The WHAC meeting was held at the Keck Headquarters in Waimea. It was noted that,
amazing!, there were cookies, tea, and coffee at a Keck meeting! It only took two years to catch up with CFHT's lead!
The meeting was called to order at 7pm by Craig Nance. There were about 20 persons in attendance.
Craig asked for any observing reports. There was an extended discussion about the recent astronomy/caving adventure. The adventure is detailed on the
WHAC web page. Doug and Craig C. mentioned a recent observing session they and others attended at
the club dark site, near Pu'u Anahulu. Craig N. mentioned that he and Doug Summers participated in an observing session for a class of 2nd grade students of Kamehameha Schools.
Craig Nance presented
The Sky This Month. The featured object of the month was the upcoming Mercury transit. He detailed the background of the transit, and touched on some of the orbital mechanics behind these transits. The transit will occur on Wednesday November 8. See the
WHAC Yahoo groups page for details on what we are doing as a club as the date approaches.
Several members shared their solar observing gear. Craig Combes shared a Coronado PST used to observe the Sun in Hydrogen Alpha. Wiley Knight shared his refractor which is adapted for solar viewing. Craig N. shared his 10" full-aperture solar filter. It was bought from Thousand Oaks Optical many years ago. These demonstrations were within an open forum discussion about solar observing. It seems that several members, in their younger days, had refractors with the infamous, and highly dangerous, "SUN" filters. There seemed to be agreement that the best way to safely observe the sun is to purchase a full-aperture solar filter from a reputable manufacturer.
There wasn't much business to discuss. Pierre mentioned that on December 2, following the Waimea Christmas Parade, all WHAC members are invited to set up their telescopes on the CFHT front lawn to share the skies with the public. The Scribe notes that this is one of the most enjoyable astro-events of the year. Even if it's cloudy, it is a fun time chatting with the public about astronomy.
Diana Conrad mentioned that the weekend tour of Subaru Observatory she was organizing has fallen through due to the departure of a Subaru staff member who was going to host us. Everyone is greatly appreciative of the time and effort Diana has put into this!
The next WHAC meeting will be
Tuesday November 14, 2006 at the CFHT Headquarters. Doug Summers is hosting the meeting. He indicated that if the weather is clear, we'll disband the meeting to go observing at
the club dark site, near Pu'u Anahulu. As always, all are invited to the pre-meeting social/dinner at the Parker Ranch food court at ~6pm.