The WHAC Meeting was held on December 11 2007 in the Hualalai conference room at the W.M. Keck Observatory Headquarters in Waimea.

Craig Nance facilitated the club meeting. As usual, he opened the meeting with a welcome to all members both new and old. About 20 members were present and a few new faces that were asked to introduce themselves.

After a brief discussion of the sky tonight, Craig presented a power point presentation with a look ahead of the most important astronomical events of the coming year, here are the highlights:

January:
• Comet 8P/Tuttle close approach – 1st
• Quadrantid meteor shower peak – 4th
• Most meteor shower prospects are poor this year  “Wonderful Winter” star party – 5th
• WHAC Meeting – 8th
• New Moon – 8th
• Full “Wolf” Moon – 22nd
February:
• New Moon – 6th
• WHAC Meeting – 12th
• Full “Snow” Moon; lunar eclipse seen from mainland – 20th
• Saturn at Opposition – 24th
March:
• New Moon – 7th
• WHAC Meeting – 11th
• Vernal Equinox…Spring! – 20th
• Full “Worm” Moon – 21st
April:
• Full “Pink” Moon – 20th
• WHAC Meeting – 8th
• New Moon – 5th
• “Spring Fling” star party – 5th
• Lyrid Meteor Shower – 22nd/23rd
• Poor prospects due to moon
May:
• AstroDay – 3rd
• Eta Aquarid meteor shower – 4th
• Only meteor shower of the year rated excellent!
• New Moon – 5th
• WHAC Meeting – 13th
• Mercury at greatest elongation above western horizon – 13th Full “Flower” Moon – 19th
June:
• New Moon – 3rd
• WHAC Meeting – 10th
• Full “Strawberry” Moon – 18th
• Summer Solstice…Summer! – 20th
July:
• New Moon – 2nd
• “Sizzling Summer” star party – 5th
• WHAC Meeting – 8th
• Jupiter at opposition – 9th
• Jupiter reigns in the night sky!
• Full “Buck” Moon – 18th
August:
• New Moon # 1 – 1st
• Perseid Meteor Shower – 12th
• ~50/HR after 10pm, but moon is offensive!
• WHAC Meeting - 12th
• Full “Sturgeon” Moon – 16th
• New Moon # 2 – 30th
September:
• WHAC Meeting – 9th
• Full “Harvest” Moon – 15th
• Autumnal Equinox…fall! – 22nd
• New Moon – 29th
October:
• WHAC Meeting – 14th
• Full “Hunter’s” Moon – 14th
• “Fabulous Fall” star party – 25th
• New Moon – 28th
November:
• WHAC Meeting – 11th
• Full “Beaver” Moon – 13th
• Leonid Meteor Shower – 17th
• Moon issues…again…
• New Moon – 27th
• Spectacular Venus-Jupiter conjunction – 30th
December:
• WHAC Meeting – 9th
• Full “Cold” Moon – 12th
• Geminid Meteors – 13th
• 60/hr from 9pm thru dawn, and Moon is non-interfering!!
• Winter Solstice…winter! – 21st
• New Moon – 27th


After the social break we had the feature presentation: Eyepiece Primer by Craig Nance. Craig did a very thorough introduction to this important subject for stargazers, the main topics presented were:
• What eyepieces to buy and how to take care of them.
• Eyepiece types
• Apparent field of view
• Eye relief
• Exit pupil
• Televue eyepiece calculator, etc.


A practical demonstration on cleaning of eyepieces was done by Andrew Cooper.

Club Business: Next Star Party on Jan 5th

The next WHAC meeting is Tuesday January 8, 2008 in the CFHT conference room in Waimea at 7pm. The full meeting agenda is on the WHAC web site. The traditional pre-meeting dinner is at 6pm at the Parker Ranch Food Court.