Category: Meeting Minutes

President Don Ferren called the meeting to order  at 7 PM, there were 17 members and visitors in attendance.

Old Business:

• We discussed placing the 8″ SCT in the dome observatory.  The general consensus was that it was a good idea but we were concerned about the size of the building as it was designed for a remote controlled telescope.
• On November 17th, CAAS will join PMSP for a Leonid Meteor/Star Party.

New Business:

• Bill Engberg brought us up to date on the progress of the 24″ Dobsonian telescope that he is building.
• Jim Dixon reminded the group that the next meeting, the Annual Meeting, will be held at Thompson Library on Monday December 14th instead of the normal place and time.
• The so-called “Beacon of Hope”, was in the news about a week ago.  This project, which intends to project very bright spot lights straight into the air and whcih we thought was dead, is under construction in North Little Rock.  At this time, we really do not know much and need to learn more before attempting any action. We know that the Audubon Society of Central Arkansas is also concerned about this development so we decided to see if they would like to work together to oppose this.

Presentation: John Reed put on a presentation showing us the many cool features of the freeware Celestia planetarium program.

The nominating committee has come up with the following nominations to be voted on at the Annual Meeting. Since there were no other nominations, it ought to be a shoe in.

President: Carolaina Ferren

Vice-President: Jim Fisher

Treasurer: Andy Reed

Secretary: Bill Engberg

New Board Members:  John Reed and Rocky Togni

The meeting let out at about 9 PM.

President Don Ferren called the meeting to order at 7:10 PM.  There were 10 members in attendance, including new members Eric Walker and Paul Deeter.  The weather was not good, solid overcast with likelihood of rain, keeping attendance down.

Upcoming Events:

• CAAS will be involved with a star party at Pinnacle Mountain State Park this coming weekend at 8 PM.
• The AOAS will also be holding a star party next Saturday at the Diamond Bar G Ranch, visit their site (www.aoas.org) for details.
• The RRAC will be hold a “Burger Burn” start party at their property on the weekend of 10/9. Visit their website (www.rrac.org) for details.
• The Heart of America Star Party will be held on the weekend of 10/16. Visit their web site (www.hoasp.org) for details.
• CAAS will be involved with a star party at Whoolly Hollow State Park on 11/7 at 7 PM.
• CAAS may be involved with a Cub Scout outing at Petit Jean Mountain on 10/23 but this has not yet been confirmed.
• NASA’s Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) is racing toward a double-impact on the moon at 7:30 am EDT on Oct. 9th. Today NASA announced exactly where the crash will take place.  Visit this URL (http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2009/11sep_lcrosstarget.htm?list1064453) for details.

General Business:

• The board members in attendance approved a motion to let Jim Fisher move forward with a letter to Little Rock Mayor Mark Stodola urging the use of good dark sky friendly lighting at the site of a proposed soccer field on highway 300 near Pinnacle Mountain State Park.
• Jim Fisher made a motion that CAAS make former Pinnacle M0untain State Park Interpreter James Mullins an honorary lifetime member of CAAS for all of the work he has done over the last 22 years promoting astronomy.  In addition, it was proposed that we have a plaque made to this effect.  The motion was approved and Bill Engberg offered to look into getting the plaque.

Presentation:

Bill Engberg gave a demonstration of a technique he has developed to use a non-motorized dobsonian telescope to track satellites and similar objects across the sky and described how he observed a recent Space Shuttle fly over using the technique.  He then talked about some books he has recently acquired including Astronomy Hacks and The Dobsonian Telescope.

The meeting let out at about 8:40 and since it had started raining at that time, no observing followed.

President Don Ferren called the meeting to order at 7 PM. There were 13 members and visitors in attendance.

Upcoming items:

• The AOAS is having a star party at Janet Huckaby Nature Center on 8/15.
• CAAS is having a  star party at Pinnacle Mountain State Park on 8/22 and another on 9/19.
• The RRAS is having a Burger Burn in October.
• The Heart of America Star Party is also in October.

Next month there will be a mini-Astrophotography meeting at 5 PM for anyone who wants to attend.

We discussed the possibility of inviting our neighbors to a CAAS meeting and barbeque. The idea was well received but not date was set.

The Perseid Meteor shower will peak on the coming Tuesday.

Rocky Togni gave a very interesting presentation on variable stars and his recent visit to Adler Planetarium in Chicago.