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

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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.