November 17, 2021
Astronomical Society of Greater Hartford
Online Business Meeting Minutes
Date:
November 17, 2021
This meeting was recorded. It is available now on Vimeo here: https://vimeo.com/647594688
The November ASGH Business meeting was brought to order at 7:32 PM by President Chris Markiewicz. There were 20 attendees present in the online Zoom meeting. There continues to be no change in our physical meeting and public observing status. Two new members were present at the meeting: Bethany Sieber and Kevin Lakotkam both of Windsor.
Presentations:
Our speaker for tonight, Christopher Markiewicz, gave a presentation called ‘Beyond Hubble – The James Webb Space Telescope.’ The talk included current information and a series of 3 videos available for public use on the Webb website. https://webbtelescope.org/. (In addition the NASA site for Webb is: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/webb/main/index.html Sec’y). The presentation is timely as Webb is finally scheduled to launch on December 18, 2021 after being delayed from the planned October 31st date.
Secretary’s Report:
The Secretary’s report from the October 20, 2021 Business Meeting was just posted two days before tonight’s meeting. Sillasen suggested that a vote for approval was not prudent as they had just been posted. Instead, he read highlight’s from the Secretary’s notes including using a Zoom client no more than 5 releases prior to the current 5.8.3. He also notes that both the Zoom account and Groups.IO were successfully paid for the next year. The receipts were forwarded to the Treasurer for our records.
Treasurer’s Report:
The treasurer, Cyndi Barron reports that the balances in the accounts are $1744.92 in Checking and $19,967.13 in Savings. The balances also reflect a $1,000 transfer from Savings to Checking to avoid low balance fees below $1000.00.
Webmaster Report:
Web Developer, VP Marty Ollenschleger & Webmaster John Allen reported that there were delays in posting the minutes due to formatting problems with WordPress with a URL in the previous month’s minutes. This has been corrected as well as password synching problems that occurred during the processing of the minutes.
Outreach:
A Star Party for the E. Hampton Rotary Club was held on 11/6/21 in Portland after the original planned location of Hurd Park fell through. Members needed to haul equipment a great deal to reach the field location. The event was organized by past ASGH member and now current member again, Dean Kavalkovich. There were 25 participants and 4 ASGH members in Support.
A conversation with the Hale Homestead in Coventry, Connecticut to develop a working program with the ASGH to perform regular outreach programs for a multi-evening, multi-location, multi-season, program and is expected to be scheduled after Thanksgiving with Outreach Coordinator and President, Chris Markiewicz and Secretary John Sillasen with the Hale Homestead representative.
Night Sky Network Coordinator, John Sillasen requested a list of all 2021 Outreach events done to date from Outreach Coordinator, C. Markiewicz. NSN Award Pins and available and Sillasen needs to submit Events to determine if we finally qualify again as rules have changed during the pandemic. Markiewicz said he can have the information in a couple of days for him.
Old Business:
None
New Business:
None. The 2022 planned proposal for Cosmic Cultures II contract has not been received and is believed to be still the works. C. Markiewicz to follow up with the CCII contact as a required member vote will need to occur. Chris anticipated this to be needed by the December meeting while original contact for Cosmic Cultures, R. Zwyno said he believed they were always done in January.
Observing Reports:
Observing opportunities before the next meeting.– more planet ‘stuff’!
Nov 17 – Jupiter ended retrograde motion mid-October, slowly sliding closer to the horizon each night. Sets tonight at 23:06.
Nov 17 – Saturn low on the western horizon, sets at 9:42pm.
Nov 17 – Uranus two weeks past opposition, visible most of the night.
Nov 17 – Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko is one week past max mag, still a nice target at mag 8.5. A location chart can be found at https://in-the-sky.org/data/comets.php
Nov 19 – Partial Lunar Eclipse
Nov 19 – Micro Full Moon / Beaver Moon
Dec 5 – Venus at highest altitude in evening sky.
Meteor showers
Nov 17/18 Leonid Meteor Shower peaks – average ~15/hour. Moon nearly full.
Dec 14/15 Geminid Meteor Shower peaks – average ~120/hour. Moon nearly full.
For the Good of the Organization:
Please consider volunteering to do a meeting presentation, (perhaps one of the NSN PowerPoints? Sec’y). Contact any officer with your ideas.
NSN Presentations for club use: http://bit.ly/nsnpresentations
Premade PowerPoint presentations for cloudy nights and other club events.
Handouts
http://bit.ly/nsnhandouts
Handy handouts you can print and give out to visitors, including moon maps, meteor shower observing tips, and star party treasure hunts.
Keep an eye on your ASGH Groups.io emails for up to the minute webinars and presentations including live star parties!
Meeting adjourned at 9:28 PM EDT