Cape Fear Astronomical Society Newsletter - Editor Debbi Hayden Sunday, February 8, 2004 Meeting Featuring Alan Hilburn who will be doing a presentation on auroras. Join us before the meeting for dinner at Texas Roadhouse on Eastwood Road (in front of Home Depot), at 5:15 pm. There will be a screening of the classic 1950 movie Rocketship X-M after the meeting for those who would like to stay. Meeting Minutes for January 4th, 2004 by CFAS Secretary Terry Herrin President Ronnie Hawes called the meeting to order at 7:08pm. There were no officers' reports. Under new business, Alan Hilburn said he has talked with Conrad Pope about doing a presentation later this year on astrophotography. It was decided with Ronnie's approval to use his address for members to mail in dues. It was also decided that the two public Saturn viewing sessions would be held at Snipes Elementary School on 1/31/04 and 2/7/04. Both meetings will start at 8:00pm (Note: later changed to 7:30) and end at 11:00pm. There will be no rain dates for these events. Tommy Puckett said there are four home school families that have asked the club to give a presentation. Tommy said he will contact them and give them Ronnie's contact information. Under old business, Ronnie said he talked with Johnny Horne. Mr. Horne would like for us to come up there again in the near future. Under observing reports, Alan watched for Quadrantids the morning of the meeting. He believes he saw one. The meeting broke for ten minutes at 7:50pm. Ronnie then led this month's presentation, which was a discussion about future presentations. Members were asked to submit suggestions on what they would like to see in the future. Alan suggested a presentation on auroras, and one on the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and the Apache Point Observatory. Debbi Hayden had a number of suggestions, including astrophotography, pulsars and quasars, variable stars, solar observing, and tricks for identifying constellations and primary stars. Tom Jacobs suggested having one on Jupiter. Terry Herrin suggested two videos, "Supermassive Black Holes" and "Failure is not an Option". Ronnie suggested a presentation titled "This Earth: Our Place in the Universe". Concluding the presentation, Ronnie adjourned the meeting at 8:50pm. News Cluster Don't forget to pay your membership dues! Checks can be mailed to Ben Steelman or Ronnie Hawes if you cannot make it to the Sunday evening meeting. (Addresses on Membership List.) The amounts are $20 for an individual membership and $25 for a family membership. Please let Ronnie Hawes know if you can participate in the public viewing sessions of Saturn at Snipes Elementary School on January 31st and February 7th, both beginning at 7:30pm. From the success of the Mars viewing sessions, we can expect a great turn-out, so please help by bringing your telescopes! Mars rover Opportunity successfully landed on the Red Planet right on schedule at 12:05am on January 25th! We are already receiving gorgeous images of its new surroundings! Spirit's condition has been upgraded from Critical to Serious, at the time of this newsletter's printing. The problem appears to be in the rover's "flash memory", and may have resulted from being commanded to do too many tasks. Sky Calendar Jan 31 - Public Viewing Session for Saturn #1 at 7:30pm, Snipes Elem. School Feb 06 - Full Moon at 3:47 am EST Feb 07 - Public Viewing Session for Saturn #2 at 7:30pm, Snipes Elem. School. Feb 08 - CFAS Meeting at 7:00pm. Dinner at Texas Roadhouse at 5:15pm Feb 13 -Last quarter Moon at 8:40am EST Feb 13/14 - CFAS Group Viewing Sessions (last quarter Moon rises between             12:40am and 2:00am these nights) Feb 15 -Photo Opportunity! Jupiter's moons Io, Europa, and Callisto             form a compact grouping around 11:00pm EST Feb 20 -New Moon at 4:18am EST Feb 20/21 - CFAS Group Viewing Sessions Feb 22 - Jupiter's moons again form a compact grouping around 1:00am EST Feb 27 -First quarter Moon at 10:24pm EST All content unless otherwise stated Copyright (c) 2002-2004 CAPE FEAR ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY. All Rights Reserved.