20140110
The Astronomy Club of Augusta met on Friday, 7:00PM at GRU, New Science Center Auditorium,
W1008. Attendance: 11 members, 2 guests.
To
the background music of the TV Jeopardy show, Tedda welcomed
members and guests. Kenneth facetiously introduced
Tedda as our host for our annual Astronomy Jeopardy
program, as if we didn't know her! Tedda then got down to the business of selecting teams and conducting
the choice of ringers, while Stan put Tedda's Astronomy
Jeopardy board on the screen with column titles at the top and score board at
the bottom. She pointed out some differences
in our version of Astronomy Jeopardy, such that we would take a more relaxed
pace, with some time to discuss the Q&As.
In the calendar announcement Tedda had already clued everyone that all the answers would
be within our Solar System. The column titles were: Distance, Time, Numbers of, Amounts, quantity, and Percentages & Ratios. Teamwork was
a great advantage to most, and most questions were matched to the answers. Michelle was a great mentor to Michael,
encouraging him to shake the bottle, and so often he had the right answer for
his Team 1. When the score was becoming
lopsided, Mike came to the rescue for his Team 2, and Team 3 was the epitome of
reasoned collaboration. Unfortunately, too
much of the last doesn't pay points even in this game, and Team 1 won first
prize and first selection of prizes from the table.
As we moved to the conference room W1012
for refreshments, Tedda answered Lisa's questions
about the club. Lisa talked with as many
of us as possible, and seemed to enjoy the evening herself. She wrote a nice article about us in the Augusta Chronicle, dated
January 15. We talked about Kate's
request for us to outreach to her school and students. Many
thanks to Stan and Tedda for the refreshments,
including homemade constellation cookies.
Again,
it was too cloudy for any (lunar) observing.
Respectfully
submitted,
Tedda Howard
20140125 The Astronomy Club of Augusta held their
first Dark Sky Star Gaze of the new year on Saturday , at NMR-DSO Attendance:
11.
We
started the evening early just after 5:00PM.
We were all looking forward to
greeting Becky and her girls and their gift to the club: J. Michael Sparks'
Meade 12" LX200 telescope. It has
been a difficult year for the Sparks, with Michael's death in June of 2013.
Becky's decision was difficult, but when she emailed and then when she arrived,
we assured her that his scope would be used to share his enjoyment of the night
sky. It was packed carefully in its original carry
case, with a bag of eyepieces, filters, and original description / directions.
The
guys loaded it into the pickup, and took it out to the Joe Bartee
concrete pads. Just before dark, we
presented Becky with a framed Certificate of Appreciation for the scope. Stan made a video of the informal
ceremony. The tripod fit perfectly and
the view was lovely. John noted that the
eyepiece adjustment is a little sticky and the fine tuner is a little loose,
both easy enough to correct.
It
was a really cold and windy night. At
first it was a little cloudy with winds that kept different stars alternately hiding
or in view. It's hard to get the concept
of the Winter Hexagon under these conditions, but we muddled through. Stan focused in on the Orion Nebula with the Televue , the Sparks Meade 12", and the Meade 8" for
us. What a comparison. He also guided us to the Andromeda Galaxy
with the laser pointers. It took Kate a
bit to lift those big 15x70 binocs high enough, but
she felt well rewarded when she saw the Galaxy.
She will make plans for lying down on the ground next time, to save her
neck and enjoy a longer view! Victor
focused in on Jupiter with the 8" Meade.
Chaela really enjoyed seeing Jupiter WITH all
four of its Galilean moons. Tedda helped Kate and Lana name and locate the Winter Hexagon
stars and constellations as they moved in and out beyond the clouds.
We
went in about 8PM for Chili, veggies & dip, snacks
Kate's
principal agreed, and we confirmed our plan to do an outreach at Byrd on March
26. Stan, Tedda,
Kenneth and John have volunteered to help.
Cathy said she is interested for another date, so we'll get a
confirmation for Mar.26. We need more
volunteers. Please sign
up to help.
As
we bundled up to go out again, we found that the clouds were gone, and the sky
was dark, with a full complement of beautiful stars. There were Ahhs and
Ohhs when Newbies saw the
entire Winter Hexagon filling so much of the sky above them. Lana snuggled down into the padded recliner, and
just enjoyed looking up! We saw four of
the five Circumpolar Constellations. We
focused in on everything through the scopes better than earlier in the evening.
Finally
we packed up all the scopes with icy fingers.
Chaela and Savannah played ping pong with Stan
and Kenneth early in the evening. Victor
and Lana stayed after we packed up and unloaded for another round of ping pong
with Stan and Tedda, then just Victor and Stan.
We
all had a good evening.
Respectfully
submitted,
Tedda Howard
