Cape Fear Skies The Cape Fear Astronomical Society Newsletter - Editor Debbi Hayden This Month's Meeting will be: Sunday, April 3, 2005 Terry Herrin will present the DVD: Failure is not an Option, about NASA’s Mission Control from Mercury, through Gemini and Apollo. It is narrated by Gene Kranz, based on his book. It will be presented in two parts, with the second part being shown in May. This is an outstanding documentary. Tom Jacobs will show pictures of our new potential viewing site in Mooretown. Gastronomy! Join us before the meeting for dinner at at Applebee's restaurant on New Center Drive at 5:15pm! There will be a screening of the classic 1951 movie The Man from Planet X after the meeting for those who would like to stay. This film was shot in six days on a budget of $41,000. Thrown together to capitalize on the success of The Thing, most people come away impressed with what the director accomplished with so little time and money. One interesting piece of trivia: The alien communicates using musical notes. An idea reused later by Stephen Spielberg in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Meeting Minutes for March 6th, 2005 - by CFAS Editor Debbi Hayden President Ronnie Hawes called the March meeting of the Cape Fear Astronomical Society to order at 7:04pm. Under old business, please remember to keep Joe Callahan in your thoughts and prayers as he has had quadruple bypass surgery recently. Ronnie discussed the staff meeting that was held at his house on 03/05/05 - 90% of the meeting was going over the Society's current Constitution. Renewal of the lease agreement for Yamacraw site was also finally decided upon - it was decided that we are renewing our lease for the dark-sky site for another year at a rate of $100 with a vote of 8 in favor of renewing to 5 against. The potential for a new observing site was brought up by Chris Babson at the Saturday night staff meeting. She knows of a gentleman involved with Cub Scouts that has land off of Route 210 in Burgaw that may be willing to allow us to use his field. She said there are bathrooms and an area with picnic tables. The lights out there are able to be turned off as well. There was a proposal to visit the site both during the day and at night to assess the skies. Under new business, there were several proposed changes to the constitution: - Dues are to be prorated at $5 per remaining quarter of the year for new members only and all dues are payable in January. - Membership privileges will cease if current members have not paid their dues at or before the March meeting. - An *electronic meeting* was defined and proposed to allow business to be conducted via email. All proposed changes will be presented in the April newsletter and voted upon at the April meeting. We also discussed whether or not to continue membership in the Astronomical League. The dues are to be paid in either May or June and are typically $20-$25 plus $3-$4 per member in the CFAS. New programs were discussed, and Alan Hilburn requested we ask Ken Murphy (a local meteorologist) to speak to us one month. A series of constellation programs were proposed to be done perhaps quarterly. Also, a very basic telescope set-up program was brought up. Upcoming events include a CFAS cookout, which has been discussed at previous meetings, as Becky has kindly offered to host it at her property at some point. We may also be doing a public viewing session and a telescope clinic in the near future. The *Spring Science Spectacular* normally held in April is now becoming the *Community Cornucopia* to be held in the Fall on October 15th of this year. More on this at a later date! November 1st - 8th are the dates for the Mid-Atlantic Star Party (MASP) this year (see Tom Jacobs for any questions you may have). We may also be doing a program for the Cub Scouts in April. Under observing reports, a member reported seeing the International Space Station around 6:10am one morning this past month. Tom Jacobs presented a NASA video with actual footage and communications during the Apollo 8 mission. The meeting was adjourned at 9:16pm. News Cluster - We will hear a presentation about the new proposed viewing site. A few club members went to see the site and really liked it! - Remaining in the Astronomical League will be discussed and voted upon. - We will be voting upon the proposed changes to the CFAS Constitution during the business meeting. - Don't forget to send an email to Sam Bissette regarding what equipment you currently use for astronomical viewing! He is sending this information to our sister society in Australia! - Please look over your information in the address list provided with this newsletter and let me know if there are any changes to be made! Sky Calendar April 01 - Last quarter Moon at 7:50pm EST April 1/2 - CFAS Group Viewing Sessions. Moon rises between 1:00am and 2:20am            these nights. Set your clocks ahead one hour! April 03 - April meeting of the CFAS at 7:00pm April 08 - New Moon at 4:32pm EDT April 8/9 - CFAS Group Viewing Sessions. Annular/Total solar eclipse for parts of the            Pacific Ocean, southern North America and western South America. April 16 - First quarter Moon at 10:37am EDT April 22 - Photo Opportunity! Lyrid Meteor Shower peaks in the pre-dawn hours.            The nearly-full Moon will obscure most of the meteors, however. April 24 - Full Moon at 6:06am EDT. You may be able to see a partial darkening of the            northern half of the moon as it sets this morning. Amending the CFAS Constitution At the staff meeting held at Ronnie Hawes' home on Saturday, March 5th several issues were discussed – most of which concerned the current CFAS Constitution. The most recent update to the Constitution was done back in 1997, and it was decided that making some additions and clarifications would be beneficial to the current Cape Fear Astronomical Society. I will outline these proposed changes and they will be discussed and voted upon at the April meeting. The current wording in the Constitution had the nominations for officers in the months of September and October, and the election was to be held at the December meeting. The proposal is for the new Constitution to state the nominations would be held in the months of October and November, leaving the elections in December. Membership dues were also discussed, and it was proposed to make a clarification to the Constitution regarding payment of said dues. Currently the Constitution states only that society dues are *due and payable in the first calendar month of each year.* The clarification proposed would include prorating dues for new members only. This would mean that a new member joining the CFAS would be required to pay for only the remaining quarters or portions of quarters remaining in that calendar year. For example, if current dues are $20 for a single membership and a person decides to join in the month of May, he/she would be required to pay only $15 for the year and the full $20 would be due again in the following January. Likewise, a new member joining in November (during the final quarter of that year), would only pay $5 and then the regular $20 would be due again the following January. Dues would become payable in January for all current members. Those members who have not paid before or during the March meeting, will be dropped from the mailing list of both the newsletter and the email list. If that member decides to rejoin later that year, the full $20 would have to be paid, regardless of the time remaining in that year. It was also proposed that a new type of meeting be defined – an electronic meeting. This would be a way to conduct business via the email list. Things such as changing the meeting date and/or time could be done by having the membership *vote* to make such changes. Any type of proposal could be made by a member, there would be a set amount of time to allow for the voting/feedback, and decisions could be carried out in this manner. An addition to the definition of an electronic meeting, a quorum of votes had to be defined. In keeping with the current definition of a quorum in the Constitution for regular business meetings, an electronic meeting quorum would be twenty-five percent of the regular membership. This means that for any proposed business that cannot wait until the next regular meeting, a minimum of 25% of the CFAS membership must participate and approve of the matter at hand in order for the motion to be carried. The current Constitution has a provision that in the case of a tie during the election of an officer, *the race for that office will be decided in favor of the older candidate.* This is after a runoff vote with members writing their choice on a blank ballot. The proposed change to the Constitution would have the tie broken by the toss of a coin, rather than the candidates' ages.. There is a section that provides for the distribution of assets upon the dissolution of the Society. Currently, the residual assets are to be divided equally between the Cumberland County Astronomy Club and the Astronomical League. The Cumberland County club no longer exists, and the structure of the Astronomical League has changed in such a way, that we may be better off dividing the assets differently. The proposed recipients of the CFAS' remaining assets are 1) The Grand Strand Skygazers, 2) The Raleigh Astronomy Club, and 3) The Mid-Atlantic Star Party. Hopefully, this will never be needed, but just in case... A *changing of duties* was also discussed that involve the Treasurer's and Editor's responsibilities. Currently, the Secretary is stated to maintain an up-to-date roster of the membership. The proposed change would have the Treasurer keep the updated roster because he/she would have been receiving the dues payments. This is pretty much the way it is currently being done, so this would be just to make it *official* in the Constitution. The Secretary is also charged with providing the membership with news and information of astronomical interest. This sounds a lot like what the newsletter Editor is responsible for, so that is the proposed change for this duty. Not involving the Constitution, another proposal was made to discontinue our membership in the Astronomical League. This will also be discussed during the April business meeting. Currently, the benefits to being a member include: 1) receiving The Reflector (a monthly magazine), 2) receiving a 10% discount on certain books, and 3) they allow you access to their media lending program. The dues for membership in the Astronomical League are around $20 plus $3-$4 per member in the astronomy club. Ben gave us the figures of what has been paid in the past, and we will be deciding if this money is being well-spent. This is basically what we have to discuss and vote upon, so be sure to attend the meeting if you want your opinion heard and your vote to count! See you on Sunday! What's Up Down Under? News from the other side of the planet... - Check out the new March edition of Geodyssey! Carl Rainer is doing an excellent job on their newsletter! http://www.asaw.org.au/news.htm - President David Thurley presented a summary of how Easter is calculated and when Easter Sunday is actually celebrated each year. Easter Sunday is calculated and defined as the first Sunday following the first full Moon on or after the 21/22 March autumnal (for Australia) equinox. - Member John Bennett was able to get the local electric company to install switches on the street lights around his property to enable him to turn the lights off for viewing sessions! Great job! - Check out the group photo of the ASAW members on our website, under the Sister Club section! A nice looking bunch!. ____________________________________________________________ All content unless otherwise stated Copyright (c) 2002-2005 CAPE FEAR ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY. All Rights Reserved.