August 2014

Treasurer’s report:

July 1 balance 511.33; no activity; ending balance 511.33.

The Fiscal 990 Report has been turned in as well as the Oklahoma return.

Upcoming star party: August 16; rain date August 23

Talked to Tri County Tech to see if they could supply us with a dark viewing spot; another possibility for star party is Skull Creek at Hulah Lake.

Perseid meteor shower party: At Denise’s house August 11 and 12

Next meeting: Not September 1 due to labor day; scheduled for Sept 8, then postponed to Sept. 15.

Good astronomy online class: coursera.org. 8 sessions, 8-10 videos with assignments.

Astronomy news from Daryl--

Supermoon:

July 12—within 90% of closest approach to Earth.

August @Perseids—another one; closest approach of this series

Sept. 8

If we were to have a total eclipse during Supermoon, the duration of totality would be 7 min 51 seconds.

Sunspots:

June 30 large sunspots

July 5 more of them

July 12 existing sunspots moved to the right

The Sun takes 25-30 days to rotate once.

Other:

Aug 18: Closest conjunction of Jupiter and Venus before sunrise, close to 5 am. Would be high enough to see at 6 am but then the sky is lighter then.

Aug 4: Spica/Mars/Saturn and half moon in a straight line in SSW

Aug 4: ISS viewable 6 minutes at 51 degrees at 8:58 pm

Steve’s night sky presentation:

He showed images of the Big Dipper taken from a 90 degree angle

He recommends using Stellarium

He showed us images of a dragonfly star cluster in Cassiopeia and an MZZ globular cluster in Andromeda

Future club publicity ideas:

Frank and Lola’s telescope setup on weekends

Contact high school teachers

Contact National Honor Society

Have already done some work with middle schools

Yahoo group

Night-sky network