The May 6, 2004 meeting of the Champaign-Urbana Astronomical Society was 
called to order at 7:09pm by President Jeff Byrant in the Staerkel 
Planetarium. 18 people attended the meeting.

The membership discussed CUAS's first star party to be held May 22, at the 
County forest preserve near Penfield. The schedule of events is:
4pm Solar Viewing
5pm Potluck Picnic
6pm children's activities
Civil sunset is at about 8:08pm CDT

The telescopes are planned to be set up some distance away from the 
campground, and those not camping will have to leave the park by 11pm 
Saturday night.

The talk, which will be indoors at the park,held rain or shine, will be on 
the "Invisible Universe."

The park is almost due east of Rantoul, or you can take I-74 east to the 
Homer exit, and then go north (County Road 22) about 35 minutes to reach 
the park. Insect repellent may be a good thing to bring along.

Middle Fork River Forest Preserve (http://www.ccfpd.org/midfork.htm). Call 
896-2455 and let them know you'll be there and how many people
you're bringing, and if you're bringing a scope.

We also discussed whether we should purchase a digital eyepiece or camera 
for public events.

We discussed a bit whether 100,000 candlepower spotlights or less than 5mw 
output green laser pointers work better for pointing out asterisms at our 
events. Maybe we can try then both at Penfield?

We discussed whether the club should see a DVD offering a plan B to the 
origins of the universe, rather than the current plan A, which is the big 
bang theory. The opinion was that many were interested in seeing the DVD, 
and also having the plan A approach discussed after the DVD. (But that 
could be a long meeting!)

The transit of Venus is a twice-in-a lifetime event, and phase 1 happens 
June 8th at sunrise this year. If this year's event is clouded out, then 
you have to wait 8+ years for the next Venus transit to happen. CUAS plans 
to show off this event to the public at the Parkland College soccer fields 
on the east side of the Parkland campus.

After club business, John Stone, also of the U of I astronomy club, gave an 
interesting presentation on converting cheap computer mini-cams to be quite 
impress planet viewing tools for amateur telescopes. John brought and 
passed around his astro cam in its housing, which was made mostly of 
inexpensive parts obtained from the Lowes home improvement store.

John's presentation was concluded at about 8:30pm.

Submitted by Bob Rubendunst
Secretary, CUAS