the planning for Astronomy Days which is coming up on May 20 and 21.  He went over the exhibits planned and solicited for volunteers and leads.  Brian Reasor spoke briefly to the group about the upcoming Messier Marathon.  Planning is still ongoing, but the tentative date will be April 2 with the observing site still under consideration.  Mike Keefe talked about the need for a publicity committee.  This committee would attend RAC events and take photos which would be posted on the website.  Today was the last day for anyone who wanted to be an observing site key committee member to submit an application.  The Museum’s “Sun Day” was mentioned.  It is tentatively scheduled for sometime in April.  They want the Club’s help with solar observing.  A CHAOS club star party was announced.  It will be held at Staunton River State Park in Scottsburg Virginia on March 4.