Cape Fear Skies The Cape Fear Astronomical Society Newsletter - Editor Debbi Hayden Sunday, March 7, 2004 Meeting NOTE: This month's meeting will be held in Room 101 in Morton Hall, behind the auditorium. (Use the entrance to the left of Bryan Auditorium.) Features: Guest Speaker Steve Clemmons. Gastronomy! Join us before the meeting for dinner at TGI Friday's restaurant on Oleander Drive at 5:15pm. Meeting Minutes for February 8th, 2004 by CFAS Secretary Terry Herrin President Ronnie Hawes called the meeting to order at 7:05pm. Under officers' reports, Vice President Alan Hilburn will be judging the science fair again this year. Treasurer Ben Steelman handed out a treasurer report detailing the club's bank accounts. Under old business, club t-shirts are now for sale. Ben reminded everyone that membership renewals are now due. Under new business, Susan B. said the club web site is up for renewal. The annual cost is $30. A voice vote was unanimous that the site be renewed. Ronnie pointed out that Astronomy Day is Saturday, 4/24/04. The Girl Scouts have asked for a presentation at Cape Fear Academy at 7:00pm on Monday, 2/16/04. Ronnie has also been invited to give a presentation at the "Chapel on the Boardwalk" at Wrightsville Beach on 3/15/04. The Cape Fear Museum is holding the Spring Science Spectacular again this year. The date is 4/17/04 from 10:00am to 4:00pm. Also under new business, Ronnie stated that the club does not have the auditorium for the months of March and April. We will be meeting in Room 101. Ben Steelman noted the transit of Venus on 6/8/04, and presented a brochure to view it in Russia. The viewing package also includes a tour of the cosmonaut training facility in Star City. Cost is $3200.00 plus air fare. Tom brought up the Messier Marathon, and it was agreed the club would plan for viewing sessions on 3/13/04 and 3/20/04 for the event. It was also agreed that Yamacraw would be the best site, if there is no rain prior to the observing dates. Under observing reports, Ronnie thanked everyone who helped with the Saturn public viewing sessions. The first session drew around 60 people and the second drew around 30. The meeting broke for ten minutes at 7:50pm. Alan Hilburn then gave a presentation on aurora. Afterward, Ronnie adjourned the meeting at 8:45pm. News Cluster Final reminder about Society dues! Membership is $20 for an individual and $25 for a family membership. Please send your checks to Ronnie Hawes or Ben Steelman if you are unable to attend Sunday's meeting. Thank you! CFAS T-Shirts are now being ordered. Please contact Joe and Shelley Callahan if you are interested in ordering a T-shirt or sweatshirt: Please make checks payable to Joseph Callahan and mail to him (see membership list). The color of the shirts is Ash which is a light gray. The printing will be on the front of the shirt. The NON-Anniversary Generic club shirts will cost:        T-SHIRTS (no pocket to interfere with design)        Small, Medium, Large, or Extra Large $11.00        2 x = 12.00, 3 x = 13.00, 4 x = 14.00        CREW NECK PULLOVER SWEATSHIRT        Small, Medium, Large, or Extra Large $16        2 x = 17.00, 3 x = 18.00, 4 x = 19.00 Congratulations to John Buccini for capturing a spectacular picture of a solar flare on February 22, 2004! Excellent work! Tom Jacobs, Terry Herrin, and John Canaday will have copies of their field guide for doing a Messier Marathon available at the March meeting. Probably would be a good idea to contact one of them ahead of time if you wish to purchase one! Our dates for the Marathon are March 13th and March 20th, the latter being the best opportunity for seeing all objects! Sky Calendar March 03 - Mercury is in superior conjunction, lying exactly on the far side        of the Sun from Earth. Jupiter comes to opposition tonight. March 06 - Full Moon at 6:14pm EST March 07 - CFAS March Meeting March 13 - Last quarter Moon at 4:01pm EST         Messier Marathon weekend! (Moon rises at 2:03am) March 19/20 - CFAS Group Viewing Sessions - Messier Marathon weekend! March 20 - Vernal Equinox is at 1:49am EST. New Moon at 5:41pm EST March 20 - New Hanover Science Olympiad - see details on Schedule page. March 25 - Crescent Moon passes 0.8° north of Mars at 7:00pm EST March 26/27 - CFAS Group Viewing Sessions - Crescent Moon sets just after midnight. March 28 - First quarter Moon at 6:48pm EST A Look Ahead... The CFAS April 4th Meeting will again be held in Room 101 of Morton Hall instead of in Bryan Auditorium. The Spring Science Spectacular is Saturday, April 17th from 10am until 4pm at the Cape Fear Museum. Please contact Ronnie Hawes if you are able to volunteer to help. Astronomy Day is April 24th! SOUTHERN STAR is May 14-16, - see http://www.charlotteastronomers.org/sstar.htm Two Naked-Eye Comets Coming Soon! Comets visible to the unaided eye come along every two years or so. This time, though, there are going to be two comets visible at the same time: Comets C/2001 Q4 (NEAT) and C/2002 T7 (LINEAR). Comet NEAT will pass the closest to Earth on May 7, 2004 at a distance of 48 million kilometres, and will be visible near the horizon just after sunset. Comet LINEAR will make its closest pass on May 19 at 40 million kilometres. Comet NEAT is expected to be the brighter comet, brightening to magnitude 1 or 2 in late April. This will make it visible in even polluted city skies. Curious About Leap Years? What you didn't know, but were afraid to ask... Sun 29 Feb, 2004 Leap day. Our trip around the Sun takes 365.26 days, but we round it off to 365 days. In four years time that extra 0.26 days adds up to more than an entire day, so in order to keep the seasons in sync with the calandar we add that day to February. However, we end up with a little bit left over, so years divisible by 100 (1700, 1800, 1900, etc.) are not leap years. That doesn't work out exactly either, so years divisible by 400 (1600, 2000, 2400, etc.) are leap years. This system will work until about the year 5000, when the minor errors will have added up to another full day. This will have to taken care of either by having an extra leap year or a February 30th. All content unless otherwise stated Copyright (c) 2002-2004 CAPE FEAR ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY. All Rights Reserved.