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The meeting was held on May 10, 2006 at 7pm in the CFHT Large Conference Room, with Doug Summers facilitating.

We had 33 members and other interested persons attending. It was definitely "sitting room only" as the conference room was full! The Scribe thinks the meeting attendance slightly exceeded our previous attendance record -- Gary Fujihara's talk of November 2005. CFHT seems to be the place to set attendance records!
Doug Summers led the introductions by asking each person to give their name and where they live.

• Next were the observing reports. Craig Combes spoke about a recent trip that he and Carlton Lane took to New Zealand. The intent of the trip was to observe showpiece objects that are too far south to be seen from Hawaii. He reports that they had less clear observing weather than they had hoped, but made the best of what they had. He reports observing Eta Carina, which gave wonderful views and was the best of the objects they saw. Other notable objects were the Tarantula Nebula, Toucan 47, and the twin Magellanic Clouds.
  


• For the Gear Show and Tell, Doug Summers reported on his recent use of an MP3 recorder to record his observing notes. He observes objects in the eyepiece and speaks into the recorder. Then, later he can listen to his recordings, remember what he saw, and compare with sky charts and such.
• Doug reported that the Department of Land and Natural Resources has made dramatic improvements to our observing site on Mamalahoa Hwy. Doug thinks we can easily host 20-40 telescopes! Look on the WHAC web site under Club Resources for the dramatic before vs. after pictures!
• WHAC has a second club telescope! It is another 8"SCT, but having more features than the "old" one. Details about both telescopes can be found on the WHAC web site under Club Resources. We need club members to volunteer to host these telescopes - keep them at your place, use them, and bring them out to an occasional WHAC event. Otherwise, without a place to keep them , we may have to sell one of them. What a deal - a free telescope to use! Contact Craig, Craig, or Doug for details.
• Craig Nance and others reported on the AstroDay observing the prior Saturday night. It was "Dinner and a Movie" - participants went to Hale Pohaku, had dinner thanks to Gary Fujihara, and enjoyed a talk by Al Conrad on aste roids. We were disappointed that the weather did not permit sharing of the night sky with the public. But, there is always next year!
• Craig Nance presented The Sky This Month. The most significant upcoming event is the close approach of Comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann-3. The Internet is chock full of finder charts for this event, in addition to the ones presented in the meeting.
• Then, it was time for the featured event of the evening, a panel discussion about theories of multiple Universes . This discussion was organized around a recent Scientific American article by Dr. Max Tegmark. Four moderators each presented one of the multiverse theories: Doug presented Level 1; Greg Wirth Level 2; David LeMignant Level 3; and Remi Cabanac Level 4. Following the four presentations the moderators discussed their personal viewpoints regarding each of the theories. This was followed by a lively exchange amongst all regarding the theories.
• Doug Summers then presented his favorite galaxies from his Unique Spring Galaxies list. Everyone was amazed at these galaxies. Doug wrapped up his presentation by sharing a lensed quasar that is ~9B light years away, which is believed to be the most distant object visible to amateurs.

Club Business
• Herb and Diana Conrad are hosting a "New Telescope Party" at their house in Kohala Ranch on Saturday May 27. They passed out announcement flyers; details are also available on the WHAC web site. Watch the Yahoo Groups page for details as the date approaches.
• Several folks volunteered to help with the Queen Lilioukulani Children's Center observing session on May 11, tomorrow.
• There was some discussion whether the Keck and CFHT Polycomm (i.e., video conferencing) equipment could be used to allow folks in Hilo to participate in WHAC meetings, and perhaps us on the Kona side to "drop in" on Hilo-side astronomy clubs meetings. There seems to be nothing preventing this other than making it happen. It is an interesting idea left open for future discussion.

Meeting adjourned at 9pm!

Reminder that the next meeting is June 13, 2006 at the Keck HQ at 7pm. All are invited to the customary pre-meeting casual dinner at the Parker Ranch Food Court starting at ~6pm. In addition to the usual content of the meeting, the June featured program will be a telescope making presentation by Craig Nance. He will humor everyone with his curious adventures in telescope building, including a trip to Delaware in March to attend a seminar on mirror making. This will be followed by hands-on exhibits of telescope making.