The Size of Speedy Things Norm Guenther Last meeting by Terry Barker

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Ken Wilson had a signup sheet for Astronomy Day, to be held Aprl 16 this year. Meade Telescopes is going to sponsor the event, and they may give local astonomy clubs an ETX-90 telescope to give away as part of the celebration. Ken will be teaching a Tuesday night class at the SMV, called Stargazing 101. He also recognized our monthly SMV skwatch volunteers--mainly Joe Hetmanski and Gary Cowardin. They are always there, every Friday night when the skywatch is held, and the club also owes them a big thank you. We have an agreement with the SMV, where they give us a meeting room for our club meetings, and we bring telescopes for the monthly skywatch. So, without the skywatch, we would have to find a free meeting place, which can be hard these days! Ken also had printouts of monthly star maps and satellite timings. Susan Brubaker, our librarian, had several books from our library available for checkout. David Credicott, our incoming president, thanked last year's board members, and introduced the new board. David also announced that Cindy Bowers is leaving the board, after several years of service as our Treasurer. Thanks Cindy, and we hope you'll rejoin us soon! David asked for volunteers to replace her, so if your werent' at the meeting, and have an interest, please talk to a board member. Jim Blowers had an opportunity to see both Venus and Mercury while on a business trip in the Durham, NC area. Ted Bethune viewed The Trapezium in Orion with his telescope. He thinks he saw more than the four main stars that make up this object. David Medici saws a slow moving object in Orion, which was probably a satellite. He also saw a bright meteor, with a smoke trail. Roger Rigby took his telescope on a holiday visit to Massachusettes. He entertained a neighborhood crowd one night, in spite of continually losing his telescope's tracking ability, due to a loose tripod leg. John Raymond will be having a daytime telescope party at his house on Feb. 13 or 16. This will be an opportunity to set up your telescope, and see other people's telescopes. There may be an observing session that evening, depending on the weather. John Barnett viewed two moons of Saturn. Titan is fairly easy to see, but any others are a real challenge. Roger Rigby greeted our visitors--David Bell, Pete Bramble, Roger Walk, Priscilla Tudor, David Clements, Paul Kirill, Nancy Harrison, Keith Mottas, and Dave Wacton. Sue Brubaker is asking for anyone who has a recommendation for a book for the club to buy, to please send the information to her. She will be making purchases soon.

Observatory

Jim Petty told us that Randy Tatum and John Barnett have reinforced the wood flooring around the pier. Roger Rigby gave a short talk, on our Dark Sky Observing Committee. This is an initiative that the board adopted at our last meeting, to establish funds in pursuit of buying or leasing a dark sky observing site, and possibly adding a telescope and a building to house it. Roger has set up a Yahoo member site--see him for details about joining that group.

Skywatches and other events:

Feb. 11, Chesterfield County Skywatch at Clover Hill, 7:00 pm Feb. 14, pre-meeting dinner, Arby's, 6:00 pm Feb. 18, SMV Skywatch Feb. 21, RAS board meeting, 7:00 pm, Extra Billy's

David Thomas gave the main presentation, on the Andromeda Galaxy. David walked us through the history of the galaxy, from the time when no one realized that this object was made up of individual stars. For a long time, it was considered a nebula. Edwin Hubble used variable stars, called Cepheids, that he could resolve in Andromeda, Hubble to show that it was over 25 times farther away than the most distant stars in the Milky Way.

Dues are due by Jim Blowers

Your 2005 dues can be paid to our treasurer, Jim Blowers, at any of the meetings, or by mail. Please use the form enclosed in this newsletter.