December 18, 2024
Astronomical Society of Greater Hartford
Online Business Meeting Minutes
Date:
December 18, 2024
The December 18, 2024 meeting of the Astronomical Society of Greater Hartford was called to order over Zoom at 7:38 PM by President Markiewicz. There were 15 members in attendance and no guests, 4 were in the community center and 10 were online.
Tonight’s speaker was ASGH Member, President & Outreach Coordinator, Christopher Markiewicz. He gave a brief highlight of Winter objects for observing.
New Members:
No new members were present.
Secretary’s Report:
The Secretary’s report was completed in a day and post to the website shortly thereafter. A motion to approve was made and seconded. The report was approved unanimously.
Public Observing at the Van Vleck Observatory:
Public Observing was held the Saturday before the meeting under very cold conditions. The application did not run properly and crashed before we could let the public in to view. After a complete restart including powering off the telescope supply, we were able to operate but manually slew to solar system objects. The system did not park properly. It was off 1 hour in RA and manually slewed to 0 degrees. The VVO support staff had not seen this behavior previously. 20 people did get to view very satisfactory views of Jupiter through the 20″. Several people also had crisp views of a variety of solar system objects through C. Markiewicz’s 10″ Newtonian reflector on a Dob mount.
January date for public observing to follow.
Tribute to another fallen Amateur Astronomer of Note:
J. Sillasen asked if he could take a moment on the agenda to share a tale of another great in the amateur astronomy community who passed away and had a large impact on the ASGH’s website. Danko Gabor Danko, (Sept. 28, 1955 – Nov. 28, 2024), creator of the Clear Sky Chart was a significant resource for so many of us who relied on his charts to guide us in our observing plans. For the ASGH, he created two Clear Sky Charts. When I was the webmaster, I reached out to Danko and asked for his chart. He immediately created the one on the ASGH homepage at https://asgh.org. I asked if he would do one for our other need – the Van Vleck Observatory at Wesleyan University. You can see that chart at https://asgh.org/public-observing/. The Observatory also uses Danko’s work. When the new blog based web system was put into practice, I noted the Clear Sky Charts were missing. When I asked the web developer why, he said he didn’t know how to integrate it into the web program. I again reached out to Danko. He sent back two small snippets of code that was instrumental in allowing the Clear Sky Charts to be again part of our web system. Not once did he ask for money or hesitate in providing assistance. I recognize other club members had no dealing with him but he was a huge impact in helping make our presence of use to all of us. His wife has agreed to keep his servers running. Only Danko knew how to make the code work. Getting new Clear Sky Charts may not happen.
NASA Night Sky Network Exceptional Outreach Awards:
As the NASA Night Sky Network Coordinator, it gives me great pleasure to award these certificates and NSN 20 Year Anniversary Pins, (they appear like the graphic in the lower left corner of the certificate), to the following ASGH Members for their participation in our Chartered Mandate – Outreach and Education. I, and the NASA Night Sky Network recognize, Christopher Markiewicz, Marty Ollenschleger, John Allen, Cyndi Barron, Dean Kavalcovich, Hanif Girach, Lucas Branco & John Sillasen for their dedicated service to outreach, sharing the night sky with the public and for performing general astronomy education.
The certificate below and coordinating pin will be given to the above members at a later time.
Treasurer’s Report:
Cyndi Barron reports we have $1,893.66 in the Checking Account and $11,976.64 in the Savings Account. A purchase order for $5,000 was made for a 26 week Treasury Bill as of the date of this meeting. T-Bills ordered for $10,000 are due to mature May 9, 2025 and an additional T-Bill for $10,000 is due to mature on November 28, 2025. The Treasurer’s report was approved by acclimation by members in attendance.
WebMasters Report:
Nothing new to report this month.
Outreach:
ISS Downlink – Rocky Hill Public Library
Event or talk related to the ISS, C. Markiewicz to provide
exact number TBD, K-12 students,
Feb 18, 2025, 30 window prior to 11:00am or after 1:00pm
Space Expo 2025 – New England Air Museum
Exhibit table, family group interactions, Volunteers thus far, C. Markiewicz, A. Johnson, Jr., C. Barron & J. Benoit.
Saturday 4/26/2025, 9:00am – 3:00pm (setup/teardown 7:00am – 4:00pm) Additional Volunteers would be helpful!
Suffield Middle School – Suffield, CT
Stargazing with middle school students. Volunteers so far, C. Markiewicz, C. Barron, L. Branco, J. Sillasen
exact number TBD – Additional volunteers definitely helpful.
Spring 2025, date/time TBD
Vernon Senior Center – Vernon, CT – Volunteer needed to perform a talk related to astronomy.
Event or talk
this will probably be a discussion event
date/time TBD
New Business:
None.
Old Business:
Cosmic Cultures II – the RFP for the 2025-2026 has not been sent to our President as of yet from Steve Pelosi’s review. Should it be sent and Chris determines there are no significant modifications to the contract, a vote will be held at the next meeting after it’s received by us.
Good of the Organization:
See what’s in the night sky this month – NASA’s What’s in the Sky is an outstanding resource and part of our Night Sky Network to have with us for our use and needs.
https://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/planner/
Bookmark this site if you will. It’s got resources from text to YouTube for what’s in the night sky the current month – from NASA and of course your Night Sky Network!
Meeting Adjourned at 9:08 PM.
Happy Holidays To All