Cape Fear Skies The Cape Fear Astronomical Society Newsletter - Editor Ric Longren This Month's Meeting will be: Sunday, May 6, 2007 Gastronomy! Join us before the meeting for dinner at ...., India Mahal at 5:15 pm. Meeting Minutes for April 1st, 2007 - by CFAS Secretary Letisha McLaughlin The Cape Fear Astronomical Society’s Apr 2007 meeting was initiated at 7:10 PM in the Morton Hall Auditorium on the UNC Wilmington campus. The attendance for the night totaled 12 members and 0 visitors. Officer’s Report Secretary Letisha McLaughlin announced she had been accepted into the graduate astrophysics program at North Carolina State University and would be attending in the fall of 2007. In addition, she was also invited back to Montana State University for the second summer to study solar physics. President Ronnie Hawes recently celebrated a birthday on Mar 24th. Happy birthday Mr. President! Treasurer Ben Steelman gave the monthly account status. The CFAS remains in the black with the checking balance now at $2,340.98. He also recommended moving a minimum of $500 to CD in order to gain interest. A motion to do so was both made and passed by the group. Old Business According to the constitution, Mar was the last month to pay member dues. If anyone has missed the deadline, he or she is no longer a member. Payment of dues is necessary to re-establish member privileges. Apr 21, 2007 is this year’s Astronomy Day. The club will be celebrating by holding a public observing event at Fort Fisher from 7:30 to 11:00 PM. The president has been given a permit to use the park by the airstrip. Members will also be allowed to park their vehicles by the site, but visitors must park in the designated areas. A few attendees discussed possibly posting the event on the WECT and WWAY event calendars. The lock box from the Yamacraw observing site is in the possession of club member Tom Jacobs. He is currently working to return the box to working order. New Business John Guetta announced that a couple of shirt prices and options were omitted from the email sent to the club to inform everyone of the selection of CFAS accessories available for purchase. President Ronnie Hawes suggested adopting a new way to select the monthly “Gastronomy” restaurant. He asked for member recommendations and in response received several. Next month, in May, the CFAS will be meeting at the India Mahal on S. College road. Morton Hall auditorium is reserved for May, but has not been booked by the club for the second half of the year. Ronnie Hawes agreed to do this very soon. The program for the night was given by Vice President Terry Herrin in the form of a DVD presentation. This was a last minute substitution for Tom Jacob’s presentation, which has been postponed for the next Apr Fool’s Day meeting. News Cluster ?The next meeting of the Cape Fear Astronomical Society is May 6 starting at 7:00 pm. ?The Cape Fear Astronomy Society participated in a public viewing at Fort Fisher on Saturday Apr 21 in celebration of Astronomy Day 2007. There was a good membership turnout with ~8 scopes set up for public viewing. There were 100+ visitors in attendance with lines forming at each scope. It was very gratifying to see a child’s face light up when viewing Saturn for the first time. Many visitors were very appreciative of club members sharing their time and equipment. A big thank you to those members and family who attended! ? Secretary Letisha McLaughlin announced she had been accepted into the graduate astrophysics program at North Carolina State University and would be attending in the fall of 2007. In addition, she was also invited back to Montana State University for the second summer to study solar physics. Congratulations!! The club wishes you the very best. We’ll miss you. ?From Katy Haugland, Vice President of the Sidewalk Astronomers: “Many of you are familiar with the concept of sidewalk astronomy, started by John Dobson back in the 60's. We are taking his vision a step further by organizing one night in which all amateurs around the world can set up their telescopes in public locations and offer free views of the night sky to the general public. Our goal is to get 1000 telescopes set up worldwide on May 19, 2007, and if each telescope operator lets 100 people look through their telescope, that will be 100,000 people who have gotten their first up close look at the rest of the universe. We would appreciate it if you could let us know in advance if and how many people will be participating, what their location will be (if known) and after the fact, approximately how many people looked through the telescopes”. This would be right on the heels of Astronomy Day, but given the success of the Astronomy Day viewing, it may be worth pursuing. Event Calendar May 2 - Full Moon, 6:09 am, Mercury is in superior conjunction, midnight May 5 - Eta Aquarid meteor show peaks, weak for mid northern latitudes May 6 - CFAS May Meeting 7:00 pm May 10 - Last quarter Moon, 12:27 am - Moon passes 1.8º south of Neptune, 4 am May 11/12 - CFAS Group Viewing Sessions May 12 - Moon passes 1.3º north of Uranus, 3 am May 13 - Mother’s Day May 15 - Moon at perigee, 11:06 am, 233,315 miles May 16 - New Moon, 3:27 pm May 17 - Moon passes 3º north of Mercury, 8 pm May 18/19 - CFAS Group Viewing Sessions May 19 - Moon passes 1.7º north of Venus, 9 pm May 27 - Moon at apogee, 6:02 pm, 251,941 miles May 28 - Memorial Day Observed May 31 - Full (Blue) Moon, 9:04 pm All times are EDT unless otherwise noted What's Up Down Under? (News from our Sister Society in Albury-Wodonga, Australia) Astronomical History During the Month of May Date - Milestone May 4, 1967 - Launch of Lunar Orbiter 4, NASA’s fourth moon-mapping mission and the first to orbit over the Moon’s poles. May 11, 1871 - John Herschel, cataloger of deep sky objects and son of William Herschel, dies. May 31, 1872 - Charles Greeley Abbot, director of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory who measured the energy output of the Sun, is born. ____________________________________________________________ All content unless otherwise stated Copyright (c) 2002-2007 CAPE FEAR ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY. All Rights Reserved.