The August meeting featured the annual Club Social event. This is always popular with the members and there was a really good turn out this year. Many members brought a wide array of food items, including some great desserts!
The Perseid meteor shower is expected to peak the night of the Monday Aug. 12th thru to the morning of Tuesday Aug 13th. The best times to view will be from 10:30pm to 4:00am. We are keeping our fingers crossed for good weather. The best place to view the Perseids, or any meteor shower is a location with unobstructed views as close to the horisons as possbile and away from city lights. Here is link to an article written by one…
Unfortunately we have had quite a string of clouded out RACOBS. In general, we have had rather poor weather for astronomy since mid-spring of this year. For August’s clouded out RACOBS, we had an informal meeting at the Museum where a fellow member gave a presentation of his recent visit to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The weather was not favorable for the RACOBS in July, so there was an informal meeting at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. This meeting featured a frank discussion on what kind of things the Club is doing, what we should be doing, and what may be possible to do. There were a number of interesting ideas for the officers and members to discuss in the coming years and a lot of good feedback.
After most of our astronomy club meetings, we head out as group to a local eating establishment to enjoy a late dinner or desert or even a few drinks. This is also a great opportunity to socialize with other amateur astronomers, compare notes and even share stories of new purchases/acquisitions. That is exactly what I did after a recent meeting, I showed off a new observing book I recently purchased, Objects in the Heavens, 5th edition by Peter Birren.
Report Period: 1 Apr 2013 – 30 Jun 2013 Income & Expenses INCOME Membership Dues 1,105.00 Interest 1.28 Total $1,106.28 EXPENSES PayPal Transaction Fees (PayPal) -29.37 Executive Committee Meeting (Mike Keefe) -29.14 AL Dues (Astronomical League) -690.00 Safe Deposit Box (Wells Fargo) -75.00 Speaker Expenses (Ian Hewitt & Phyllis Lang) -615.20 Website (IPower& Michael Kidd) 9.95 Total -$1,428.76 Account Balances Business Checking 2,080.81 ($182.15 uncleared) PayPal 92.01 Regular Savings 10,311.69 Special Purpose 1,436.05 Total $13,920.56 Memberships Individual Memberships 97 Family…
General Elections The Officers nominated by 5pm on 6/28/2013 (when the voting closed) were: Co-Chairs: Ian Hewitt, Mike Keefe, Chris Cole Secretary: Ann Murphy Treasure: Chuck Jaynes
Speakers: Ian Hewitt, Mark Lang, Joe Pedit, Steve Izzo, Chris Cole This was a special meeting for the elections, not to mention that the weather did not cooperate for a RACOBS. This meeting showcased various club members’ photos. It was very interesting and there were a lot of questions. Five club members that presented were Ian Hewitt, Mark Lang, Joe Pedit, Steve Izzo and Chris Cole. At the end of the meeting there were announcements about presenters that will be…
Amateur Astronomy – The Next 50 Years. Johnny Horne reflects on his time spent in the hobby…and plans for the future. Johnny Horne started off talking about where he grew up and lived his entire life. This is Stedman, NC. He had the advantage of being able to see the same sky his entire life. He has been interested in astronomy since age ten. The other topics included his observatory, the eclipses that he has seen and a general talk…
On 6/15/2013, several members took advantage of the nice weather to go out to Howell Woods
Six intrepid members traveled to Howell Woods for a night of viewing and imaging on Thursday, May 30. Favorite objects, and these are just a few, were Saturn, M16,M51,M81-82, M57, M65-66, and a number of globular clusters.
Although attendance at the May Imaging Meeting was light (as often happens this time of year), but everyone still had an enjoyable and interesting time.
On Tuesday evening, May 14th, there was an impromptu observing session at the club’s Big Woods site. There were only two members present, Greg Bradburn and Michael Keefe, but that is enough to have a productive evening. Greg started out with some imaging of Saturn and then moved over the take some images of the Markarian Chain. For Mike, this was “first light” for his new (to him) Celestron CPC 1100 telescope.
Date: April 18th, 2013 Officers attending: Ann Murphy, Ian Hewitt, Mike Keefe, Chuck Jaynes Elections – All The elections need to be announced for the next meeting. The election must take place in April, May or June. The nominations will be opened for the April meeting. Nominations needed by May. The nominations can take place at the meeting or on-line. The members can vote in person, on-line voting, or absentee ballots. The election will take place during the June meeting. Even if…
RAC was privileged to bring in Rod Mollise from Alabama for the April 2013 meeting. Rod is now a contributing editor for Sky & Telescope Magazine. He has recently completed a big project: observing 2500 deep-sky objects cataloged by William and Carolina Herschel. Rod began his discussion by giving the group a history lesson on the Herschel’s. Wilhelm and Lina (William and Caroline) were born in Hannover Germany in the early1700s. They emigrated to England. William was initially a musician…
