KAA MONTHLY MEETING
Minutes
February 17, 2017
Location: KSC
Present: Robert Taylor, Carol Littleton, Gabe Klueh, Bruce Norlund, Jim Faux, Phinie Faux, Julie Farhm
Secretary’s Report: Accepted as submitted.
Treasurer’s Report: Club balance: February: $1653.46 - January: $1694.17.
Upcoming Events:
Stay tuned for possible on-the-fly future club observing sessions. Notifications with details will be by email from Bob or Gabe.
Clubs February Monthly Observing. February 18th at the Sullivan postponed.
Received inquiry from Julie wanting to schedule an observing session for her astronomy students in the first half of March - possible dates March 2nd or 6th & location TBD.
Our next club meeting is scheduled for March 24th at 7pm at KSC, with observing at the Sullivan observatory afterwards.
Clubs March Monthly Observing. March 25th at the Sullivan observatory.
Tentative date for observing at Dublin scheduled for April 15th.
Fitzwilliam Library observing scheduled for May 6th 2017 at 7:30pm at Stacie’s and Mikes.
Pursuing club picnic location next summer and then determine a date and time.
Reminder: The 2017 total eclipse will occur on August 21st in the mid-afternoon. We will be planning activities in conjunction with the Keene library, which will take place from 1pm to 4pm. The partial solar eclipse seen from Keene will start at 1:27pm and peak at 2:44pm (at approx. 70%) and end at 3:57pm.
Old Business:
●Keene Public Library Lecture Series:
oFebruary 23rd - “Photographing Our Galaxy's Black Hole”
oMarch 2nd - Sarah McGregor
oMarch 9th - speaker yet to confirm
oMarch 21st - Pluto Palooza! with John Sheff, the NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador
New Business:
Gabe met with John and Diane O’Neill for observing and to help them set-up and operate their new Vixen telescope. They are still looking for input on how to operate the PUSH TO feature, which we are helping them with.
It was determined that the club would donate $25 to the NH Audubon Society in Cheryl’s wishes.
Carol gave a talk on the February constellation’s mythology. It covered the Unicorn - Monoceros, the Charioteer - Auriga, and the Twins (Castor & Pollux) - Gemini.
Jim is looking for suggestions to update the clubs website. It was decided to start including information about each months meeting topics, videos highlighting “Whats Up” each month, and club monthly observing targets.
Jim also discussed the smartphone adapters reviewed in the March 2017 edition of Astronomy magazine. The look like a great inexpensive way to get some clear images through any eye piece.
We watched a short video on “What’s up for February“ - highlighting planets, constellations, comets and an asteroid.
Jim & Phinie Faux will be attending the Maine Astronomy Retreat in Washington Maine in July.
The KPL has requested KAA to do a talk on the solar eclipse August 3, at 6pm at the KPL.