The Celestial Observer

 

Newsletter of the North Shore

 Amateur Astronomy Club

 

 

September, 2005

 

 

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From the President

I write this while on vacation hours before the newsletter deadline! I don’t have any of my notes with me, so I apologize for any incorrect or overlooked information. Unlike recent years, my NH vacation has had great weather, including two glorious nights at Starport with the monster telescope we call Godzilla. Starport now has a gravel road and observing pad and we are looking into paving options. Starport is privately owned by Membership Director Barrie Sawyer, but Barrie offers invitations to club members who would like to observe there.

 

Due to conflicting times with the Texas Star Party and two family vacations, I have not chaired an NSAAC business meeting since April! The next meeting in September is on the same weekend as the Moose Dodge road trip (see article), and if that event happens I will not make the meeting for the fourth consecutive time. My apologies to those members who have joined recently and are wondering if the president really exists. The last two meetings have failed to have a quorum, so business is really piling up. Hopefully there will be  a quorum at the September meeting as we will be voting on the Young Astronomers program (see article).

 

The new logo proposal does not have a deadline for submissions at this time. We’ll discuss this the next time there is a meeting with substantial participation. For those unfamiliar with this issue, we are asking for submissions for a new club logo. Membership will vote on any logos submitted, and will also be able to vote to keep the existing logo.

 

The Moose Dodge road trip is scheduled for September 9 & 10. As of this writing there is enough interest to do the trip, but I have yet to make contact with the bear hunter to get permission to use the land. Please watch for list server postings in the next week for more info. Those of you not on the list server who would like updated information may call me at 978-663-5305.

 

The annual Club Picnic is September 17 at VMP. We will combine this with a Solar GO-ON event so it should prove to be an exciting time! The time will be from noon till whenever we quit. This is a pot luck event for food. Soft drinks will be provided by the club. Bring any form of game or entertainment people might enjoy.

 

The CCD Imaging GO-ON never happened in July due to weather. We will try to plan another one soon. Other proposed GO-ON events include Star Hopping, and Digital Setting Circles. I have not discussed it with the GO-ON committee, but I think we should do one on Mars in October.  The Mars GO-ON of September 5, 2003 is an event I will remember the rest of my life!

 

Clear skies,


Kevin Ackert

President

 

 

September and October Meeting Dates

Due to conflicts with the Labor Day and Columbus Day weekends, the September and October business meetings will be held on September 9th and October 14th respectively. September 9th is also the date of Moose Dodge, but we figured this would still work better for most members.

 

NSAAC Welcomes Our New Members:

John Alabiso of Peabody, MA

Nagarjuna Venna of Dracut,  MA

Paul Giguere of Arlington, MA

Colleen Crowley of Arlington, MA

Theresa Earle of Andover, MA

Delia Strobel of Andover, MA

 

 

September Vote On Young Astronomer Program

Last year the club sponsored a program in which we gave away a telescope to a young astronomer. We called it the Kid’s Scope Give-A-Way. The board is proposing that we have another one and I would like to suggest that we rename it the Young Astronomer Program. If anyone can think of a clever name for this, please suggest it. Kid’s Scope Give-A-Way just doesn’t sound good to me.

 

We will take a vote at the September meeting on whether we’d like to buy a telescope for the Young Astronomer Program to be held later this year. Tony Costanzo has a 6 inch Stargazer Steve DOB which he has offered to sell to the club for $99.00 to be used for this program. The scope normally retails for $450.00; Tony will donate the balance of his interest to the club.

 

If the vote for this purchase passes, members will then be asked to vote  to make the Young Astronomer Program a regular club event to be held once a year. If this passes, it means the board will be able to purchase items for this event (up to $150.00) without needing a vote from the  members. Purchases over $150.00, or purchases of any amount which are not for regular club business always require approval by membership.

 

If the program is approved, here are some ideas for parameters. These are my ideas, not the board’s, and they should be discussed at the meeting.

 

 

Kevin Ackert

 

 

Minutes of the NSAAC Business Meeting,
August 5th, 2005

Vice-President Pinizzotto called the June Business Meeting of the NSAAC to order at 8:15PM. Vice-President Pinizzotto called for introduction of new guests: there was one new member.  There were 6 members in attendance plus 2 Board members.  There was not an official quorum.

 

Committee Reports:

 

Treasurer:  The treasurer gave his report.

 

Membership:  There were 7 new members from June and July                  

 

Merrimack College:  Alan Peters has volunteered to fill the vacancy at Merrimack.

 

Salem State:  The Observatory is closed for the summer.

 

Go-On Committee:    John Boudreau and Jim Foy’s CCD Imaging GO-ON will be rescheduled for a later date. Barrie Sawyer will hold a star-hopping GO-ON following the October Business meeting on the 14th.  John Hobbs will present a digital setting circles GO-ON at a date to be determined.

 

Star Parties:   There will be a star party at Maudslay Park in Newburyport with details to follow.

 

High-Rock Tower Observatory:  No report.

 

Upcoming Events:  Dr. Steven Hunt will be our guest speaker at our November Meeting that will take place at Merrimack College. He will talk about his research on meteors.

 

Moose Dodge is September 9th through 12th.

 

NSAAC picnic will be September 17th at VMP

 

Tony Costanzo has donated a h-alpha filter to the club and it will be tested on the Unitron at Merrimack.

 

Old Business: 

 

SHARE System –System was picked up and taken to Idaho and was used with the 24” telescope to view the comet crash on a large screen television in the planetarium.

 

Equipment Enhancement Program- The club needs suggestions for this program.  We need to have different types of instruments available.  We will also want to have a permanent equipment manager.

 

The board would like to have a Kid Scope Give-A-Way this year and we would like to purchase a 6” Stargazer Dob from the Astronomy Shoppe for $99.00 as a special with Tony Costanzo donating the rest of the cost.  A vote will be taken to spend this money at the September meeting.

 

The Board would like to make the Kid’s Scope Give-A-Way an annual program and doing so would allow the board to annually purchase telescopes for this purpose, up to $150.00 without requiring a vote by the membership.  We take a vote on this at the September business meeting.

 

The September business meeting has been rescheduled for the 9th and the October business meeting has been changed to the 14th in order to avoid holiday weekends,

 

There are blackout days scheduled for IRWS  on September 10th and October 29th.  Members will not be able to observe on those dates.

Board Meeting has been set for August 16th at 8:00PM

 

Meeting adjourned at 8:55 PM

 

Respectively submitted,
John Hobbs, Secretary NSAAC

 

Star Party for September

Saturday September 24, 2005, with a rain date of October 1, we are sponsoring a star party at Maudslay State Park, Curzon Mill Road, Newburyport, MA.  About 25 people are expected.  The second rain date (October 1) will not be cancelled for weather.  Telescope set-up time is 6:30 to 7:00PM.  A program on constellations and deep sky objects will start at 7:00PM and last about 30 minutes.  Naked eye constellations and telescope observations will follow the program.

 

Maudslay State Park Driving Directions

Maudslay State Park is located in north-eastern Massachusetts, on the North Shore.

From north and south: Take Rte. 95, exit 57 to Rte. 113 east. Follow 113 east for half a mile and turn left on Noble St. At stop sign turn left onto Ferry Rd., bear left at fork and follow signs.

From west: Take I-495 exit 55 to Rte. 110 east. Continue 1 mile to Merrill St., turn right at second light. Continue on Merrill St./Spofford St. for 1.5 miles. Turn right before stop sign onto Ferry Rd., follow signs.

 

Moose Dodge Road Trip

 

Moose Dodge is scheduled for September 9 and 10. This is a road trip to  Rangeley, Maine, about  a four hour drive from Boston. We stay in Rangeley State Park which has non-electric tent/camper sites. Sites are $20.00 per night, but we can place up to  three tents on each site. We observe from land about eight miles from the park, at 2300 feet in elevation. The skies are the  darkest  in New England and at that time of year the atmosphere is usually clear. There is a food store about  nine miles from the park. At this time I am still in the process of acquiring permission to use the land. This should be complete by the time this  newsletter is published. Please watch the list server for more info. Members interested in attending should contact me (Kevin Ackert) at president@nsaac.org or  at 978-663-5305.

 
Getting to Veasey Memorial Park

From Interstate 95 north, take the Route 133 west (54B) exit, and follow it into Georgetown Center.  Go straight through the light, now on Route 97N.  Go about 1.5 miles and take a left onto Salem Street (Tea Garden Restaurant at this intersection).  Stay on Salem Street and turn left onto Washington Street. VMP is down a bit on the right.

 

Directions to all of the NSAAC observing sites are available on our web site's “About” page at:

        http://www.nsaac.org/about.htm

 

 

Contact Information

For more information about the club and its activities, contact Barrie Sawyer,  Membership Director, email: membership@nsaac.org or contact Kevin Ackert, President, e-mail at president@nsaac.org.  If you have no email access, you may phone Kevin Ackert at (978) 663-5305

 

Our club web site is: http://www.nsaac.org.

 

The Celestial Observer is edited by Leor Zolman. Feedback, and member contributions are welcome. Contact: newsletter@nsaac.org.

 

Suggestions regarding the content of the NSAAC web site are also welcome, as I (Leor) am also acting as de-facto webmaster for the site. Do you have a web site you’d like to see listed on the members’ web site page? Suggestions for the Resources (or any other) page? Just email webmaster@nsaac.org with your ideas.

 

E-Mail Listserve

If you have email access and are an NSAAC member in good standing, you may want to subscribe to the email notification system that Lew Gramer established for the Club in 1996. This is a "members only" system that places you in contact with other members for late breaking news concerning spontaneous observing activities, outings, tech talk, etc. You can subscribe by emailing your request to the address below.  Your message should look like this:

 

To: majordomo@nsaac.org

Subject: Email list (you can put anything here)

Body: subscribe NSAAC Full-Name <email-address>

 

The on-line archives of all list server messages since April ’04  are available via this URL:

   http://lists.nsaac.org/mailman/private/nsaac/

 

(See the  January, 2005 newsletter for information on retrieving your subscriber password, necessary in order to view the archives.)

 

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