Rocky Togni called the meeting to order at 7 PM. Due to the dreary weather there were only 9 members in attendance.
To warm up the audience, John gave a demo of Stellarium (www.stellarium.org), a freeware planetarium program. We’re not sure how many objects are in its database but it appeared to make a first rate teaching aid.
Rocky asked if we should cancel the May 12th meeting due to RRAC get together happening on the same weekend. We decided that even though some members would be attending we should not schedule our meetings around other groups activities.
Upcoming Events
- The Episcopal Collegiate School group will be visiting CAAS on Monday, April 16 at 7:30. Several members committed to being there to help.
- There is a Girl Scout outing at Camp Storywood on Friday the 19th but they only just asked for our assistance and no one could commit to helping this time around.
- There is a Boy Scout group coming to CAAS on April 28, camping overnight. Rocky has asked for assistance.
- There is another Boy Scout outing at the Capital on May 12th. Rocky has asked for assistance with that as well.
- Astronomy Day is coming up on April 21 from 2 PM to 10 PM. We need to print CAAS business cards, Moon Maps, copies of the Observer, and other handout materials.
Pat gave the Treasurer’s Report.
Bill Sanders has received a Comet Observer award from the Astronomical League. Way to Go, Bill!
Rocky gave a presentation on the evolution of the calendar. From humble beginnings of how many harvests old you are to a 365 day Egyptian calendar to a 365.25 Julian calendar. After 1500 years, that Julian calendar was out of synch with the seasons by 11 days due to a lower order discrepancy and so the Gregorian Calendar skipped those 11 days and corrected the error. The Gregorian Calendar was slowly adopted and is in use today. Other calendars were reviewed as well.
Submitted by your auxiliary back up secretary, Jim Dixon