by Bill Engberg
17 Degreesâ¦.Kelvin
Tonight was a great night at CAAS for friendship, camaraderie, all the delicious chili you could hope to eat, and to watch an excellent documentary, with a few people doing some winter observing after. In attendance were: Carolaina and Don Ferren, Andy Reed, Carl Freyaldenhoven, John Reed, Eric Walker, Allen Lee, Sandy Pat, Coy Scott, and me⦠your humble scribe.
Our new President, Carolaina, started the year off right bringing lots of energy and she hit the ground running with club business, fun future goals and projects.
- Club T-Shirts- Allen Lee volunteered to get info on âbulk costâ? from a T-Shirt printer in Sherwood. We all talked about how nice it would be to all have a cool looking âclub shirtâ? for members only that has âglow in darkâ? printing as an outline on a 2-color ink design. Â Non-members will get to buy a different color or style. Free T to the person who volunteers to be main point of contact for the T-shirt printing! Who would like to get that free T-Shirt and be a club hero for heading this fun project?
- Related to that, does anyone have any contacts with the staff or teachers at a local Middle and High School? Weâd like to involve as many schools as possible for âCAASâ? logo design, which will also be used on the T-Shirt, as well as get a digital image created of the âRed Riverâ? logo which is on our entry sign. Do we already have a digital âRed Riverâ? logo?
- 2010 Dues were paid by those attending (http://www.caasastro.org/join-caas ). If you missed the meeting, please mail dues to Andy Reed. Andy, please email your address.
- Calendar events and some future CAAS presentations were determined:
- Feb 13 (club meeting) – Â Bill Engberg will present âHow to plan/build a telescopeâ?
- Mar 13 (club meeting) –  Don Ferren  will present âHow to do a Messier Marathonâ? which interested parties can do that same night!
- Mar 20 – Woolly Hollow State Park Star Party (in lieu of club meeting)
- Apr 10 – (club meeting)
- Apr 24 – Astronomy Day (Pinnacle Mountain State Park)
- Email us what other events you think should be put on our calendar.
- Glow in the Dark Name Tag pins for everyone!! Â Â Iâve volunteered to get them made. Need to have everyone who wants one, please email me their âpreferred nameâ? as you want it printed. We will keep the name tags on a foam board in the Club House. Â Â –Â It is important that we help break the ice (when we have visitors / new members) and make them feel welcome with everyone wearing their Glow In The Dark name tag during the meetings and when observing. This way, newcomers can relax and call us by name, rather than feel awkward when trying to learn 30 new names in one night and having only âHey youâ? to call out to people.
- Jim Fisher provided us an update:Â Â Mayor sent 2 notes requesting that they use IDA Approved lights that are âFull Cut Off.â? Â Â We learned that the cityâs Phase1 (due to budget problems) are planned to have no lights to be installed at all at soccer fields, so we have time to engage them.
The temperatures were legendary last night. 17 Degreesâ¦wow that is cold. It felt like it was 17 Degrees on the Kelvin scale.  We all had to walk around pools of liquid nitrogen to get into the club house. Okayâ¦maybe notâ¦, but the temps felt like it.
We watched a brand new and just released excellent PBS documentary on â400 Years of the Telescope.â? Â (Thank you Jim Fisher for your generous donation to our video library!)
Then, Carl and I did some binocular observing; saw a huge meteor⦠slow, big, bright and the bolide left a thick orange trail as it arced past Mars to the east.
John Reed brought out his fantastic camera with macho wide angle lens http://tinyurl.com/ygvgwkz and captured Orion and some other brilliant celestial objects in the nights sky. If youâve ever seen the scary SciFi movie âThe Thingâ? with Kurt Russell, we think John Reed captured a view ( in image #8 ) of one of those hideous alien creatures standing in front of the âdome observatory.â? For comparison: http://tinyurl.com/ycpmr5a You be the judgeâ¦scary!
A great time was had by all. We canât wait to see you all out for the next meeting on 13 Feb. I promise it will be warmer by then.
Always remember, CAAS is our family. We stick together as a family should. If anyone ever has good news to share or needs help, we are always here for each other. Come to us in good times and in rough times. On the day we all pass on, what makes us rich isnât the money in a bank⦠what makes us rich are the friendships we have made and memories we have created with each other. Iâm so proud to be a member of such a great group of people: articulate, friendly, trustworthy, funny, creative and skilled in so many areas.
I wish you all a blessed New Year.
Bill Engberg
Club Scribe
///—Â Club Meeting Minutes for 9Jan2010Â —///