2005

recorded by AANC Secretary Alan Gould

JAN

AANC Board Meeting Jan 23, 2005

1. Call to order 10:10 am

2. Roll call introduction of New Members

Walt Heiges (AANC President)—Sacramento Valley Astronomical Society SVAS

Don Stone (AANC Treasurer)—Eastbay Astronomical Society (EAS)

David Harris, Esther Fein, Lance Shaw—Hercules Stargazers

Alan Gould (AANC Secretary)—Lawrence Hall of Science LHS

Liede-Marie Haitsma—Mt Diablo Astronomical Society MDAS

Ken Frank (AANC VP, SFAA, Sidewalk Astronomers, Scope City),

Mike Portuesi (President SFAA, Messier Program Director)—San Francisco Amateur Astronomers SFAA

Craig Scull—San Jose Astronomical Association SJAA

Mike Koop—San Jose Astronomical Association SJAA

Keith Payea—Sonoma County Astronomical Society SCAS, Valley of the Moon Observatory Association VMOA

Richard Ozer—MDAS, TMW, Shingleton

Tom Harris—Mt Diablo Astronomical Society MDAS

John Dillon--SFAA

3. Minutes of previous meeting

Last AANC meeting Dec 5, 2004 can be found here:

http://aanc-astronomy.org/AANCminutes/AANCminutes.html

Machhotz was misspelled.

Ken moved, Keith seconded to accept minutes of Dec 5, 2004. Passed.

4. Treasurer's report and membership drive, Don, Walt

Scope City donated $300 to AANC. Thanks!!

As of Dec 31, 2004,

Franklin Money Fund has $4524.213

Washington Mutual has $1276.56

Total Current AANC funds: $5,800.77

5. Old business

Insurance issue--Mike Koop talked with Mike Ryan about insurance.

Companies were not making enough money to serve individual clubs, but they would consider having arrangement with umbrella incorporating multiple clubs if they all conformed in some ways.

Seed Money Funding/AANC mission statement, Walt, Ken, Craig

purposes of the grants/seed money, connections to public outreach, and what defines it.

Possible mission statement motto on homepage banner:

"Fostering Amateur Astronomy in Northern California since 1972"

Promote communication and coordinate among N. California astronomy clubs, planetaria, observatories and businesses.

AANC isl non-profit 501c3 organization.

AANC Stickers, Walt.

Need Hi-res logo for AANC. Alan will provide.

Email Lists report, Walt.

Domain name is renewed for 5 years.

6. New business

Updating AANC website, Alan, Carter Please send Alan your new links and update your old ones.

Remove AstroCon2004 from "Upcoming Events" and replace with AANC Convention info. Put AstroCon

in "Past Events" Change was done as of 1/23/05.

Send website updates to Alan Gould

Messier Marathon, Michael P.

Michael is maintaining web page for Messier Marathon with info on objects, lists, ...

Send Messier Marathon news & info to Michael Portuesi <portuesi---@---jotabout.com> (remove dashes)

Astronomy Day, Alan, Ken April 16th Please email your activities planned.

AANC originate Astronomy Day--this is acknowldged in the National Astronomy Day Handbook.

Send new Astronomy Day Plans to Ken Frank

AANC 2005 Annual Conference and Meeting, Richard, Ken

Possible Names: Northern California Astronomy Summit

Astronomy Expo

Astronomy Tooltime

Astronomy Behind the Scenes

[from previous minutes: Sep 1-3, 2005; Venue possibilities Kirkwood (Ilona), ski resorts (Don Machholz—Starry Starry Nights), Camp Mather.]

Date: Saturday August 27th date does not cause a conflict with speakers and attendees.

Venue: Randall Museum. Cost ~ $50

Content/Topics of Discussion: Dual Track: Issues of common interest to AANC clubs + Topics of general astronomy interest

A. Nonprofit 501c3 why and how to workshop

B. Use of pubic land for Star Parties

    • How to develop better relationships w/ State Park System
    • Motivate SP's to be more receptive for Clubs reasonable access
    • Develop a standard to help NorCal clubs deal with these issues

C. Club Observatories

D. Insurance

Craig suggested having hybrid conference with regular astronomy talks included as well.

Jim Scala proposed hands-on things you can do with your telescope. This could be workshop that could happen simultaneously with Club Issues workshop. Land issues workhop could be parallel with 501c3 workshop.

Speakers: Steve Gottlieb on DSO's IC/NGC project; John Dillon on Ancient Astronomy

Possibly Vic Marris on State Parks

Vendors: Meade, Celestron, Lumicon, and others being asked

Booths: ASP, Club

AANC Award nominees Walt clubs, e-mail list, request for award nominees

Amateur: Mike Koop (SJAA, nominated by Craig Scull)

[from last year...Ellis Myers (MDAS) was nominated]

Len Nelson (SCAS nominated by Keith Payea)

Special: [from last year...Big Bang Band]

Stacy Jo McDermott (SFAA nominated by Ken Frank)

Marshal Merriam (MDAS Richard Ozer)

Professional: Dr. Ken Freeman (ANU Canberra nominated by Keith Payea)

Commercial: Out of This World, Mendocino (nominated by Keith Payea, Denni Medlock, Dave Harris)

Suggestion to make wording on plaque to be: Amateur Astronomer of the Year Award, Special Astronomer of the Year Award, etc.

Need to update website with AANC Award winners for 2003, 2004.

Motion to donate $125 to CalStar to help defray costs of transportation and caterer.

Moved by Ken Seconded by Tom.

Motion passed.

7. Club reports

Scope City--Kenneth Frank

A very successful TeleVue / Astronomy day was held by Eddie & Sam Sweiss

at Scope City in San Francisco on Sunday December 19,2004.

Food and refreshments were provided for the festivities.

John Dobson and Ken Frank did some Sidewalk Astronomy on Bay Street

with John's solar telescope.

J D picked the first lucky winner in the drawing of a TeleVue Type 6 Nagler eyepiece!

The winner, a very happy Randy Taylor of the SFAA chose 13mm.

Photos of the party are available at photos.yahoo.com/sanfranscopecity

Generous donations came from TeleVue, Lumicon, Parks Optical, JMI,

Meade, Celestron, Partical Wave Technologies, William Optics and Pyxis

Ventures.

Dr. Maurice Sweiss made a contribution of $300 to Astronomical

Association of Northern California for the promotion of

public astronomy in Northern California.

Sam and his crew are always there to help whether you're choosing

a new scope or your old one needs repairs.

The San Jose Astronomical Association--Jim Van Nuland, Secretary,

Our 2005 calendar may be found at

http://www.svpal.org/~jvn/year2005.htm. In particular:

- Bay-Area Auction XXV is on Sunday, April 24, from noon. Jay Freeman will conduct the festivities.

- The Fall Swap will be Sunday Nov.13, from noon.

- Cal-Star, our regional fall star party, runs Sep.29 - Oct.2.

Our 50th anniversary was observed in December. From a first meeting

with 20 people, our present paid membership is about 325.

Our public star parties are every 2 or 3 weeks, generally alternating

moony and moonless evenings. Numerous school and scout groups attend.

The mirror-making workshop continues. It's not CTW south, but mirrors

are getting made.

A new series of beginner's astronomy class begin in January, and

continues approximately monthly. Mike Koop gives the night-sky talk,

with a series of guest speakers on various topics.

The school star party program, co-ordinated by Jim Van Nuland, is busy

as ever. So far this school year, we have attempted 24 events. Another

18 are on the schedule, with requests coming in almost daily.

Hercules Stargazers-- No events to report at this time. The Stargazers are enjoying a winter break until the next season, which starts on April 2, 2005, at Foxboro Park, Hercules. Submitted by Dave Harris.

Fremont Peak Observatory Association (FPOA); 831-623-2465 recording and voice mail;

Box 1376, San Juan Bautista, CA 95045; MEETING PLACE: FREMONT PEAK STATE PARK in the observatory;

Public programs Sat. eves (except full moon)April thru Oct, starting time varies.

April 16th Astronomy day will feature solar viewing during the day and a public program at night.

Call (831) 623-2465 for more details. http://www.fpoa.net/ for more information, maps and more. [From Ron Dammann]

MDAS--Richard Ozer, MDAS PresidentMembership ^ 182 members.

Meeting Programs:

January 25: David Dearborn ^ Astronomy of the Incas ^ What?s Up: Mike Harms: Trip to Maui.

February 22: Bob Parks ^ Mars Flyer

March 22: Margaret Race ^ Cosmic Contamination

April: Rick Norman ^ Gamma Ray and Neutrino Research

Outreach ^ Chick Chickering & Marni Berendsen ^ Having various Private School Star Parties set up for 2005.

Meeting Place: Concord Police Association Facility, 5060 Avila Rd. Top of the hill East of Hwy 4 at Willow Pass in North Concord.

Meeting Time: 6:45 P.M.

MDAS is getting a 2005 permit for Briones access. This is our secondary site for Star Parties.

MDSP Summit Road Construction at the Park ^ From the Junction Ranger Station to the Summit may affect access to the top of the mountain later this year. Scheduled to start in Spring, but will probably take until Autumn to complete. In that case the park will make accommodations for us at Juniper campground.

501c3 organizational status may not be enough to qualify as a tax deductible contribution. Our Treasurer had checked with the IRS and found the club is not an official charity. He will check to see what is involved in becoming one.

The new MDOA C14 on Mt. Diablo has not seen a clear night in weeks and weeks. MDAS and MDOA are going to be having the new telescope operational on Public Star Parties this year.

The MDAS Annual "Joe Disch" Award went to LeRoy Weins for his coordination of the Yosemite Star Party Event every year.

122704> AANC Nomination for Special Award Category

The Mount Diablo Astronomical Society (MDAS) would like to nominate Marshal Merriam for his outstanding research on the life of George Madeira, the founder of California's first astronomical observatory. Marshal is also spearheading an effort to correctly relocate the state historical marker commemorating this observatory. The marker is located in Volcano, California and has an incorrect inscription and is in the wrong location. Marshal is volunteering at the request of the Amador County Archivist.

This whole subject is best described in Marshal's own words, so I have attached a recent article he wrote on the topic.

San Francisco Sidewalk Astronomers--Report from: Ken Frank, with a bit from Michael Portuesi.. September 14th is John's 90th birthday and still grinding. We're hoping to have him celebrate his anniversary of his birth at the Randall Museum sometime this fall.

Many impromptu sidewalk astronomy sessions in true Mr. Dobson style have been held mostly in the Inner Sunset district whenever we're luck enough to have halfway decent skies. Additionally, Michael Portuesi has taken over webmaster duties for the SF Sidewalk astronomers website and email announcement lists. Please email: info--{at}--sfsidewalkastronomers.org if you'd like him to speak/demonstrate the fine art of telescope making and John's own flavor of Cosmology at your club this year. John is planning trips so far to: Texas, at Stellaphane in Connecticut, possibly Nova Scotia, Kansas City, Australia/New Zealand and Italy. Whew!

8. Adjourned 12:18

MAR

AANC Board Meeting Minutes March 20, 2005

1. Call to order 10:09am

2. Roll call introduction of New Members

David Harris—Hercules Stargazers

Alan Gould (AANC Secretary)—Lawrence Hall of Science LHS-

Tom Harris, Liede-Marie Haitsma—Mt Diablo Astronomical Society MDAS

Ken Frank (AANC VP, Scope City),

John Dillon ( Pres SFAA)

Mike Portuesi (President SFAA, Messier Program Director)—San Francisco Amateur Astronomers SFAA

Richard Ozer—MDAS, TMW, Shingletown

Craig Scull—San Jose Astronomical Association SJAA

3. Minutes of previous meeting

Richard moved, Mike P seconded to approve minutes. Passed.

4. Treasurer's report and membership drive, Don, Walt needs list of all dues & non-paying members from Don

5. Old business

Insurance issue--Mike Koop (note present--see note AFTER adjournment, below)

AANC mission statement, Walt, Ken,

Club Mottos taken from respective clubs' website:

  • SAS-"The purpose of the Society is to foster interest in and promote the general knowledge of astronomy and related sciences."
  • SCAS- is to foster interest in astronomy and telescope making, and to promote general knowledge of Astronomy
  • EAS- To increase our own knowledge and appreciation of space, to promote the space
  • sciences to the public, and to have as much fun as possible doing it.
  • SFAA- We are committed to sharing the wonders of the universe and we achieve our goal through regular public lecture programs and star parties, purpose of this corporation is to promote and popularize astronomy and related disciplines.
  • MDAS- brings a knowledge of astronomy and space science to the general public.
  • The society offers programs that give the public an opportunity to view celestial objects.
  • SMCAS- club which caters to the hobby interests of its members, but which also stresses public outreach, and a mission of bringing astronomy to the community in the form of free invitational programs and stargazing with telescopes.
  • SVAS- The purpose of the society is to foster interest in astronomy, to encourage and assist members in the study of astronomy and in the making and use of astronomical instruments

John moved and Mike P seconded to adopt the following motto for AANC: "Fostering Amateur Astronomy in Northern California since 1972, by promoting communication and coordination among N. California astronomy clubs, planetaria, observatories and astronomy-related businesses."

Motion passed.

Seed Money Funding, Craig

purposes of the grants/seed money, connections to public outreach, and what defines it.

What are our values--what types of things does AANC promote and support?

Money plays some part, but there are wider, non-monetary methods of promoting interest in astronomy.

A lot has to do with time that amateurs spend with public and students, firing their interest in astronomy--at star parties and special events.

AANC can provide leverage to make small events bigger/more effective.

We support events such as Shingletown, Striking Sparks, StarBQ, ...

Announcement: We are looking for an 8" Dob for Keith Mullin (former board member SVAS) in AZ.

Mike: People contact clubs with telescopes they want to donate or sell. Often they're not high quality scopes. Craig: SJAA has loaner program and annual auction.

AANC Stickers, Walt checking needs a clean one

Hi-res logo for AANC, Alan will get logo to Walt.

Email Lists report, Walt couln't get email list

Messier Marathon, Michael P.

Astronomy Day, Alan, Ken April 16th

Please email your activities planned. Refer to Astronomy Day web page on AANC site(http://aanc-astronomy.org/AstroDay.html) for form to copy into an e-mail. Send this years plans for Astronomy Day to KennethFrank{at}planitarium.net

Submissions in plain text are appreciated.

6. New business

AANC 2005 Annual Conference and Meeting, Richard, Ken

Name: AANC-CON 2005 [need to have a better name!]

Date: Saturday August 27th

Venue: Randall Museum 199 Museum Way, San Francisco, John Dillon

Question on charge for speakers (Randall is a public place owned by City of SF)

How many people might we expect to attend?

How much should we charge for Registration?

Richard to follow with questionnaire covering:

Content/Topics of Discussion--Dual Track:

I. Issues of common interest to AANC clubs

A. Nonprofit 501c3 why and how to workshop,

B. Use of pubic land for Star Parties

* How to develop better relationships w/ State Park System

* Motivate SP's to be more receptive for Clubs reasonable access

* Develop a standard to help NorCal clubs deal with these issues

C. Club Observatories

D. Insurance

II. Topics of general astronomy interest

Speakers: Ken, Richard

Richard Crisp on Narrowband Imaging Techniques

Steve Gottlieb on DSO's IC/NGC Project

John Dillon on Ancient Greek Astronomy or First Telescopes

Vic Maris on State Park Concerns

Don Machholz on Comets and Messier Marathon

Bob Schalck (Santa Rosa--optician) on Optics tentative -- optics cleaning lab

Doug Summer Astronomer, Keck Observatory on Laser Guide Star Adaptive Optics projects. The Keck just released their laser for "shared risk" science (the 1st 8-10 meter class telescope in the world to have a laser guide star facility) tentative

Don Machholz on Messier marathon, especially objects hard to see.

Un-named speaker author tentative

Vendors/exhibitors to date: Ken

Alcoat, Applied Optics, Apogee, Camera Obscura, Celestron, Lumicon International, Meade, Parks Optical, Scope City, Sky Image Lab, W Precision Machining, waiting response from Steve White for TeleVue, Pyxis Ventures, Compact Precision Telescopes, Michelle Stone (tentative), Stellarvue, JMI (tentative), Arts Digital Photos.

Organization Booths: ASP (with family activities), AANC, Group 70, MWOA, WAA

Field Trip: Camera Obscura, possibly Chabot, Denni is checking

Need food/lunch arrangement

There will be night time star party--Sidewalk Astronomers??

Dob in a Day?? -- John Dobson's B-day.

AANC Awards

Group Photo

Registration--distinguish between conferees and public with something like badges.

Museum could co-sponsor? Need draft budget?

What's the ceiling on attendance? Auditorium can hold 200, but there only 60 parking spaces.

Need room for Exhibitors/Vendors. Need separate Workshop room.

Buses: 37 Corbett and one other. Market and Castro MUNI stop. Need to reserve parking spaces.

Volunteers

AANC Award nominees clubs, e-mail list, request for award nominees, Walt

Will vote next board meeting (May 22)

Amateur:

Mike Koop (SJAA, nominated by Craig Scull)

Ellis Myers (MDAS)

Len Nelson (SCAS nominated by Keith Payea)

Special:

Big Bang Band

Stacy Jo McDermott (SFAA nominated by Ken Frank)

Marshal Merriam (MDAS Richard Ozer)

Professional:

Dr. Ken Freeman (ANU Canberra nominated by Keith Payea)

Darryl Stanford (nominated by Walt Heiges, Ken Frank)

Commercial:

Out of This World, Mendocino (nominated by Keith Payea, Denni Medlock, Dave Harris)

Applied Optics (nominated by Walt & Ken)

Vic Maris--Stellarvue (nom by John)

Plaque wording on awards: Amateur Astronomer of the Year Award, Special Astronomer of the Year Award, etc. Walt

Yosemite Page added to AANC website listing all club dates for this year, Alan

7. Club reports

MDAS Report - Tom Harris - March 5th was our first Public Night for the year on Mt. Diablo. Our next Public Night will be on April 30th. On March 12th, we had our Messier Marathon with an estimated 20 scopes. The fog rolled in and covered every city in the Bay Area and we had very dark skies. Richard Ozer estimated a 4.5 magnitude at naked eye. I could see M81 and M82 with my binoculars. It was quite a night.

Meeting Programs:

March: Margaret Race ^ Cosmic Contamination --- What?s up: Joel Goodman

April: Rick Norman ^ Gamma Ray and Neutrino Research --- What?s up: Jeff Adkins? students

May: Dr. Emma Bakes ^ Potential Life on outer solar system --- What?s up: Jim Scala - Mars

Please check our website at <http://www.mdas.net>www.mdas.net for exact dates and times.

Group 70

I'd like to get together with the fundraising team (& anyone else that's interested) on Thursday 3/24 at 6:00 PM at the Last Chance and can be found near the corner of De La Cruz & Aldo. It is off 101 & Trimble. Dave just sent me a note saying he has a 'go' for the mirror cell fabrication. Dan Zuras

SJAA Club report - Craig Scull - A full Calendar of SJAA events is available online http://www.svpal.org/~jvn/year2005.htm. Monthly Events Summary: Houge Park public star parties held twice a month from dusk to near midnight; ATM workshops held twice a month; Astronomy Class, not always held once a month (topics vary); General club meeting held once a month (topics vary) ***Mar 26 8:00PM - Master observer Steve Gottlieb will tell us about a project to verify the source material for the most-used astronomical catalogs, the NGC and IC.

Special Events: Apr 24 Noon - SJAA/Bay Area Astronomical Auction; Jun 11 9:30PM - Public star party at Coyote Lake Park. Sunset 8:28, 23% moon sets 12:29AM

Hercules Stargazers Club Report - Submitted by Dave Harris. No public stargazing events since last season. We will start our 2005 season on April 2, 2005, at Foxboro Park in Hercules. The next stargazes will be May 14, June 11, July 2, and August 6. More planned for the rest of the year through November.

SF Sidewalk Astronomers (SFSA) - Michael Portuesi - March 9 saw the SFSA doing dual star parties at Miraloma Elementary and McKinley Elementary in San Francisco. Kenneth Frank presented a Sidewalk Astronomers lecture at Skyline college (photos at http://planitarium.net/sfsa/skylinecollege/). We are also planning a joint lecture/observing event in SF with Ask A Scientist, SF (www.askascientistsf.com) in May.

SFSA unveiled a brand new website at the end of January (www.sfsidewalkastronomers.org), containing event listings for SFSA and other Bay Area public astronomy events, as well as charts for monthly celestial events. Our February Comet Machholz chart generated 5x the historical average traffic for the website.

John Dobson will be returning to the SF Bay Area for the month of May, and he will be present at the AANC Convention August 27 at the Randall, so we can all celebrate his 90th birthday.

SFAA -- John Dillon - General Meeting for March was 3/16 with Rick Maxwell on the Spitzer Space Telescope. The April speaker on 4/20 will be Richard Crisp on Narrowband Imaging. A SFAA members-only Messier Marathon on Mt Tam on 3/19 was cancelled due to bad weather. The first Mount Tam public star party on 3/27 was also cancelled because of weather. City Star Party and Telescope Clinic at Land's End were likewise cancelled. A members-only star party on Mt. Tam is scheduled for 4/9 and a public star party the following Saturday, 4/16. Two City Star Parties are scheduled for April - on the 2nd and 30th. See website for more details: http://www.sfaa-astronomy.org/

8. Adjourn 12:03

From: Michael Koop--As far as insurance goes, not much to report.

I finally got some information from the Los Angeles club.

They are paying $1,400 for insurance.

Obviously not the inexpensive policy I was told about.

Most of the insurances offered seem to have doubled over the last year.

Gary Mitchell says that his Radio Club insurance has doubled which is very

similar to the AL insurance.

Mike

MAY

AANC Board Meeting Minutes May 22, 2005

Ken Frank began by passing around the 2005 dues list from Don Stone.

1. Call to order 10:05am

2. Roll call introduction of New Members

Walt Heiges -SVAS

Ken Frank - Scope City

Jack Borde - WAA, MDOA

Gordon Reade - SJAA

Richard Ozer - MDAS, MDOA

Doug Berger - EAS

Cindy Berger

Debby Dyke - EAS, TVS

John Dillon - SFAA

Mike Portuese - SF Sidewallk Astronomers

Don Saito - EAS

Tom Harris - MDAS

3. Minutes of previous meeting [see http://aanc-astronomy.org/AANCminutes/AANCminutes.html ]

Minutes of previous meeting summarily approved..

4. Treasurer's report - Briefly given by Ken Frank on behalf of Don Stone

--- Don says Shingletown check has not been cashed.

[Don's e-mail report is copied here:]

5. Old business

Walt Reviewed Mission Statement. All agreed that the statement was sound.

This is a note from the dry-docked treasurer. Unfortunately, I can not attend the AANC BoD meeting... I cannot drive until my eyes can pass a vision test. I am scheduled to have cataract surgery sometime in June. Hopefully that will solve that problem. I tried to send this earlier this night only to discover that Earthlink had pulled the plug until 4 a.m. our time. I am attaching the AANC Dues & Dead file for the BoD's use, as an attachment to the Treasurer's Report.

The following is all that has been deposited for the AANC this year:

$1,723.89 (from AstroCon 2004); $300 .00 (donation from Scope City);

I have written only the following checks #690 ($200.00 to the EAS TMW) and #691 ($300.00 Shingletown Star Party.)

As of the April bank statement, the Shingletown check hasn't been cashed.

Dues ($20/\club or organization) has been received from only the EAS, Chabot TMW, SFSWA and Stockton Astro \Soc.

Checking Acct Balance: #3,032.50

Franklin Money Fund: $4,563.453

Both reports as of the end of April 2005.

Checks written this year: $400.00 donatiion to the Shingletown Star PTarty.

I am attaching the AANC Membership File that shows who had joined and for WHAT year. Paid in 2004:

EAS, EAS (TMW), EITU, HSG, MDAS (Mt. Diablo), MTO=MTIA, PAS, Randall Museum Friends, SAS, SCCAC, SCAS, Scope City, SETI, SFAA, SJAA, SMCAS (SMAS), SVAS, TVS, VOMOA,

To repeat, only the EAS, Chabot TMW , SFSWA and Stockton Astro are technically eligible to vote on AANC matters!

Ad Astra! Don Stone, AANC Treasurer

AANC mission statement is now:

"Fostering Amateur Astronomy in Northern California since 1972,

by promoting communication and coordination among Northern California astronomy clubs,

planetaria, observatories and astronomy-related businesses."

Richard Ozer: Passed around the latest version of the club survey.

Insurance issue - Jack Borde: WAA has worked on the insurance issue. You can join AL, take out the insurance, then you can independently go to the same carrier as AL uses, quit AL and renew the policy direct. However, as Michael pointed out, this did not work for SJAA. Coverage was denied by the carrier because SJAA was not a member of AL.

Jack the gave a history of the WAA and displayed this year's Bruce Blair award. Interestingly, the WAA was formed in response to the perceived lack of service from the AL.

WAA is having a hard time getting a quorum. It's trying to operate electronically. Three years ago, electronic voting was implemented. By-laws were changed to allow this. Limitations of email made it difficult. A member may vote for his own organization and proxy one other organization. A vote can also be submitted in writing; but there must be support from someone who is present. Voting is held until unanimity is reached. Recipient must be alive and must be present at the award ceremony.

The Goodrich award is another award presented by the WAA. This is an award that can be offered by member societies to any one of their members who deserve recognition. The award certificate is part of a packet distributed by the WAA to member organizations/clubs.

Jack will submit a proposal to WAA to make a $100 donation to the AANC conference.

AANC did not submit a vote for this year's Bruce Blair award. This may have been due to a change in leadership over the last year. Mike Portuese begged for mercy. Don Stone is currently the WAA representative from the AANC.

Tom suggested that the WAA be officially listed as a sponsor for the AANC conference. This can be part of the conference title.

Does anyone have an 8" Dob Loaner scope for Keith Mullen? Sam will ship for free.

AANC Stickers

Walt knows someone who can "doctor up" the AANC logo. Debby has a postscript version of the current logo and will send it to Walt.

Astronomy Day was well covered. Members should submit activity reports.

.

AANC 2005 Annual Conference and Meeting Saturday August 27th

From Agenda:

Venue: Randall Museum 199 Museum Way, San Francisco, John Dillon

How many people might we expect to attend? b/w 400-1200

How much should we charge for Registration? $25

Richard sent out questionnaire

Content/Topics of Discussion--Dual Track:

I. Issues of common interest to AANC clubs

A. Nonprofit 501c3 why and how to workshop,

B. Use of pubic land for Star Parties

* How to develop better relationships w/ State Park System

* Motivate SP's to be more receptive for Clubs reasonable access

* Develop a standard to help NorCal clubs deal with these issues

C. Club Observatories

D. Insurance

II. Topics of general astronomy interest

Speakers:

Richard Crisp on Narrowband Imaging Techniques

Lynette Cook on Space Art

Steve Gottlieb on DSO's IC/NGC Project

John Dillon (standby speaker) on Ancient Greek Astronomy or First Telescopes

Vic Maris panel on State Park Concerns

Marni Berendsen on Night Sky Network

Don Machholz (a maybe) on especially objects hard to see .Comets /

Messier Marathon start-finish

Bob Schalck (Santa Rosa--optician) on Optics cleaning w/ lab

Doug Summer Astronomer, Keck Observatory (no contact received) on Laser

Guide Star Adaptive Optics projects.

The Keck just released their laser for "shared risk" science (the 1st

8-10 meter class telescope in the world

to have a laser guide star facility)

Timothy Ferris on a familiar topic

Vendors/exhibitors

Alcoat, Applied Optics, Apogee, Camera Obscura, Celestron, Lumicon International, Meade,

Parks Optical, Scope City, Sky Image Lab, W Precision Machining, TeleVue,

Pyxis Ventures, Compact Precision Telescopes, Michelle Stone (tentative), Stellarvue,

JMI (tentative), Arts Digital Photos. We may only have ~ 10 people who need table space.

Organization Booths: ASP AANC, Group 70, WAA (possibly)

Lynette Cook Book Signing

Timothy Ferris Book Signing (Possibly)

Field Trip: Done on your own Camera Obscura and Chabot

Food/lunch Cris from the Randall will make the arrangements

SFSA Star Party--Sidewalk Astronomers

John Dobson's Birthday Celebration

Mayor Gavin Newsom has been asked to: Proclaim John Dobson

a national treasure of modern amateur astronomy and the City of San

Francisco

Dob in a Day -- Construct a pre-made telescope w/ blanks to grind and

OTA to sign

Question was asked who receives the scope?

Valley of the Dobs -- where former students and those influenced by John

and his design bring their

telescopes for a photo shoot and display. (Some students will arrive

from all over the world) Others

in attendance will be at the Randall from John's classes from 30 years ago!

Cake presentation -- King Sams will again bring the cake (2 vanilla, 2

chocolate)

Her son Billy (now Bill) was in John's class at their home in the

kitchen (we've got pix)

SFAA/SFSA Club who we are display of pictures and comments

PR has gone to S&T and Astronomy Mags also on AANC, SFAA & SFSA websites

Jeffrey Fox Jacobs new film "A Sidewalk Astronomer" will be playing

(Premiers 15th July Roxie in SF

16th and Mission. Telescopes are requested for Sidewalk Astronomy that

eve.Contact Michael Portuesi

AANC Awards Presentation

Group Photo

Registration--with badges

Museum Friends of the Randall to co-sponsor? Draft Budget?

Time line of Speakers

Auditorium holds 200, 60 parking spaces.

Buses: 37 Corbett and one other. Market and Castro MUNI stop.

We will have ADA VIP Reserved parking spaces.

Volunteers

Stacy Jo McDermott M42Gal at hotmail.com will coordinate astro volunteers.

Nathan Robinson nrobinson at randallmuseum.org will coordinate all

other volunteers.

Ken Discussed conference speaker lineup.

Keynote will be Tim Ferris

Many vendors have committed

Chris at the Randall will make arrangements for food

Sidewalk astronomers will be there

John Dobson's bday celebration

Stacy Jo McDermott is the volunteer coordinator

Valley of the Dobs

Invitation for clubs to display their presence.

Debby presented ideas for pins and shirts

Richard suggested we use cafe-press and estimate numbers based on pre-registration.

Free pins for astro-volunteers

Motion to authorize Richard to accept paypal fees was passed. Richard will accept payment and forward funds to the AANC treasurer.

Mike Portuese was concerned about discounts; but it was decided that discounts for students and seniors were not necessary because there were other activities available at no charge.

Conference committee meeting on June 18th at 10:00 at the Randall.

Publicity - Ken got ahold of a friend of Bob Nayae. It has been publicized in Astronomy magazine and will be in Sky & Tel.

Ken submitted letter to the Mayor to have John recognized by the city.

Other business:

July 15 - "A sidewalk astronomer" will premier at the Roxie. Dobs are requested.

AANC Award nominees

Award Nominations:

EAS

Professional -- Deborah Scherrer

Special -- Marshal Merriam

Ballots will go out with the survey and flyer.

[From previous minutes: ]

Amateur:

Mike Koop (SJAA, nominated by Craig Scull)

Ellis Myers (MDAS)

Len Nelson (SCAS nominated by Keith Payea)

Special:

Big Bang Band

Stacy Jo McDermott (SFAA nominated by Ken Frank)

Marshal Merriam (MDAS Richard Ozer)

Professional:

Dr. Ken Freeman (ANU Canberra nominated by Keith Payea)

Darryl Stanford (nominated by Walt Heiges, Ken Frank)

Commercial:

Out of This World, Mendocino (nominated by Keith Payea, Denni Medlock, Dave Harris)

Applied Optics (nominated by Walt & Ken)

Vic Maris--Stellarvue (nom by John)

Plaque wording on awards: Amateur Astronomer of the Year Award, Special Astronomer of the Year Award, etc. Walt

6. New business

Camp Mather will be extended this year beyond labor day. Possibly September 8th for an astronomy weekend. There's a downloadable registration form on the camp mather website, san francisco rec department.

[From Agenda:] Yosemite Page added to AANC website listing all club dates for this year, Alan

7. Club reports

MDAS Report - May 22, 2005 Please see <http://www.mdas.net/> for meeting times and directions.

May: Dr. Emma Bakes ^ Potential Life on outer solar system; What?s up: Jim Scala Mars

June: Member?s night ^ Nick said he'd do a book review; Richard Ozer on the Chabot telescope making workshop; Jeff Adkins on his Spitzer Project; Marni on research on amateur astronomers

July: Dr. Eliot Quataert: Latest research on Black Holes; What?s up: Jim Head - Introducing the Black Hole program from the Night Sky Network

August: Phil Plait ^ Bad Astronomy; What?s up: Ethan Chickering

September: Richard Crisp ^ Emission Line imaging

Scope City - Keith Mullen of SVAS fame has moved to AZ and would still like a donation of an 8" Dobsonian loaner

scope for his club down there. He's located right next to a military base and wants to get the personnel

interested in astronomy. Sam Sweiss and Maurice Sweiss will pay for shipping costs.

Over the past few months Scope City, Lumicon International and Parks Optical has been generously giving

to these clubs and activities:

SMCAS Astronomy Day at CSM

SVAS Astro Day http://www.svas.org/#ad2005

SFAA General Meetings

SJAA Auction

SAS with Russ Tanton of Meade

Find your photos here: http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/sanfranscopecity/my_photos

Scope City continues its support of public events thru AANC affiliated Clubs

Sam Sweiss and Maurice Sweiss of Scope City have donated to SFAA's a: Celestron Byer 120v crinkle finish C-8 f/10 with equatorial wedge, 9X50 finder scope, Celestron visual back, Celestron 1.25 diagonal and Parks Optical 26mm Plossl, soft carrying case and field tripod.

Sam and Maurice Sweiss also donated to Keith Mullen's new club in Arizona:

a Lumicon International OIII 1.25 filter plus a set ( G,R,B,Y ) Parks Optical planetary filters, A laminated color Messier object poster, 32mm, 20mm,6.4mm Meade super Plossl series 4000 and a Parks Optical Accessory case.

For Astronomy Day at CSM with the SMCAS Scope City donated these items:

4 small planespheres 3 star charts-books 2 astro calendars 2 monocular/microscope-PARKS 5 lens cleaner-LUMICON 10 pen/light- PARKS 2 7x16 monocular- PARKS 2 8x21W binoculars - PARKS 2 10x25 binoculars- PARKS 2 10x42 binoculars- PARKS

1 mini tripod- PARKS 10 Scope City cleaning cloths 15 posters 50 set of postcards 4 small planespheres

3 star charts-books

Submitted by Kenneth Frank

8. Adjourn Meeting was adjourned at 12:30 pm.

Please send website updates to Alan Gould

AUG

AANC Board Meeting Minutes August 21, 2005

1. Call to order 10:19am

2. Roll call -- Craig Scull, Mike Portuesi, Ken Frank, John Dillon, Tom Harris, Stacy Jo McDermott, Marion Weiler, Alan Gould

3. Approve minutes -- moved by Mike P. seconded by Craig S.

Last AANC meeting Minutes of May 22, 2005 can be found here:

http://aanc-astronomy.org/AANCminutes/AANCminutes.html

4. Treasurer's report

    1. I am happy to report that we now have 17 people paying via snail mail.
    2. One party hails from Arizona way. (I think Rich Ozer has another 8 or
    3. so...)
    4. We have rec'd a total of $390 in donations for the AANC Con 2005.
    5. $100 was rec'd from the SFAA, SJAA and TVS.
    6. $90 from the EAS, which is to be used for John Dobson's birthday gift
    7. at #1/year
    8. I have banked or received $425 EF plus $390 in donations for a total conf
    9. Conf revenue of $7156..
    10. Our checking acct balance is $3707, Franklin MF $4591, Our Net Worth is
    11. $8,298.
    12. Scope City is now renewed due to Ken Frank.

Don

5. Old business

Insurance issues, Continue 'til Mike Koop's return from Peru.

AANC 2005 Conference and Meeting Wrap up, Richard, Ken, John Dillon

This is the last meeting before the CON! Saturday August 27th, Randall Museum

Registration will begin at 9:30. Conference events start at 10am.

Volunteers, Stacy Jo

Discussed question of volunteers registering/having lunch.

Volunteers will pay cost for lunch.

-->Need 4 volunteers to handle checkin.

Registration-online and at the CON, Richard, Don

Pre-made packets for those registered and at the door

-->Need 3-4 raffle helpers. Raffle ticket price: $1

Need MC (and speaker timer?).

Need someone to handle scope deliveries for Valley of the Dobs.

Mike P. is coordinating--will have helper(s).

Contact info@sfsidewalkastronomers.org.

Please have telescopes set up by 9:45 am.

Discussed AV issues--laptops, LCD projector,...

Alan G will bring PC & Mac and will be AV helper.

Discussed parking issues, e.g. Giants game.

T Shirts & Pin sales, Richard, Debbie.

A small number of t-shirts will be onhand for sale at the conference.

Need a couple of volunteers to handle t-shirt/pin sales.

There will be freebie table for Club handouts.

Bring club applications for membership.

For anyone who joins any astronomy club, Scope City will give a discount towards purchase of item at Scope City.

Vendors and people bringing big items are encouraged to come early.

There will be registration-bag-stuffing at Scope City on Friday Aug 26.

Anyone who wants ot help, come on over.

Notification of AANC Award Recipients

Awardees are:

Mike Koop (SJAA; Amateur Award)

Darryl Stanford (SMCAS, ASP, Cal Academy, CSM, SFSU, Professional Award)

Vic Maris (StellarVue; Commercial Award)

Marshal Merriam (MDAS; Special Award)

Sign-ups for dinner-pizza will be at reg table and will be announced 3 or 4 times during the day.

Raffle will happen during the pizza dinner time.

Vendor break-down will be 4:30.

PR for CON & Fall Astronomy Day at the Randall, John Dillon, Ken

Camp Mather Update, John Dillon http://www.campmather.com/

Week 11 Sign up is extended for the September 8th astronomy weekend.

6. New business

Donation of Astronomy Kits from Phyllis Heppe to AANC/Randall Museum, John Dillon

They can be sold at the conference.

Thank you letter, Walt

2006 Calendar, Ken

    • Messier Marathon, March
    • Shingletown Star Party, June 21- 26,
    • FPOA 20th Anniversary StarBQ, August 26,
    • CalStar (south of King City), September 21-23
    • Astronomy Day/Week: Question, do we want to change from spring to fall due to fog?

Spring Astronomy Day is National.

We can have N. Calif Fall Astronomy Day.

http://aanc-astronomy.org/AstroDay.html

7. Club reports...No meeting time spent on Club reports. If you'd like to submit club report via e-mail, send to Alan Gould <adgould at comcast.net>

8. Adjourn 12:09.

OCT

AANC Board Meeting Minutes October 16, 2005

1. Call to order 10:15 am

2. Roll call -- Craig Scull, Mike Portuesi, Ken Frank, Alan Gould, Don Stone, Carter Roberts, Richard Ozer, Walt Heiges, Mike Koop, --John Dillon, Tom Harris, Stacy Jo McDermott, Marion Weiler,

3. Approve minutes -- moved by Richard O. seconded by Ken F. Minutes can be found here:

http://aanc-astronomy.org/AANCminutes/AANCminutes.html

4. Treasurer's report--Don

    1. I am happy to report that we now have 17 people paying via snail mail.
    2. One party hails from Arizona way. (I think Rich Ozer has another 8 or
    3. so...)
    4. For period ending Aug 27, 2005: Total Revenue was $3,949.03. Expenses $1,296.09. Net Income: $2,652.94.
    5. Donations from EAS ($90), SFAA ($100), SJAA ($100), WAA ($100), VV Goff ($100)
    6. 86 attendees at AANC Conference.
    7. Our checking acct balance is $4997.74,
    8. and from last meeting Franklin MF $4591 & Net Worth is $8,298 .
    9. Members: EAS, EAS-TMW, MDAS, SAS, Scope City, SFAA, SFSWA, SJAA, SVAS, TVS

Walt/Richard will take on the task of sending out membership renewal form/letters.

Richard will check into online payment system.

5. Old business

Insurance issues--Mike Koop

Insurance rates (from Nonprofit Insurance Alliance of California) went down for SJAA.

SJAA is very happy with NIAC. See niac.org/

Mike P created a document on how to run a public star party.

Richard has "safety and liability manual".

AANC Stickers--Walt

What do we want on them?

Ken suggested AANC logo (a la AANC homepage). Richard suggested add URL.

E-mail List Report--Walt

Richard cleaned up aanc-contacts e-mail list and handed it over to Walt.

Conference 2005 Debrief

Mission accomplished! Pictures here:

http://www.planitarium.net/aanc/aanc-con2005/pix/index.html

Walt-Went VERY well. Much thanks to all who helped make it so good.

Richard-Wouldn't have happened without Ken. Lots of feedback that it was excellent event.

Don-Should we give Randall Museum something?

Ken F moved - Mike P seconded that we donate $500 to the Friends of the Randall (in apprecation of their hosting the 205 AANC Conference).

This conference made profit--we encourage clubs to apply for grants to support specific projects that would be of benefit to amateur astronomy

Awards went to

Mike Koop (SJAA) (amateur)

Marshal Merriam (MDAS) (special)

Darrell Stanford (professional)

Vic Maris (StellarVue) (commercial)

Vendor thankyous

Disposition of remaining commemorative pins

Richard has them. There are upcoming events where they can be sold.

$5 ea, $10/3.

What could we do better?

    • About door prizes, it would be good in the future to document who won which prize.
    • Next raffle, let's get a starting ticket.
    • Need more people dedicated to accounting.
    • Timing of dinner pizza didn't work well. Someone needs to be in charge of food. Confusion about who was entitled to it. Need alternative solution to late afternoon meal. Perhaps Randall food service could have provided enough from lunch for dinner needs as well.
    • Question about activities for children

6. New business

Next Con and possible theme.

We'll pass on 2006. We can plan for conference in 2007.

We could have smaller scale fund-raising events.

Bay Area ATM Group Purchase Possibilities

Ken's idea is to buy ATM supplies in bulk for several groups.

Telescope Makers workshop has pretty good system already.

Storage space is a problem

WAA Bruce Blair Award nominees

Award goes to someone in western US who has made a significant contribution to amateur astronomy - lifetime achievement.

Please take issue back to the clubs and think of nominee possibilities.

Richard suggested Carter.

Scheduling grant request for 2006.

Richard: make solicitation for grant request in same mailing as renewal notice/form

SVAS request for help referencing Sacramento City Observatory

16" Newtonian, 16" Meade, SBIG camera, spectrograph, 3-10" scopes. Want to rennovate the observatory.

Club Reports

CalStar went well.

No meeting time spent on Club reports.

If you'd like to submit club report via e-mail, send to Alan Gould <adgould at comcast.net>

Hercules Stargazers (David Harris)--Since September, Steve Feinberg has been coordinating the Stargazes at Foxboro Park, while Dave Harris is on an extended vacation out of the country. Steve reports the following: September10, 2005: Sky was clear, but no regulars showed up, so event was canceled. October 1, 2005: Sky was overcast, event cancelled. Last Stargaze for 2005 to be November 5, at Foxboro park. Dave will be back in early January, and the new schedule for Stargazes will start in April or May, 2006. The Hercules Stargazers have been considering a new meeting site somewhere in Briones Regional Park. Nothing definite yet, but we're working on it. Many in the group feel that our site is too light polluted, and as a result haven't been attending lately. Dave is currently in Paris, and in the next few weeks will be conducting some public stargazes in a few areas in Israel.

Dr. Maurice Sweiss and Sam Sweiss made possible the donation of an 8'' Dobsonian telescope from Ray Minahan to Steve Gottleib?s high school. Scope City also fostered the transfer of a refractor to the school as well. Sam attended SJAA meeting with Ken Frank to present Mike Koop his AANC Amateur Astronomer Award. Scope City assisted the C & C of San Francisco at Camp Mather with their astronomy program. Lacy Brook, Betty Neal Awardee and Ken Swagerty?s granddaughter, of EAS completed her telescope with Scope City support. Go Lacy! Sam brought Russ Tanton of Meade to Stockton AS and put the new RCX telescope thru its paces. Sam held a raffle for SVAS on their Astro Day at the Orangevale Community Center. Sam Sweiss facilitated a union between Amateur Astronomers and the National Park Service. Ron Bissinger a volunteer with Chad Moore's Preserving Dark Skies project both at the AANC-CON 2005 and at Bryce Canyon National Park via AANC member clubs. Ron donated his WO 80mm telescope to the program as well. Sam generated lots of interest with the AANC raffle. Keith Mullen of Huachuca Astronomy Club received after hours Lumicon technical support for their Club observatory in Arizona. At Scope City, Al and Judy Nagler signed TeleVue hats and OTA's demoing the latest from TeleVue. The SCAS purchased ten Orion SkyQuest XT6 Dobsonians for Striking Sparks Awards potluck. Sam Sweiss, knowing the management at Orion, contacted them on SCAS?s behalf. Orion favorably responded with very generous pricing. Sam and Eddie Sweiss participated in RTMC this year. Dr. Maurice Sweiss and Sam Sweiss were recipients of the John Goodricke Award http://www.waa.av.org/Goodricke.html honoring Scope City, sponsored by the WAA recognizing them for their efforts in involving amateur astronomy clubs. Walt presented the award to Sam at the AANC-CON 2005 http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/sanfranscopecity/my_photos

Adjourn 12:00.

DEC

AANC Board Meeting Minutes December 11, 2005

1. Call to order 10:09 am

2. Roll call — Walt Heiges, Liede-Marie Haitsma, Mike Portuesi, Ken Frank, Alan Gould, Carter Roberts, Mike Koop, Marion Weiler

3. Approve minutes -- moved by Ken seconded by Liede-Marie Minutes can be found here:

http://aanc-astronomy.org/AANCminutes/AANCminutes.html

4. Treasurer's report—(Don not present)

    1. Ken handed out receipts for donations that were made at conference.
    2. [From last meeting] For period ending Aug 27, 2005: Total Revenue was $3,949.03. Expenses $1,296.09. Net Income: $2,652.94.
    3. Donations from EAS ($90), SFAA ($100), SJAA ($100), WAA ($100), VV Goff ($100)
      1. Our checking acct balance is $4997.74,
      2. and from last meeting Franklin MF $4591 & Net Worth is $8,298 .
    4. Members: EAS, EAS-TMW, MDAS, SAS, Scope City, SFAA, SFSWA, SJAA, SVAS, TVS

Membership Renewal Notice: Walt and Richard will take on the task of sending out membership renewal form and letters. Membership year begins January. Richard will check into online payment system.

5. Old business

Insurance issues—Mike Koop

[From last meeting:] Insurance rates (from Nonprofit Insurance Alliance of California) went down for SJAA. SJAA is very happy with NIAC. See niac.org/

Mike P created a document on how to run a public star party and will send it to Alan for posting on AANC website.

Richard has "safety and liability manual"—can it be shared/posted on web?

San Jose is working on documents also—Mike will let the Board know when they are available to share.

AANC Stickers—Walt

Walt is working on it—will have AANC logo (a la AANC homepage) and URL.

AANC Grants—SMAS would like to propose a grant from AANC for the CSM planetarium. For $500, AANC would have it's logo displayed on donor wall. SMAS/CSM may host AANC conference at new facility. SMAS will make proposal before next AANC meeting.

Announcement of grant program can go on website (Alan can do) and sent out via e-mail list periodically. There needs to be $ cap so we can have seed money for conferences. Alan will draft wording for notice of grant program.

Conference Vendor Thank-yous — Ken has list of vendors. Walt will send thank-yous.

We should keep links to vendors on our conference website.

Bay Area ATMing—John Dobson class, Chabot, and San Jose have programs that could pool purchases of supplies: grit, mirror blanks, secondaries, etc.

6. New business

Next years AANC Calendar of Events

Observatory Commemoration at Volcano (Amador County) Jan 20

[Marshal Merriam got last year's AANC award for work on this]

WAA Winter Board Meeting Feb 11

RTMC May 26 - 28

SST Jun 21 - 26

Yosemite Star Parties Jul 1 - Sept 4

FPOA StarBQ Aug 26

CALSTAR Sep 21 - 23

AANC Board meetings. We are going to try telecon meeting for Feb. NASA Kepler mission may be able to provide telecon venue as part of its EPO effort with Night Sky Network. We will also try using the AANC Board email list. Ken will check on membership of that list.

Meetings 2006 will be Feb 12, May 7, July 9, Sep 10, Dec 3.

July 9 meeting may be eliminated—will decide at May 7 meeting.

Renew domain name AANC-ASTRONOMY Info Expiration 18Dec for $14.95/year. Walt will renew. Can we do multiple year payment?

Election of Officers for next year. Carter moved, Mike seconded, that we reelect all existing officers by acclamation. No objections. Motion passed.

President: Walt Heiges

Vice President: Ken Frank

Treasurer: Don Stone

Secretary: Alan Gould

Nominations for the WAA Bruce Blair Award

Carter Roberts nominated by Don Saito

Walt will send letter of nomination to Jon Wilson.

7. Club reports Please send to: adgould{at}comcast.net

Please also send updates of your website to Alan

8. Ken moved, Liede-Marie seconded. Adjourn 12:25pm

Club Reports

If you'd like to submit club report via e-mail, send to Alan Gould <adgould at comcast.net>

Hercules Stargazers (David Harris)—There were no new stargazes at Foxboro Park since the last meeting. We are on a winter hiatus, but will start a new season in April, 2006. We will be searching for a new location, but will probably still meet at Foxboro a few more times. Coordinator Dave Harris has been away for a few months having great astronomical adventures at the Paris Observatory, along the Paris Meridian, and several dark-sky gazes in Israel, including an all-nighter in the Negev with 25 Israeli stargazers. More details and perhaps some photos to follow in a future report. Dave is still out of state, and regrets being unable to attend the meeting, which will be held on the 33rd anniversary of the Apollo 17 moon landing. Submitted by Dave, formerly The Harris From Paris

Newly-arrived at getastrodave{at}gmail.com

MDAS

Introduction of new chairs & board volunteers: Vice-President: Liede-Marie Haitsma Secretary: Richard Girard Outreach person: Jim Head Observing Coordinator & hours keeper: Mike Elliott

2006 Outreach events: Jim Head has planned, with Marni, 8 workshops and 9 Public Star parties on Mt. Diablo.

MDAS has 188 members

First school group, numbering 9 students, came up Mt. Diablo with Richard Ozer on 12-1 and stayed till about 9/9:30 p.m. The students enjoyed the evening. On 12-8 Jim Head and Marni Berendsen went to Parkmead Elementary School, in Walnut Creek, and were there for 2 1/2 hours. Three scopes were used, and the total number of parents and students numbered 50. Again, everyone enjoyed themselves and MDAS was asked to come again in 2006. This was the second time MDAS was at the school.

An item to be checked out by MDAS Outreach, in 2006, are the Home schooling parents and children. Parents of the home schooling children have expressed an interest in having MDAS members come over with their scopes for a talk and viewing. This is an area that has not been looked into but shows much promise as these children tend to want to learn and enjoy doing so.

On 11-19-05 about ten MDAS members went to the El Campanil Theatre in Antioch to view "A Sidewalk Astronomer" and see and talk with John Dobson. Before and after the movie and talk I sold John Dobson pins celebrating his ninth birthday (the pins sold well). Also, after the movie and talk the audience was invited to the side of the theatre where MDAS members has set up their scopes for viewing Mars, the Moon and other planets, etc. The event was greatly received and there were well over 200 plus people there. Everyone enjoyed seeing and speaking to John.

Craig Mattson is Mt. Diablo's new Superintendent. He came to our Board meeting on 12-5, which was held at Baker's Square in Concord, CA. He is very interested in events going on at Mt. Diablo. So this is very encouraging for all the clubs there. We now have three Rangers who are Astronomy-friendly!

Our new VIP Training on Mt. Diablo is: 2-18; 4-8; 6-10; 8-19; and 10-28.

Our first Public Night on Mt. Diablo will be 3-4-06. Please see the mdas.net website for other dates for Public Star Parties.

Our January speaker will be John Westfall. His talk will be "Eclipses of Jupiter's Moons & Mapping the World" Again, please see our website mdas.net for future speakers which are listed on the newsletter cover.

MDAS/MDOA will be getting a second building on the Summits lower parking lot. This will be next to the observatory. The building will be called the "warming room". There is hopes that a generator will be there for computer and telescope hookups. Monies are being budgeted for the new building.

MDAS's swap meet was a success, netting about $428. It has been decided that we will have a swap meet every other year.

-- Liede-Marie Haitsma

Scope City is:

Offering the students of John Dobson's telescope making class special discounts on

Parks and Lumicon telescope making parts and eyepieces.

Providing astronomical materials to the Peter Schumacher family in Germany.

Sponsoring the upcoming SCAS Striking Sparks, a program started by Robert Ferguson

20 years ago that awards ten telescopes to students who write the best essays explaining why

they want a telescope.

Contributing equipment to Astronomy and Birding program at UC Berkeley.

Scope City also facilitated assistance to The Huachuca Astronomy Club of Southeastern Arizona.

The Club extended a special "Thank You" to Maurice Sweiss and Sam Sweiss at Scope City and to

Jim Burr of JMI http://jimsmobile.com/ .."for their continuing support of the astronomical community ".. http://c3po.cochise.cc.az.us/astro/PDF%20Documents/2006%20Newsletters/nightfall_HAC_200601January.pdf

On December 16th Sam & Maria will transport John Dobson to SVAS for festivities including:

A Star in Astronomy recognition is being presented by SVAS to both John Dobson & Sam Sweiss

for their tireless work in the astronomical community.

A buffet dinner will be followed by a weekend of fun with John and Cary at the SVAS telescope

workshop. This will be the forth year SVAS has hosted John Dobson. http://www.svas.org/holiday2005.html

With major contributions from Scope City, Sam, Cary and Dawn were able to raise over $1400 for

John Dobson at the Holiday Party.

Check out http://photos.yahoo.com/sanfranscopecity for the latest pictures.

As always, in fostering and revitalizing membership in the astronomical community, Scope City

offers discounts for new members of local Clubs towards the purchase of a new telescope or

eyepiece. You only need to show proof of membership. Scope City hands out new membership

applications for clubs, if they send them in to 350 Bay Street San Francisco, 94133.

Adjourn 12:00.