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PLANETARIUM SHOW AND TALK
Lonny Buinis
Kevin Conad
MEETING SUMMARY:
Meeting Date: August 8, 1992.
Meeting Site: Hackensack Meadowlands Environment Center, Lyndhurst, New Jersey.
Official Attendance: 24.
Meeting Program: Space talk and planetarium show.
Notes:
Meeting Memories:
Newsletter Account:
The following account is reprinted with permission from THE STARSHIP EXPRESS Copyright 1992 Philip J De Parto:
The August meeting of the Science Fiction Association of Bergen County was held in the Hackensack Meadowlands Environment Center in the Lyndhurst meadows on August 8, 1992. Despite the facility's out-of-the-way location, everyone who attempted the journey apparently found the place without difficulty.
You would not normally think that a swamp-turned-landfill would be a fun place to hold a meeting, but this is so. The county has spent a lot of money stocking the wetlands with a variety of animal and botanical wildlife, and most people who got there early went for a walk around the grounds. Surprisingly, the area was virtually bug-free, although you had to be careful where you walked because of geese droppings.
Enough of us showed up at the meeting that we had to divide into two groups. Kevin Conad ran the Planetarium Show. Lonny Bunis put together a slide and videotape presentation. The slides depicted planetscapes imagined by Lonny and other artists. The videotape featured Lonny as Andy Sagan explaining various astronomical phenomena, computer-created "fly-bys" of various bodies in the solar system, and the unforgettable (no matter how hard we try) song "The Moon Rock Rock" about one of the stones the astronauts brought back to Earth.
Some technical difficulties interfered with the show in what may well be the smallest permanent Planetarium in the country. The room is only big enough to accommodate about a dozen adults--which is why we had to break into two groups. The first group had problems with the temperature. Kevin's pointer died during his presentation to the second group, who had him turn off the A/C. Such is life.
The meeting itself and Lonny's talk were held in a classroom across the hall from the Planetarium. A number of people amused themselves by looking at wildlife in cages and fishtanks along the rear wall.
We were unable to stargaze because of heavy, low cloudcover. There was a strong, cool breeze that many of us enjoyed on a deck overlooking the water before we left the building.
Almost half of the gathering went over to the Arlington Diner afterwards. This included Sharon ARcher, Leora Baeder, Lonny Buinis, Kevin Conad, Paul Dellechiaie, Nancy Denker, Mary Anne Denny, Philip De Parto, Joan Hardy, Brian Keveney, Vincent Kurdyla, William Molendyk, Chris, Pat and Mary Nash, Bobbie Smith and Carol Smith.
The Association welcomes newcomers Herbert Bauer and Melinda Grinch.