Next Monthly Meeting is January 14th at 7 PM at River Ridge Observatory

The Central Arkansas Astronomical Society (C.A.A.S.) will hold its 1st Meeting of 2012 on Saturday,  Jan 14,  7 p.m.  in the clear, dark skies of the River Ridge Observatory (between the cities of Wye and Roland, AR) . Meetings are always the second Saturday of each month.

Never looked through a telescope? YOU are invited! Like looking at the stars, but don’t know a thing about them? Come and bring your friends! You don’t need to be a member to attend and there is no charge to visit; see and look through all the other scopes; learn how to use “that telescope you were given as a gift”;  and love the beauty of the night’s sky, shooting stars, nebula and galaxies …together with friends. All are welcome.

DOOR PRIZE: That night, all in attendance are eligible for the drawing for 2 more HUBBLE‘s best space pics photo books.

–All, please email or bring a list of Presentation Topics you’d like to hear for 2012 and we’ll share/compile them during the meeting. If you think of one or many topics, maybe someone else will jump on one idea and they will give a 5 minute – 45 minute presentation on it later this year.

If you want to present a topic  [ YOU WOULD BE MY HERO ]  let me know so the secretary and I can schedule it on the month you want, and advertise it to the gang.  

You do NOT need to be an expert, just talk about what you love and what you learned. ( p.s.  I didn’t know a thing about the Mayan 2012 Calendar until I Googled and Wiki’ed everything )

Hopefully we’ll be getting an updates regarding:

   William Bryden — he is designing shirts for 2012 with Carolaina helping with info from last order.

    Jim Fisher — ordering CAAS business cards and fixing “tax exempt” 501C status with local tax lawyer. On that note, I’ll be moving that the Club pay for all the Cards and distribute 20 or more per year to every member…so we can actually do membership outreach “that works” by giving out a card in the dark (or at work / school / church)  rather than hoping guests and strangers remember a funny-spelling-acronym-filled-website-name …24 hours later.

After the short welcome and meeting at 7 p.m., skies permitting, we will adjourn to the observing field for fun and fellowship under the planets and stars.

If you need directions to the River Ridge Observatory, please email info@caasastro.org and they will email you the coordinates for Google as well as the password protected Driving Directions located on our website   Directions to CAAS .

I wish you a blessed New Year and amazing 2012.

Blue Skies

  Bill Engberg

   C.A.A.S. el Presidente, Boss of the Bolides, Captain of the Van Allen’s …and chief bottle washer