The Celestial Observer
June, 2003
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GO-ON
What is GO-ON?
It stands for “Get Out and Observe Nights”!
It’s a new program that we’re trying to promote
within
The second goal is to help educate. This will be done primarily by making each
GO-ON event a theme night. This will
provide a chance for newbie’s to learn a bit about any given topic, as well as
for more experienced observers to chip in and help lead a session. For instance, the first GO-ON event will be
on Lunar Observing, and Dan Smoody is going to give a few observing
pointers. The committee has come up with
a whole list of topics, such as Mars (in
early September), double stars, naked eye observing, star-hopping, deep-sky
observing, binoculars, equipment comparisons, observing etiquette, sketching,
etc. The potential list could GO-ON and
on (sorry!), but the point is to provide an excuse for all of us to get
together and benefit from each others experience and company.
The first GO-ON event is Friday June 6th,
after the monthly business meeting. The
format is going to be very low-key, and Dan will not be giving an exhaustive
presentation. The real goal is to give a
few ideas and some lunar observing targets.
We’re really excited about our premier program, because Dan tells us
that he’ll have his 10” LX200 with binoviewer there to kick off the
observations!
What do we need from you, the membership? First, your attendance! Come to the business meeting, and (weather
permitting) stay for the GO-ON event.
Second, we need people who are willing to lead a session. You don’t have to be an expert in the area
that we’re discussing; all that’s really required is an interest in it, and the
willingness to do some research to generate enough questions/material for
discussion. If you do have experience in
an area, so much the better – we’d love to have you lead a session. Third, hand in hand with this, is that we
need your ideas. What would you like to
see in a GO-ON program? If you have
comments as to the format of GO-ON events in general, we’ll happily listen to
those as well. Finally, we have four
committee members; we’d like to have one or two more. This is light duty, folks. There’s a bit of e-mail correspondence, then
there’s the occasional time that you’ll be the key coordinator for any given
month’s GO-ON scheduling. It’s a great
chance to help out your club!
There’s an e-mail alias to reach the GO-ON committee
members: go-on@nsaac.org
Hope to see you June 6th!!
The GO-ON
Committee
Chris Nicholl
Art
Schneiderman
Ilane Walberg
Business Meeting Minutes for
the May, 2003 Meeting of the
President Deneen called the May Business Meeting of
the
Committee Reports:
Treasurer:
Upcoming Events:
None
Membership:
Arthur Suckney of
About 20 people come through during the evening.
Not many visitors over the past two weeks and since
it is not dark until late and they close down at
Star Parties:
There is star party May 10th at IPWS for
astronomy day. Gary Meehan is going to
talk about CHANDRA starting at
Share System:
No report.
Unfinished Business:
Need to vote on a decision on youth membership. Also need to vote on the hats and tee
shirts. Mentioned that the board voted
to make Jerry Hill of the Groveland Lighting Department an honorary membership
in the club in recognition of his help in the lighting at Veasey. Also mentioned that the board is looking into
purchasing a new laptop computer.
New Business:
Barrie Sawyer is holding an open house at Starport
on May 2-4th. All club
members are welcome.
The next Board Meeting will be at Veasey on May
April 12th at Veasey.
Program: Lew Grammer is going to give
a talk on Meteors.
Meeting adjourned at
Respectively submitted
Secretary
Star
Party News
There are no Star Parties
scheduled for June
Transit
On
Because of the historical and educational importance
of the event, NASA is planning to pool observations of the transit from as many
different latitudes as possible up and down the eastern seaboard of North and
Perhaps the most critical location in terms of
transit visibility is being coordinated by the Boston Museum of Science and the
If your society or group is interested in
contributing CCD images of the transit event to this database, please reply to
me at sjsteel@cfa.harvard.edu
or at the mailing address below. We will
be sending out instructions on format and image submission in the near
future. In the mean time, please feel
free to contact us should you have any questions. We hope that you are able to participate!
Simon J.
Steel
Road Trip 2003
It is once again time to plan our club’s annual late
summer road trip, sometimes known as the “Moose Dodge” depending upon where
it’s held. We are requesting volunteers for a planning committee to decide on
all the logistics of such a trip, such as where and when. A couple of the
location possibilities currently under consideration are
Program Coordinator
Talk for June
First of all I’d like to thank
This month our own Jason Voss will do a talk on the
“Starry Night Pro” software package. As some of you know, “Starry Night Pro” is
an excellent desktop planetarium package, with an extensive list of features.
Now’s your chance to check this software out before you buy it. So mark your
calendars and make an effort to attend.
I am still looking for more volunteers to speak at
future general meetings about their scopes and other astronomical subjects. The
scope talks don’t have to be positive reviews. You can talk about a scope you
really hate. The purpose of these talks will be to acquaint other members of
the club with different scopes, binoculars, or scope projects, so that they can
make an informed decision as to whether they wish to acquire, or make, one for
themselves. We also accept volunteers to speak on other topics, such as mounts,
CCDs, photographic techniques, astronomy trips, the ten things that got them
interested in astronomy, etc. Giving a talk can be a lot of fun. In addition,
I’m looking for non-members willing to do a talk on astronomy related subjects.
If you know of anyone, please contact me at (781) 438-7375, or at
dgudzevich@attbi.com, or at the general business meetings.
Program Coordinator
Lighting Bill
The following was posted to the listserve by Brewster LaMacchia
The
In light of this, we need to target these same State
Senators to counter NEMA's lobbying and somewhat false assertions. I had
previously sent out the NEMA "white paper" to all. We need to send
letters of support for the Dark Sky bill to the following key Senators by all,
but especially any voters in the district served:
Senate
President, Robert Travaglini <mailto:RTravagl@senate.state.ma.us>
Chair
senate Ways and Means, Therese Murray:
<mailto:TMurray@senate.state.ma.us>
To get the bill to pass in the Senate, these three
Senators are Key, which is why NEMA has been lobbying them. I would ask once
more that we rev up and send letters of support to these Senators.
Emphasize the positives of the bill. Do not get too
negative, but point out that NEMA is just a manufacturer’s trade organization,
and in no way sets any standards. Point out that
Thank you all
Mario Motta,
MD
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 a short distance down on the right
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