May 2016

Financials: Beginning balance April 1 $2014.34

Sunfest registration $30.00

New members $30.00

Receipts to cover new projector from members $525.00

Ending balance $2539.34

24 people attended this members-only meeting

Long-time member Carroll Ritchie passed away recently; he had been a member of the club since at least 1995.

Recent club events:

• ISS crossing the Moon April 15. Steve’s video posting of the event was the most visited item on our Facebook page! Abby also got great pictures! Calsky.com site advertises upcoming events like this—John gets email alerts and he in turn sent this out.

• Iridium flare—Rick got pictures of this with barn door tracker mount. Used 24mm lens, F5.6.

Upcoming club events:

• Mercury transiting the Sun May 9-- Will have telescopes set up in SE grassy area of library by parking lot, available to the public (weather permitting) from 9 am to 1:30 pm. (The transit ends shortly before 2 pm.)

• Sunfest--Denise has organized volunteers for all the time slots!

• OK Mozart--Need volunteers to bring scopes and to help out in general—June 11 (rain date June 12)

Astronomy news from Abby:

Apollo 13 launched April 13, 46 years ago

Cassini orbiting new planet (?)

NASA plans unmanned landing on Mars 2018

Kepler spacecraft getting information on exoplanets

April 24—an astronaut on the ISS ran a marathon in space at the same time as the London Marathon

Two comets are approaching from the Oort Cloud

Main presentation: How to manage your Google membership in the BAS club, by Racheeta Agrawal.

The presentation is linked here.