This night was especially satisfying.  Members worked together getting the first fully operational session for the Club donated Sparks 12" Meade LX200. It obtained new life after extensive capacitor replacement by John's capable son, Dan W.   Another telescope that we were glad to get back in fully operational condition included the club Gemini Televue scope which John W. recently repaired, with improvements that include readjustments to the balance and movement surfaces and newly added convenience features such as a new tube mounting clamp with easy to use thumb nuts.

Several new members were present to practice identification of major winter constellations with Tedda's sky touring technique.  We refreshed familiarity with use of binoculars and increased our basic knowledge of telescope operation and application of various objective lenses.  New members Victor and Kathy L. enjoyed using their Schmidt-Cassegrain scope and were successful in finding and observing several heavenly features such as Jupiter and Trapezium in the Orion Nebula.  Morris M. provided seasoned assistance in working with Victor and Kathy as they practiced use of their scope.  Mark M. enjoyed taking snapshots of sky objects which we look forward to seeing once his picture processing is completed.  Several of us, including Maryglenn, Kathy, Victor, Tedda, Stan, and Kenneth, enjoyed using binoculars in observing dozens of bino-view objects through the unusually dry atmosphere of this night.  We enjoyed about two hours of observing such items as Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Orion Nebula, Andromeda Galaxy, Pleiades, Beehive Cluster, Hydra and others, even Corvus bringing the hope of spring. Though the wind added a considerable chill to the air and tested the stability of our scope mounts, we did enjoy the lack of dew problems that are typically included with such a chilly night.  Everyone was sufficiently bundled to be reasonably comfortable, with Tedda enjoying her new warm brightly-colored knitted hat, compliments of Maryglenn, which stylishly set off her stargazing outfit of tan Carhart coveralls.  Even the new 31 kid goats enjoyed extra warmth that was provided by Maryglenn's wind shielding donation of wood paneling. 

During a mid-evening rewarm session inside, we celebrated "First Light" of the Sparks scope with a toast (thanks, Ken, for the fine bottle that he chose to share rather than bashing over the Sparks scope)  We enjoyed Tedda's traditional chili with mixed veggies, dip, corn tortilla chips, and John's traditional oreo-type cookies. 

John W. made a short presentation to help us understand optical considerations of telescopes.  We learned (or refreshed our knowledge) that the basic formula for determining magnification is to divide the scope's focal length by the diameter of the objective lens. Magnification = Scope Focal Length / objective lens diameter (in mm).  Other commonly misunderstood concepts such as eye relief, relationship to eye pupil diameter to capabilities in viewing through a scope, optimum workable magnifications for various scopes, and logical trains of thought for considering best lenses under various atmospheric and lighting conditions were explained and discussed.  Each of the members present took a few minutes to tell a little about the development of their interest in astronomy.

It was not as cold as anticipated during the early evening hours, though by the time we adjourned for the evening, the chill was more apparent.  We look forward to warmer weather to view more Messier Objects and the Spring constellations during our next star party (Messier Marathon) on March 14. 

Our next meeting is February 27, Fri. 7:00PM, at GRU.  Please come.

Respectfully submitted,

Stan Howard

ACA VP Observing

The Astronomy Club of Augusta met on February 27, 2015, at 7:00 PM at GRU. Twenty-four (24) attended.

No one submitted minutes of the meeting.