Master Naturalist
Saturday evening, February 23rd, CAAS participated in the Pinnacle Mountain State Park Master Naturalist program. About 25 to 30 people attended. John Reed, Carl Freyaldenhoven, Rocky Togni, and Jim Dixon represented CAAS. It was totally cloudy so John used Stellarium to give them a tour of the virtual sky. The group was appreciative and seemed to really enjoy the evening even despite the weather.
A Very Convenient Lunar Eclipse
On the evening of February 20, the Moon will be eclipsed by the Earth’s shadow. It will start at 7:43 and end at 11:09 with the best part, totality, running from 9:00 to 9:52. If you have the opportunity, check it out. Here is a link providing more details.
http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/home/15357796.html
Minutes from the February CAAS Meeting
CAAS was gifted with a mild clear evening Saturday night. John Reed called the meeting to order at 7 PM with the intention of keeping it short so we could get back out and play. There were 24 members and visitors in attendance by my count.
John brought the Pinnacle Mountain Master Naturalist series of programs. In this series, a group of attendees will go from one subject to another cover a wide range of topics. CAAS will particpate in two weeks, February 23rd at the River Ridge Observatory at 7 PM. What we will do is essentially a star party. The Moon will be three days past full so we will have a little time before it gets in the way.
At the next meeting March 8, weather permitting, we will fore go the normal routine and do a Messier Marathon as the presentation. If you want to participate, be there at dusk as you will need to pick up a few objects as soon as they are visible. Donald Ferren will provide tips and a suggested schedule for spotting the maximum number of these objects. If the weather does not cooperate, we will try again on March 29.
Between Pinnacle Mountain and Woolly Hollow State Parks, we will have several star parties this year. They are listed in our calendar but here is a summary:
- Pinnacle Mountain: May 10 (Astronomy Day), June 28, July 26, September 6.
- Woolly Hollow: July 19, November 1.
We had two visitors from the Village Star Gazers Society in Hot Springs Village, Marshall Dawson and Julie Schrader. They invited CAAS to come out and visit them as a group or individual members and perhaps have collaborative events. They meet every other Monday. They were warmly welcomed and I suspect several members will be glad to do just that.
Kyle Edwards gave a short presentation on the planet Mars, highlighting the difficulties and imaging techniques. It was very interesting. Thank you, Kyle.
The meeting was adjourned at about 8 PM so that we could head outside and enjoy the fine evening. We also at this time got our first look at Wade van Arsdale’s new warm room attached to his observatory nicknamed “the Man Cave”.