B.C.A.A.S. MEETING MINUTES
September 14, 2006
The meeting was called to order at 7:30, with 37 in attendance. Dave Brown announced that LVAAS (the Lehigh Valley Amateur Astronomical Society) will be having their free annual star party, Megameet, this weekend at Pulpit Rock in Hamburg. For information, check their website, www.lvaas.net.
The Reading Museum Planetarium is having their grand reopening celebration on October 7, from 11 am to 5 pm and October 8, from noon to 5 pm. Our club will have telescopes set up for solar viewing, as well as activities and talks at 11 and 12 on Saturday and at 2 and 3 on Sunday. Astronaut Story Musgrave will be speaking at 3 on Saturday and 1 on Sunday. Derrick Pitts, from the Franklin Institute will talk on Saturday at 1. Club members are needed to help with telescopes and/or activities.
Both the Mason-Dixon Star Party and the Stella-Della Valley Star Party will be held during the weekend of October 21. Also, Dave Brown will be speaking at Nolde Forest Environmental Education Center at 7:30 pm on Saturday, October 21, with observing afterward at the Turtle Pond. Volunteers with telescopes are needed.
On Saturday, November 4, we are having a bus trip to the Hayden Planetarium in New York. We will be traveling via Beiber Bus. We don’t have a chartered bus, but if you would like to travel as a group, meet us at the Kutztown terminal for the 7:30 am bus. The club will reimburse each person attending $20 to help cover the cost – keep your bus/museum receipts. Barb Geigle handed out a flyer with information on the trip, which Mike Bashore will post on the website. If anyone has any questions, contact Barb.
On November 8, starting at 4:12 pm, Mercury will transit the Sun. We will have public observing and a program at the Dry Brooks Day Use Area at Blue Marsh Lake starting at 3:30 pm. We will have solar observing, the transit watch, a talk at 6, and then night time observing afterward. The rain/cloud date is Saturday, November 11 (for a program and night time observing only) starting at 6:30 pm.
There was a discussion of the demotion of Pluto to Dwarf Planet status, with a minor planet number of 134340. Also, 2003 UB313 (formerly nicknamed Xena) is now classified as a Dwarf Planet and has been named Eris and its moon is named Dysnomia. Ceres has also been upgraded to Dwarf Planet status.
Linda Sensenig reported a balance of $$$$$ in the treasury. Also, she received the check for $800 for the remaining balance due from the sale of the Cave telescope.
Dave also noted that our meetings will probably be moved back to the Museum Auditorium next month.
After the break, our speaker was Dr. Ruth Daly, from Penn State Berks. As usual, her program was interesting and informative.
Respectfully submitted
Barbara Geigle, Secretary