KAA MONTHLY MEETING

Minutes

October 7, 2016

Location: Young Student Center at KSC

Present: Jim Faux, Phinie Faux, Gabe Klueh, Carol Littleton, Bruce Norlund, Robert Taylor.

Secretary’s Report: Accepted as submitted.

Treasurer’s Report: Club balance. October 1: $1,441.73. September 1: $1,441.73.

Upcoming Events:

  • Stay tuned for possible on-the-fly future club observing sessions. Notifications with details will be by email from Bob.
  • Our monthly observing will be with the Keene Library celebrating International Astronomy Day with Moon observing on October 8th at Ashuelot Park at 6:30pm. President Bob will notify all members by 4pm whether the event is a go or no-go due to the weather.
  • Our next club meeting is scheduled for November 4that 7pm in the Student Center at KSC, with observing at the observatory afterwards.
  • Club Monthly Observing. November 5th at the Sullivan observatory.
  • KSC CALL class viewing: Claudio has invited hisfall CALL Astronomy class to the observatory on October 29th for observing with us beginning at 6pm.
  • Perkin Observatory. Bob is contacting Eric to schedule an observing session at the Dublin school in the coming weeks.
  • Julie has scheduled an observing session with her Monadnock HS astronomy class for 10/27 at 7pm with 11/3 as the weather back-up date. Her students will be focused on the current constellations.
  • 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.

Old Business:

  • Observatory maintenance: Bob put a second coat of paint on the south side and left an empty paint can for future exact color replacement in the building. We scheduled a members’ work session for 10/15 from 9 to noon to finish cutting the brush along the west side. Bring your loppers and small brush cutters.

New Business:

  1. Outreach/Viewing:
  1. Gabe had an excellent session on Wednesday at the observatory using our 12.5” and 15” large telescopes. On a perfect clear night, there they were: Andromeda, double stars, lots of background stars, the Ring and Dumbbell nebulae, and much more.
  1. Discussion on revising Club adopted By-Laws and officer responsibilities. After a brief discussion, the members voted unanimously to adopt the proposed list.
  1. Election of 2016-2017 club officers: President, Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer. With unanimous votes, the club elected the officers for the 2016-17 club year: Treasurer – Bob Taylor, Secretary – Gabe Klueh, Vice-President – Carol Littleton, President – Bob Taylor.
  1. Bob transmitted the donated used small refractor telescope, with the damaged mirror, to Junie to give to a teacher in the Fall Mountain high school.
  1. Gabe has been researching eyepiece filters for our now well-functioning large telescopes. This led him to recommend several options from Orion:
  1. Orion SkyGlow Broadband Filter:SkyGlow Broadband filter enhances deep-sky objects in moderately light polluted skies. They block the most common wavelengths of light pollution for increased contrast and better views of all deep-sky objects, without needing to drive to dark skies.
  2. Orion Oxygen-III Nebula Filter: Orion Oxygen-III filter shows amazing detail when viewing nebulae. Completely blocks all other visible wavelengths to boost contrast on emission and planetary nebulae as well as supernova remnants.

After a discussion, the members voted unanimously to approve the purchase of the SkyGlow 1.25” eyepiece filter at a cost of $79.99.

  1. Bob indicated that he would be giving a talk on SuperNovas at the November meeting.
  1. Members discussed ways to further our knowledge of the constellations and our abilities to move ahead in the AL constellation program.

Respectfully submitted,

Jim Faux, Secretary

10.08.2016