February 2008 |
| ATTENDANCE |
M. Arsenault, C. Clayton, A. Davis, D. Driscoll, J. Dunlap, M. Giberson,
A. Huskins, G. Jones, K. Keith, J. MacDonald, B. MacNutt, J. McAdam, K. McAdam,
S. McHatten, K. Melville, C. Nason, S. Tompkins, C. Trott
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| WHAT'S UP |
Moon near Venus and Jupiter Feb. 4, highlight is total lunar eclipse Feb. 20,
Saturn at opposition Feb. 24, good Mars viewing ending soon, Comet Holmes
fading but Wirtanen getting better placed for observing.
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| OBSERVING |
Chris was observing Algol and a variable in the Hyades; Marc and Angela
caught Mars near the Moon; Curt saw Mercury several evenings, had a great
view of Mars but failed to get Comet Wirtanen; Beth, Shawn and George had
been keeping tabs on Venus and Jupiter in the morning; June talked about
the David Levy lecture at Mount A on January 15.
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| SHOW AND TELL |
Curt had a book "Secrets of Stargazing" that is available at L'il Shop of Science;
Dave brought an old National Geographic with 3D pictures from the Mars Rover;
June had a massive book called "Astronomica" and one of David Levy's from his
lecture; Kim had pictures of Mount John Observatory in New Zealand, visited by Don
Hawkins.
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| SOLAR SYSTEM COORDINATES, PART I |
Shawn described the celestial equator, ecliptic, and precession of the
equinox. Then, using the solar system chart from Heavens-Above that we
use in the What's Up, he showed how we can use the relative position of
the planets to tell what constellation they are in.
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| SJAC WEBSITE TOUR |
Webmaster Marc walked us through the features of the website. He posts
the monthly What's Up calendar and meeting information, and welcomes suggestions.
This led to a discussion on protecting our domain name and Marc will look
into that.
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| GOOGLE EARTH TOUR |
Following up on Kim's pics from New Zealand, Shawn toured us through the
area of the observatory on Google Earth.
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| BUSINESS |
Club Scope (Curt, Allan will take it for March), PST (Mike Powell has it).
Astronomy Day on May 10 - June booked Brunswick Square. We are looking for
ideas. Curt will contact Lil Shop of Science for a possible collaboration,
and contact a TV station about possible coverage.
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| TOP 10 APOD |
Curt ran through his selection of the top 10 from Astronomy Picture of the Day websit for January
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