Meeting Minutes October 11, 2024

October 11, 2024

Co-Chair Dana Bostic hosted the meeting in-person at the NC Museum of Natural Sciences, as well as virtually using the Zoom platform. 19 meeting participants attended in-person, 10 attended via Zoom.

Upcoming Events: See Outreach report below for more events

2024 RAC BBQ

 

You Can Almost Touch the Stars – An Introduction to Astronomical Spectroscopy

Meeting Description: 

Even if you wanted to touch a star, they’re all impossibly distant. In spite of these great distances,
astronomers have learned an enormous amount about stars. How? The most common method to study
the stars is called spectroscopy, which is the science of analyzing the colorful rainbow spectrum
produced by a prism-like device.

Speaker: Tom Field 

Tom Field  was a Contributing Editor at Sky & Telescope Magazine for ten years. He is the founder of Field Tested Systems and the author of the RSpec software (www.rspec-astro.com) which received the S&T “Hot Product” award. A pioneer in the field of amateur astronomical spectroscopy, Tom aims to demystify Spectroscopy and make it accessible to all. He promises to open the door for you to this fascinating field!

Tom’s presentation will be posted on the RAC YouTube channel

Business:

Current Officers & Committee Chairs

Co-Chairs: Naveen Malik, Dana Bostic & Anastasia Vail

Treasurer: Steve Izzo

Secretary: Susan Herring

Committee Chairs:

ALCOR: Dean Herring

Outreach: Steven Blake

Webmaster: Barton Meeks

Loaner Scopes: Rob Parsons

Key Holders: Naveen Malik

Education: Anastasia Vail,

Social Media: Anastasia Vail

Imaging: Chris Cole

A/V: Naveen Malik

Reports:

Treasurer’s Report: Steven Izzo

Membership: – 538 total.

330 single memberships
121 family memberships with 87secondary members

Financials:

Business checking: $1,659.70
Savings: $23,823.41
Special purpose checking: $48.39

Astronomical League Awards: Dean Herring

• Barton Meeks – Parker Solar probe Challenge – Certificate (Sleeve) and Pin
• Susan Herring – Parker Solar probe Challenge – Certificate (Sleeve) and Pin

Outreach Report: Steve Blake

• October 4 – First Fridays with TLC at Three Bear Acres (Creedmoor)
  • Canceled due to weather forecast

Upcoming Events:

• October 30 – The Willard Rooftop (Raleigh)
• November 02 – RAC Class (Imaging Workshop: Topic TBD)
• November 07 – Morrisville Community Library (Morrisville)
• November 08 – First Fridays with TLC at Three Bear Acres (Creedmoor) (This event was moved from the 1st)
• November 09 – Stargazing on Tap Star Party (Cameron)
• November 12 – STEAM Night: Salem ES (Apex)
• November 23 – Prairie Ridge Ecostation (Raleigh)
  • Joint event with Morehead Planetarium
• December 04 – STEM Night: Apex Friendship ES (Apex)
• December 06 – First Fridays with TLC at Three Bear Acres (Creedmoor)
• December 18 – The Willard Rooftop (Raleigh)

Loaner Scope Report:  Rob Parsons

Cassagrains: 8 out / 0 available/ 2 in for repair

Dobsonians: 10 out / 1 available

Maksutovs: 1 out / 1 available

Refractors: 1 out / 1 available

Reflectors: 2 out / 2 available

Binoculars: 1 out / 3 available

Imaging Meeting & Report:

Quarterly Imaging Challenge — (Supernova Remnants)

Thu Oct 17 2024, 07:30pm EDT

Cherry Building

No Reports:

• A/V
• Keyholder
• Social Media
• Webmaster Team

Education Committee Report: Anastasia Vail

UPCOMING CLASSES: Cherry Building at Dix

• November 2, 2024 class will be an imaging workshop (topic TBD, led by Chris and Naveen)
• December 7, 2024 class will be about polar aligning an EQ mount (official title TBD, led by Rob Parsons).

After meeting Social:

Sammy’s

 

All First Friday Under the Stars with TLC events in 2024 will be held at Three Bear Acres, until further notice.

The observing committee is looking for volunteers to coordinate events and assist at events with or without a telescope. To join the committee, send a blank email to [email protected]. Any club member is welcome, regardless of experience level. To volunteer for an event, register via the RAC Calendar.