Champaign-Urbana Astronomical Society Champaign, IL. 61820 Minutes of CUAS Club meeting held on Thursday July 10th 2008 7:00PM Parkland College, Staerkel Planetarium 2500 West Bradley Avenue Champaign , Ill 61820 Treasurer’s report: Willard mentioned we have about $4216.10 in the bank. Old Business: Calendars…should we buy more? The answer is probably yes. The Mow List When you mow, let the next person know immediately. If you’ll be out of town or can’t mow, let the next person know ASAP so we don’t lose control of the lawn out there. Thank you!: 1) Mike Rosenberger 4) Audrey Ishii 7) Mike Lockwood 10) Dick Robrock 2) Dave Leake 5) Willard Brinegar 8) Bob Rubendunst 11) John Stone 3) Mark Prather 6) Guy Hampel 9) Wayne James 12) Bill Marble The dark sky session at Middlefork went well. About 20 people showed up. Word is that a Tele Vue Ethos 8mm Ultra Wide Angle Eyepiece was on hand thanks to Willard. The Televue 8mm Ethos features an incredible 100 degree apparent field of view for an incredible combination of high magnification and a wide field of view! New business: Mike Lockwood indicated the dome had an attempted break-in but the door held fast. He will contact the sheriff’s office to see what can be done. Astronomy Magazine is celebrating its 35th year in publication. Stewart Levy, Jeff Bryant and Dave Leake discussed happenings at the recent International Planetarium Society (IPS) meeting in Chicago. A link to the IPS page is here: http://www.ips-planetarium.org/ Jeff and Stewart described a presentation called “Puppets in the Dome” by Alexander Cherman of the Rio de Janeiro Planetarium in Brazil. Dave described a very unique planetarium ball projector where the inventor literally carried it into the dome while it was projecting stars. Stars were projected so well that the fellas were tempted to use binoculars! Upcoming Events: August 2 Members Only Observing 8pm - ? Observatory August 9 CUAS Family Skywatch 8-10pm Observatory August 14 CUAS Club meeting 7-8:30pm Staerkel Planetarium Note . . .there will be a wedding rehearsal from 6-7pm this night. August 23 Weekend Wizards: Astronomy 1-3pm Orpheum If anyone wants to help out, we could use a few hands at the Orpheum Children‟s Science Museum for Weekend Wizards for the kids. August 30 Dark Sky Observing 8pm-? Middle Fork, Penfield September 6 CUAS Family Skywatch 8-10:30pm Observatory October 18th (Saturday) may be the date for our Allerton observing. We need someone to give a talk event. Program for the evening consisted of further discussion of what the club intends to do concerning the International Year of Astronomy 2009. A closer look was taken in regard to city parks for holding club instructional events. The following is taken from the CUAS July newsletter and will give you a better idea as to what options and activities we might consider. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Possible Plans for IYA 2009 by Dave Leake Those who attended the June meeting got to hear me ramble on about the International Year of Astronomy in 2009. The year has been set aside to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the telescope and Galileo’s observations. As the name implies, this is an international effort with the following objectives: • Relate astronomical discoveries to the public • Empower communities in developing countries • Support science in the schools and in museums/planetariums • Connect amateur astronomers, scientists and educators • Promote careers in science • Improve gender representation in science • Facilitate preservation and protection of our dark skies To accomplish these objectives, there are many projects that are being planned across the globe, including: • 24 Hours of Astronomy” – Everyone looks through a telescope – “Wave of darkness” • The “Galileoscope” kit • Personal Blogs • Web “Portal to the Universe” • Dark sky awareness • Teacher training events So the question becomes . . . what do WE do? Keep in mind, an option is “nothing.” But some ideas include: • “Park tour” with telescopes? • Workshops? • Dark sky promotion • Fliers to promote next Skywatch • Half price membership offer? • “Sell” T-shirts? • Collaborations? • Contests? Competitions? • Prize drawing? Or a combination of several of these things. IF we do a park tour, the intent is to plan well in advance and even come up with dates in the next month. A letter has already been drafted (but not sent) to both park districts to get them on board. We do not want one or two people doing the parks! If we “divide and conquer” then we split the work and no one gets burned out. Also, we would not do all the parks. The following list is based on relatively dark skies (meaning no Dodd‟s Park on softball night), availability of parking, and residences nearby where people can walk to the park. Possible parks include (but are not limited to). Also, no rain date. If a session gets clouded out, the plan will be to move on to the next night.: • Champaign: Garden Hills, Kaufman Lake, Centennial, Robeson, Morrissey, Hessel, Douglas, Eisner, and Clark. • Urbana: Meadowbrook, Crystal Lake (Anita Purves Nature Center), Lohmann, Blair, Crestview, and Prairie. So what do we do next? We need to discuss this at the July meeting, so if you have opinions or alterations to this proposal, bring them to the meeting or email an officer. Given the lead time for park district publications, we’ll need to get them on board soon. We also want to get the News-Gazette involved as a partner. From the park districts we’ll ask for: • permission to do this and be in the designated parks after dark, • assistance in scheduling the sessions, wishing to avoid any pre-scheduled activities such as concerts, and • assistance in publicizing the event, by placing the schedule in any park district brochures, schedule cards and fliers. The planetarium could handle any press releases. So . . what do you think? Could you volunteer for a night or two? For more info on the international event, see www.astronomy2009.org. There being no further business to be brought before the officers, the meeting was adjourned at 8:30PM Michael T. Conron, Secretary