May 2005 Club Meeting Report

Meeting was held at the CFHT large conference room. Many thanks to CFHT for hosting the club, including snacks and beverages! 20 or more folks in attendance! Approximately 1/3 were newcomers.

During the Gear Talk Show and Tell part of the meeting:

• Howard shared the importance of observing filters. He does not recommend viewing without filters because many Deep Sky Objects require contrast to see details clearly. H-beta, O3, Comet Filter and Ultra-High Contrast were discussed. Generally run over $100 each, but well worth the investment
• Craig Combes shared a prototype for what will become his primary mirror support structure. Sometimes seeing the process of building a telescope is more interesting than the final product. Craig will continue to share his progress with us.
• Carlton Lane shared a preview of what will become an illustration for a talk he would like to give on special relativity.
  
  Others discussed a few featured Web sites for the month:

• SpaceWeather.com is an everyday resource to use to study the Sun's activity for the day.
  

Laura Kraft presented "The Sky This Month".

Mercury is in the morning sky for most of the month of May. Around 5:45 am, look for Mercury about 10 degrees above the Eastern horizon. Mercury will not reappear in the evening sky until June.

VENUS Venus remains very close to the sun, but can be seen making an emergence to the evening sky shortly after sunset for most of this month. Look for venus just above the setting sun on the Western horizon.

MARS Mars and Uranus form a nice conjunction in the early morning hours of May 15th. Look for the pair about 25 degrees between the East and Southeast horizon after 2:30am. Mars shines at about magnitude 0.5 and Uranus is much fainter to the Northwest at about a magnitude 6.0. Mars remains an early morning object for May.

JUPITER Jupiter dominates the evening sky in May. Look for this object in Virgo. The moon and Jupiter make a nice pairing on May 18th and 19th.

SATURN Saturn rivals Jupiter about 45 degrees above the western horizon, setting near 11:30 pm early in the month, and by 10:30 late in the month. Look for Saturn near a young crescent moon in Gemini on May 12.

MOON PHASES:
Last Quarter: May 1
New Moon: May 8
First Quarter: May 16
Full Moon: May 23

Ceres, the largest asteroid and the first to be discovered, can be seen in Libra with binoculars near the star Zubeneschemali starting May 8th

Craig Combes facilitated several pieces of club business. The club is in search of a co-president to help facilitate club business, lead meetings and find guest speakers. The club is also searching for help for notetaker, promotions and member recruitment.

Mark your calendars --

Deep Impact takes place slightly after sunset on Sunday, July 3rd. Canada-France will host a starparty in Waimea with live views of the comet with a wide-field imager. Keck Observatory will also have an observing event in the Hualalai Lecture Theater.

For more information about the Keck Lecture Series, see "Keck Lecture Series"

A long discussion about possible star party and observing site were discussed. Bill Brie (billbrieatearthlinkdotnet) has very nice accomodations at 5,000 ft. in OceanView. Contact him if you would like to set something up. Sites on Saddle Road and Hualalai were discussed. Consensus was to try a few sites and rotate among them. All sites have pros and cons. It comes down to what you're willing to compromise. It was agreed an observing party needs to happen soon!

The featured speaker was Jim Lyke who opened the floor to "Ask the Astronomer". Pierre Martin and others also helped facilitate. Discussions about redshifts and the expansion of the universe commenced. "How do we know what we know?" For answers, you'll have to come to the next meeting!

The formal part of the talk and meeting ended at about 8:45pm.