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20150411ACATHMin

 

The Astronomy Club of Augusta met on April 11, 2015 at NMR-DSO for their monthly dark sky star gaze.  Nine attended.

 

Although our meeting was scheduled later for the onset of the summer months, most people came early anyway.  This gave John and Stan a good opportunity to work on the LX200, with Mark and Kenneth assisting. They knew that the declination gear was not engaging, and had slipped it tracks.   John tried to glue a pad on it, but the glue didn't set, and a wire came loose, so he took it home for solder repair.  Later they found that the synthetic declination gear had come loose, and are looking for solutions to that problem. 

Others took the time to get a close-up look at our growing herd of goats.  Mark got to feed Itsy Bitsy the baby bottle of goat milk, with Pat looking on. 

There was plenty of light for set-up, but Pat had declination troubles with his beautiful new scope, and the only solution was to send it back to the manufacturer for correction.  Ervin brought his nice new 8" goto scope. He got it set up all right, but then had trouble getting it aligned.  John was very helpful, but by the time they read the directions and got everything operational for the new scope, clouds had rolled in, and it was not possible to focus on 3 stars for proper alignment.    Morris had the best views, and we were grateful for that.  

Temperatures were mild, not much wind, so we didn't need any heavy duty refreshments.  WE did have coffee and sodas.  The old popcorn got a mixed reception, so next time we are sure to have something light but yummy.

 

Respectfully submitted,

Tedda Howard

 

 

 

20150425ACAJWKBMin

 

Members of the Astronomy Club of Augusta hosted National Astronomy Night at USCA as part of the Ruth Patrick Science Education Center Earth and Sky Night activities on April 25, 2015.   There were seven (7) members of the club attending and assisting. 

 

Mark was unable to attend.  We were  happy to have Kenneth, VP Programs, as our Officer in Charge for the event.  We had three telescopes set up, but because of full cloud cover we really didn't get to view anything.  Although we had some mechanical problems with the scope, we talked to several people who were interested in the scopes.   One family joined our club, another plans to.  It was an interesting and fun evening...until it started to rain (lightly), so the equipment had to be secured and protected.  Gary Senn, director of the RPSEC, was most gracious to accommodate us in our activities outside the center. Many thanks to Morris McGahee for bringing cookies. 

 

Respectfully submitted,

John White and Kenneth Beard