Central Arkansas Astronomical Society

John Reed presented astrophotos he made using an off the shelf digital SLR camera.  He used a 200 mm lens.  Each photo covers a 6 degree by 4 degree area of the sky.  He took 30 to 60 one minute exposures for each image.  Then, he used a computer program to stack the images.  Finally, he used Adobe Photoshop to finish processing each image.  He was able to capture impressive pictures of the moon, star clusters, bright and dark nebulae, and galaxies!

 

The roof leak was fixed by Wade Van Arsdale and Danny Flippo on Saturday.  The heater in the bathroom had ceased to function.  Wade purchased and brought a replacement heater.  Wade will be reimbursed for his expenses.

 

Membership dues are due in January each year.  Quite a few membership dues were turned in Saturday night.

 

William Bryden presented some awesome T-Shirt design options.  There was quite a bit of discussion of the designs.  We hope to vote to select a design during the next meeting.

 

Darrell Heath was nominated for Membership Coordinator by William (Bill) Engberg.  The nomination was seconded by Roger Gudith.  Darrell was unanimously voted in as the Membership Coordinator.

 

Wade and Darrell volunteered to be the “Info@ Response Team” and answer questions we receive at the  info@caasastro.org email address.

 

Jim Fisher presented NASA Space Shuttle coins to VP Eric Walker and Carl Freyaldenhoven for their help last year.

 

The LANTERNS Feb 2,3,4 event at Wildwood will be headed by Darrell/UALR. He is checking to see if they want a telescope (or ten!) set up each night. If so, we have a few volunteers on  different nights (Carl Freyaldenhoven  on Thursday, John Reed on Friday,  and Darrell Heath on Saturday night).  We hope more will sign up for a night as well. 5000 guests are expected.  Show off your scope, make friends, and invite people to CAAS. Once Darrell confirms we are OK to come, he’ll get FREE passes for all attendees from CAAS and get you more info. Contact Darrell.

 

CAAS Business cards are being ordered by Jim Fisher for all members to give out to guests at star parties…better than writing in the dark.

 

Ms. Katie McKinney, the youngest person in attendance, drew numbers for door prizes.  Those winning Hubble books donated by Engberg were Roger Gudith, and Jane Hurley.  Those winning NASA Space Shuttle coins were Greg Hurley, Danny Flippo, and Katie McKinney.

 

Upcoming Programs

 

March	Stephen Meeks	Stellar Evolution
April	Rocky Togni	Space Race USSR: 1957-75
May	Darrell Heath	JPL/NASA
August	Jim Fisher	International Dark Sky Association
November	William Engberg	Mayan Calendar
December		Dinner

 

We have programs for the months listed above.  However, we still need volunteers to present programs in October, September, July, June, and February.

 

There were many first time guests at the meeting.

 

Members and Guests Who Attended The Meeting

 

Wade Van Arsdale

William Bryden

Jack Dixon

Jim Dixon

Patricia Dodson

William Engberg

James Fisher

Danny Flippo

Carl Freyaldenhoven

Roger Gudith

Darrell Heath

Greg Hurley

Jane Hurley

Chris Lasley

Don Lewis

Cliff McKinney

Katie McKinney

James Bruce McMath

John Reed

Coy Scott

Eric Walker

 

The next monthly CAAS meeting will be at 7 pm on Saturday, February 11.  Weather permitting, there is normally observing after the meeting adjourns (usually sometime from 8 pm to 8:30 pm).

 

 

Observation Planning Data

 

According to the Sky and Telescope web site almanac, sunset will be at 5:51 pm.  Twilight ends at 7:16 pm.  Twilight begins at 5:35 am on Sunday morning with sunrise at 7:01 am.  The moon is 79% illuminated and rises at 10:24 pm.  Venus sets at 9:09 pm.  Jupiter sets at 11:30 pm.  Mars rises at 7:54 pm.  Saturn rises at 11:00 pm.  The Sky and Telescope web site Interactive Sky Chart shows the constellation of Auriga nearest the zenith at 8 pm.  The great Orion constellation will be beginning to transit at 8 pm.

 

Respectfully Submitted,

 

Coy Scott

CAAS Secretary

• The Board moved to add Coy Scott as secretary and Danny Flippo as Board member to the nominations list.
• All voted and accepted the following lineup of officers for 2012:
•     Officers: President – Bill Engberg       Vice President – Eric Walker       Secretary – Coy Scott       Treasury – Andy Reed       Immediate Past President – Jim Fisher
•  Board: Jim Dixon, Carl Freyaldenhoven, John Reed, and Danny Flippo
• Jim Fisher expressed thanks to the officers from 2011.  As a special thank you, he gave awesome commemorative Space Shuttle coins to John Reed, Coy, Bill Engberg, and Carolaina.  The coins contain metal that was carried into space on a shuttle mission.
• Jim covered highlights from the year: custom Overhangs above doors, new cement drive way entrance, big telescope pad, garden cleanup, MSRAL sponsor (John, Rocky and Jim presented) new computer equipment in classroom, red lights, facebook page, website updated, grounds cleanup, refrigerator
• William Bryden is designing shirts for 2012 with Carolaina helping with info from last order.
• Jim Fisher will buy CAAS business cards and fix the CAAS tax status.
• CAAS authorized Bill Engberg to cut/trim the “anti-astronomy” trees close to the buildings or in the path of the ecliptic.
• A drawing was held for HUBBLE books donated by Engberg, 4 won: Bill Sanders; Scott Bryden; John Reed; Carolaina Ferren

What a great night on our Nov 12, 2011 Club meeting.

The place was packed and almost every seat was taken with new guests, new members, and the usual suspects

 

Eric Walker opened the floor to the board and attendees to nominate next year’s staff and voting will be done at the 10 Dec Club Meeting and BANQUET!

President – Bill Engberg

Vice President – Eric Walker

Secretary –Jim Fisher

Treasury – Andy Reed

Immediate Past President – Jim Fisher

Board: Jim Dixon, Carl Freyaldenhoven, John Reed, and Coy Scott.

 

 

After calling Hollywood, I verified there are no Astronomers, nor Prophets on staff that were consulted before making “2012”. I gave a PPT brief about the Mayan Calendar and how it is very cool how they developed it and that CAAS/Little Rock will be aligned with the Mayan Ball Court at Izapa for the (Friday) Dec 21, 2012 Galactic alignment…front row seats!

I think we should throw a big astro-party at CAAS and invite Little Rock (new membership / huge interest)

 

John Reed showed/taught about his excellent (and portable) Nikon DSLR Astro Camera rig…nice!

Roger Gudith gave a wonderful presentation on Astronomy.

Jim D gave a great lesson on the Constellation Perseus, its history and the objects of interest in it.

 

We had many guests Saturday night:

Vikrant Vijay

Amanda Poss

James Lane

David Williams

Nancy Jackman (winner of the Telescope!)

Lorali Brown (?)

 

Other CAAS members there were

Jim Dixon,

Eric Walker,

John Reed,

Rocky and Carol Togni,

Pat and Sandy Morris;

Coy Scott;

Roger Gudith;

Landon Sanders

Aimee Voisin;

William Bryden;

Allen Lee;

Carl Freyaldenhoven;

John Reed;

Tom and Barbara Walker

…and me, your humble scribe.

 

The clouds broke at the perfect time and the “Club built 10-inch scope ” was set up by Carl F. and the gang, for viewing by all of our first time guests.

 

Projects:

Done! Ardent’s new 9’ x 9’ concrete pad was uncovered and unveiled to the club.

 

Done! New driveway is smooth like….like…new concrete butter!

 

Hero!: Allen Lee came up with a great idea to work with PMSP or a school, etc, to advertise a L.R. “Set up your telescope Night” at PMSP or downtown, since so many people are asking CAAS members to help set up. A great membership drive to get Kids (  =  Parents!) and young people into CAAS. Contact Allen if you have ideas or wish to help.

 

—Need a CAAS hero to take care of this small $10 project.

Three…let me emphasize…. THREE different 1^st time visitors at different times said the same thing. When they arrived in the pitch black night, the only light they saw was to the bathroom (I had propped the door open).  They said we need a light above “the door you are supposed to go to, if you’ve never been here before.” For safety/liability reasons, I couldn’t agree more. Recommend a RED “L.E.D. Touch light” / hanging Red L.E.D. Lamp we can reach up and hang on a hook / or some other battery powered (or permanent switch fixture), for people to “home in on” at night, since it is a maze of buildings for 1^st time guests arriving in a sea of darkness. Once we have our 501C status approved, you will get a donation slip for the amount you paid. If you paid $100 for the lamp or permanent switch/fixture, you get a $100  tax write off.  Or, if you can visit some electricians in town, ask if they will volunteer a donation of parts OR labor.

 

—Officers

Need permission for me to buy this $35 HDMI-to-VGA-converter- box so new laptops can run our old projector

http://www.amazon.com/Audio-Converter-Support-1080P-Output/dp/B0057UNQ18/ref=lh_ni_t

 

—Need a CAAS super hero who will donate an old computer to permanently plug into the projector, for when people want to run a Presentation. I’ll even donate the Microsoft Office / PowerPoint software. Once we have our 501C status, you will get a donation slip for the amount “you paid for the computer back in 200X.” If you paid $3000 for the computer, you get a $3000 tax write off. Nice.  Contact me if questions.
Blue Skies  
Bill
   Club Scribe