RAC – Page 14 – Raleigh Astronomy Club

Recap: Elections and Exoplanets: July 28!

Recap: The July meeting of the RAC featured a talk by special guest Dr. Chris Richardson, Assistant Professor of Physics at Elon University. Dr. Richardson gave a lively and engaging presentation about Exoplanets. He discussed recent results in this popular area of research, especially the enormous amount of data coming from the Kepler Space Telescope. He also discussed the various components of the famous Drake Equation. Dr. Frank Drake created the equation in 1961. It attempts to compute the number…

Constitutional Amendment [Vote Ended]

RAC News, Uncategorized

At the RAC Indoor meeting on June 23, 2016 a constitutional amendment was motioned, seconded, and the motion was carried on a unanimous vote. The amendment now has to be voted on by the club as a whole. Voting is permitted online – you will see the form below. Voting will be open until July 27, 2016. After that time, votes will be tallied and formally cast (similar to absentee ballots) on July 28, 2016 at the next RAC Indoor…

RAC Meeting Recap – June 23

Club Reports, RAC News, Uncategorized

Thank you to all who attended the RAC Indoor meeting on June 23. There was no presentation at this meeting as the Ozfest talk was delayed until August. This was an important business meeting primarily to discuss officer elections and future meetings. Constitutional Amendment: A proposed constitutional amendment was discussed, particularly since one of our Co-Chair’s is at his term limit (3 years). Section 5. Limitations of Office‑Holding. No officer shall simultaneously hold more than one elected office. No member…

RAC Meeting and Business, May 12, 2016

Club Reports, Uncategorized

Chris Cole ran the meeting 14 people signed the roster Mark Lang acting secretary Speaker: Dr. Rachael Smith Topic: Astronomy from the Stratosphere – Observing with EXES on SOFIA Synopsis: The first 30 minutes of Dr. Smith’s talk described her experience on the SOFIA aircraft itself. She took lots of photos and wore a GO-PRO camera and shared her images. She showed how the Boeing 747 was modified to house the 2.5 meter telescope in its own airtight room and…

March Business Meeting

Club Reports, Uncategorized

Co-chairman Mike Mantini hosted the meeting at the NC Museum of Natural Sciences, 4th Floor ECC room. 29 members and visitors attended. The evening’s presentation was “Observing Galaxy Evolution at Intermediate Redshifts” by NC State Senior Mia De Los Reyes. A recording of the talk can be viewed on the RAC YouTube Channel, or directly, here. 1.Co-Chair Phyllis Lang talked about RAC’s ongoing education series at the museum. On a monthly basis a RAC volunteer delivers a presentation aimed for the general…

Meeting Minutes 25 Feb 2016

Club Reports, Uncategorized

Co-chairman Chris Cole hosted the meeting. 31 members and visitors attended. The evening’s presentation was “Binary Stars” by club member Jim DellaPenna. The talk was streamed live and recorded for YouTube, and it was very well received by attendees. 1. Club elections are coming up. We will need to elect 3 new Co-chairpersons and a new Secretary. Our current Treasurer (Steve Izzo) plans to run again. Please contact an officer at [email protected] if you have questions about fulfilling any of these…

In Memoriam: Gerald F. Watson II

RAC News, Uncategorized

22 May 1937- 28 January 2016 The Raleigh Astronomy Club lost a long time member and contributor on January 28, 2016. Born and raised in Erie Pennsylvania, Jerry obtained his Bachelor of Science in meteorology at Pennsylvania State University in 1959 and continued his meteorological studies earning a Master of Science degree from The University of Chicago in 1962 and a Ph. D. from Florida State University in 1971. He joined the faculty at North Carolina State University in 1972…

Astronomy Days 2016

RAC News, Uncategorized

The Raleigh Astronomy Club and the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences hosts Astronomy Days 2016 on Saturday and Sunday, January 30-31, 2016. This years event was very successful with over 15,800 visitors coming out to learn about space and astronomy.

Posting to RAC Social Media (Officers)

RAC Member Help, Uncategorized

When creating a post, and officer/committee head/admin can trigger the contents of the post to be posted to some or all of the RAC Social Media sites. This includes: Facebook Twitter Google+ When using this function please note that it will only post the FIRST time the article is published. Changes after the first time will not be pushed out to Social Media. Also, it is good idea to keep social media posts very short and concise. In order to…

Approving User Posts (Officers)

RAC Member Help, Uncategorized

By default, posts from members need to be moderated before they will publicly appear on the site. When a user enters a post from the front end of the site, the post will automatically go into a Pending state. An email will be sent to the RAC webmaster and officer alias to identify that a user post has been submitted. It must then be manually approved. In order to approve the post, go to the admin part of the site…

Editing Your Profile Information

RAC Member Help, Uncategorized

You can edit your profile information at any time by going to the My Profile screen. This screen can be accessed via the MEMBERSHIP INFO->EDIT MY PROFILE menu item. A sample is below: You can edit any of the fields in your profile (e.g. email address), except for the username, which is not changeable. Please note the following important items about your profile: It is highly recommended that you do not use your user name as the public display name.…

January Business Meeting

Club Reports, Uncategorized

RAC met on January 29, 2016. There were about 47 members and guests in attendence beginning at 7pm with a talk, “Unmasking Europa” by Dr. Rick Greenberg. Many thanks Dr. Greenberg for agreeing to share his knowledge of this Jovian moon with us. After the meeting, a short business meeting was held. Phyllis Lang reported club finances in proxy for Steve Izzo, club treasurer. About 40% of the 2015 club members have paid dues for 2016. Members have another…

Unmasking Europa

RAC News, Uncategorized

RAC enjoyed a special pre-Astronomy Days presentation on Friday, January 29 by Professor Richard Greenberg entitled “Unmasking Europa: the Search for Life on Jupiter’s Ocean Moon”. Professor Greenberg is a Professor Emeritus of Planetary Sciences at the University of Arizona. He discussed his research and that of others in regard to the Jovian moon Europa. Dr. Greenberg’s research team derived the thin-ice model of Europa which describes an active icy crust that covers a liquid saline water ocean of about…

Special Meeting Jan 29

RAC News, Uncategorized

Please join us for a special meeting Friday, Jan 29 at 7pm for “Unmasking Europa: The Search for Life on Jupiter’s Ocean Moon” by Dr. Richard Greenberg. The meeting is in the 4th floor Environmental Conference Center in the Nature Research Center at the NC Museum of Natural Sciences.

Adding RAC to your Google Calendar

RAC Member Help, Uncategorized

CALENDAR SYNC WITH GOOGLE These quick instructions will allow you to add events from the RAC calendar to Google Calendars. Any calendar app which accepts .ics files (which is the gold standard) should work, just the steps will be different. On your computer, open Google Calendar. On the left side, find “Other calendars” and click the down arrow . Select Add by URL. Enter ‘http://raleighastro.org/events.ics’ in the field provided. Click Add calendar. The calendar will appear on the left side…