20110806KBACAMin
The Astronomy Club of Augusta held its
annual picnic from Saturday, August 6th to Sunday morning the 7th.
Members began arriving around 7PM and continued until a total of 29 were in
attendance.
We were blessed with unusual ACA
picnic weather, i.e. it did not rain, although it was hot and cloudy. The
tables were decorated with colorful sparkles and Kenneth's balloons and set up
inside so air conditioning saved us all.
As everyone arrived, some helped Tedda finish
up in the kitchen, while others kibitzed with Stan at the BBQ outside on the
patio, all the while with various pre-dinner snacks. Everyone brought wonderful contributions to
the picnic Vesta Fiesta feast, including BBQ chicken
and ribs, hamburgers, hot dogs, veggie platters, crisp green, macaroni and bean
salads, squash and chili casseroles, baked beans, hot corn bread, corn on the
cob, thirst quenching punch, and icy soft
drinks. It was an incredible repast!
Before tackling dessert, Stan and Tedda showed us 4 sample polo shirts in various colors
embroidered with our ACA logo that they ordered for a good deal. Everyone seemed to like them, and we will see
if we can get a good price for a larger order.
John White gave us a brief talk
on the eye and the telescope, encouraging us to look long and hard for more
detail.
Desserts included yummy homemade cakes,
chocolate chip cookies and homemade blueberry and strawberry ice creams. The
piece de resistance had to be Dave & Sheron's colorful
Vesta Fiesta cake decorated (by Publics) with an icing photo of Vesta,
titled Vesta Fiesta, with August 6-7, 2011, and
Astronomy Club of Augusta. With that and
40 lit candles on a Saturn ring we sang Happy Anniversary to Wes and Gloria
Sloan and clapped for their 39th anniversary.
Later we crowned Gloria with the Saturn ring hat of candles, and took
photos of them and others at the party, as seen on this page.
At Mike's request, Tedda
took a large group out to see the blackberry bushes in the fruit orchard. As the evening cooled and just before dark,
it was a pleasant walk. We also went
over to the small garden to see the asparagus, basil, etc., and then over to
the large garden of corn, veggies and watermelons to talk about deer and
coyotes and crows. The children played
chess, thump chess, ping pong, and bounce ball.
We continued with informal discussions of life and astronomy. First timer, Dave Dolin pronounced that the
picnic was fun.
As it was still cloudy and we really
couldn't view Vesta at opposition or count meteors,
most slowly gathered up their things for a late night close to the celebration.
Ron and Kenneth stayed to view Ron's DVD
lectures of Basic Astronomy. We watched several hours of it, drank coffee, and
decided that short sections of it would be great to present at our meetings.
Stan, Ron, and I eventually did see
Jupiter in the early morn, and the famous red spot! The view is still difficult with the
Tele-view, so the alternate tripod and goto that John
mentioned earlier will hopefully help.
The 8"Meade gave its usual great view. About 7AM Stan served us blueberry waffles,
bacon and eggs. Thanks Stan! And another
wonder-filled time at the DSO-NMR corral was over for a while.
Respectfully submitted, Kenneth Beard
20110819KBACAMin
The Astronomy Club of Augusta held its AUGUST 19TH meeting on Friday at 7PM at Augusta State University. Attendance totaled 27.
President Tedda Howard called the meeting to order. She introduced our members and welcomed our speaker, Anita Westlake from Atlanta and special guests of the evening – The Aiken Gem & Mineral Club, of which Walt Kubilius is a member.
Club business involved preparation for the Oct. 15, 2011 SEED Program at Ruth Patrick. Volunteers are still welcome. Please let Stan know and provide your T-shirt size. All volunteers will meet on Sept. 24, Sat. 5PM to help prepare our SEED projects, before our Star Party at NMR-DSO. We agreed that the DAWN Satellite Mission would be our focus this year in addition to our traditional solar observing. The DAWN mission to the asteroid belt is a decade long study of the asteroid Vesta and the dwarf planet Ceres in an effort to describe the processes that dominated the early formation of our solar system.
Several members signed up for 2 minute talks at upcoming meetings. Would-be subscribers to Sky and Telescope were reminded by our Treasurer, John White, of a discount available to club members. Members were invited to sign up with Tedda for a good deal on Polo shirts embroidered with our ACA logo, a smart shirt and a nice way to advertise our club membership. Stan projected the minutes of our Club Picnic with pictures of us and the event on the big screen. As has become a staple of our meetings – there was astronomical feedback (Starbursts and Milky Way candy) for the correct answers to astronomy observing questions.
Tedda introduced our two-minute speakers. Frank DeRoller presented a very interesting talk on Earth’s Two Moons, a recent theory as to why we see only one side of the moon: a 2nd moon in our distant past collided with the present moon, altering its course. Michelle Maurer gave an instructive talk on the Astronomical League website and how it can benefit us.
Walt introduced our main speaker for the evening. Anita Westlake is a past President and founding member of the Meteorite Association of Georgia, and is currently the Librarian at Tellus Museum of Science in Carterville, GA. She insisted upon a few things to begin with: 1. Asteroids between Mars and Jupiter, in the latest theory are not debris from collisions but rather matter which never formed a planet. 2. It’s a meteor while it is in flight and a meteorite when it lands. 3. They are all magnetic, whether falls detected in the atmosphere or finds discovered in/on the ground. 4. Their composition classifies them into 3 types: stony, iron, or stony iron. 5. About 24,000 strike the earth in a year, but most of them fall into the ocean. 6. There are 24 to 25 sites in GA, but in general GA is not a good place for them due to terrain, trees, and humidity. Arizona and Colorado are better sites. Ms. Westlake says she has over 205 specimens. She brought a table full of examples with her. She told entertaining stories, mainly about the discovery of several specimens, and passed them around the room. She answered several questions.
Many thanks to Walt and Kathleen for refreshments and to Kathleen’s cooking ability.
Due to cloud cover, there was no observing. Most attendees had left by 9:15PM.
Respectfully submitted, Kenneth Beard
Request for feedback: I would appreciate your comments on whether these notes are too long, too short, or what.
