September 20, 2023
Astronomical Society of Greater Hartford
Hybrid Online/In Person Business Meeting Minutes
Date: September 20, 2023
The first meeting of our new 2023-2024 year took place, September 17, 2023 of the Astronomical Society of Greater Hartford was called to order over Zoom by Secretary Sillasen at 7:36 PM, while the President made final connections with the speaker for this first hybrid meeting.
This was the first hybrid meeting of the Astronomical Society of Greater Hartford. As the Zoom coordinator and meeting leader, it was a great success in my personal opinion, (Sec’y Sillasen). The meeting included Zoom and in person attendees. In person attendees were at the Rocky Hill Community Center. This is a first time meeting location for this organization and will continue for both the upcoming October and November meetings. The Community Center meeting place has been offered at no charge to the ASGH in part due to the fact that President Markowicz held live outreach programs there in 2023. There were 22 meeting attendees – about par for meeting numbers for us since the start of the use of Zoom. So in person plus online attendees total is similar. There have been less and more depending on content sometimes. There were 15 participants in attendance at the Community Center and 7 over Zoom. Of note 3 were family of the speaker and 1 his mentor making 17 members in attendance. The President and Secretary met over Zoom for the previous hour to do testing before the meeting. We did microphone and video camera placements and over the internet sound tests in the room to make sure all could be heard and seen from their various locations.
Our presentation tonight was by the Astronomical Society of Greater Hartford Charles Hammond Memorial Award for a project in Astronomy or AstroPhysics related field at the Connecticut Science Fair, Ryan Emmanuel. Ryan’s project one of 16 reviewed by members, Scott Tracy and Bill DeNio. It’s title, “Determining the Size of the Astronomical Unit – A Journey of Re-Discovery. Ryan performed math of Earth, Mars and Jupiter’s Moons in his research and shared the journey of re-discovery with us tonight. It was well received by members.The talk ended at 8:21 PM ET.
New member in attendance was Kenneth Coravvaria of Simsbury.
Secretary’s Report:
May minutes of the ASGH were posted online and shared with the members. Approved by all in attendance. The Meeting location for Hybrid meetings will continue to be at the Rocky Hill Community Center for no charge from September through November. All Johnson, Jr., asked what it would cost to continue to have meetings at the Rocky Hill Comm Ctr as it is a new, very clean, convenient to members with good parking and provides ample seating and WiFi. Chris Markiewicz will inquire as to cost as well as to ask about the library facilities close by.
Public Observing at the Van Vleck Observatory:
J. Sillasen reported that the summer provided some excellent public outings and some that were rained out.
The next Public Date at the Van Vleck is October 28 – 9 – 11 PM, our largest outing of the year for both the Observatory and the ASGH – a Combined International Observe the Moon Night, (IOTMN), with Wesleyan’s Homecoming Weekend and our public opening. The date will be ONE WEEK AFTER the official IOTMN of October 21st which is in accordance with official IOTMN rules of up to one week prior or one week later than the official date. The date of October 28th worked out better for us – better access to the Moon and/or Jupiter plus Homecoming versus attempting to staff two weekends in a row for large crowds.
All VVO Members should make their fullest attempt to make this date and not participate in other outreach rain dates while participating in as many official October 21st IOTMN outreach events as possible!
Treasurer’s Report:
C. Barron reported there is $20,317.20 in the Savings account and $3,023.35 in the Checking account.
WebMasters Report:
M. Ollenschleger reports that all speakers for meetings known to date are up to date as well as the outreach venues.
Solar Observing Committee:
M. Ollenschleger provided a report of the work done to understand the public solar observing ban and what we could do to potentially work towards appealing the decision. The ban stemmed from Presidential Decree dating back to October 2001 after a solar telescope was left unattended at a StarConn and students were handling it on their own without any ASGH supervision. Documents begun by the Solar Observing Committee include the proposed adoption of the AAVSO Solar Observing document, Solar Field Rules and Guidelines plus Solar Education. The files are all stored on the ASGH Groups.IO Files section under ASGH Solar Observing Committee, https://groups.io/g/asgh/files/ASGH%20Solar%20Observing%20Committee
(If the above link does not open for you and you are a paid member, create your individual Groups.IO password by going to a browser tab for https://groups.io if you do not have an individual login, enter the email where you receive ASGH Groups.IO emails and have the system ask you to enter a password).
Outreach:
October 7: W. Hartford Public Library, Solar Observing w/ASNH
October 19: Glastonbury Wellness Committee, Talk on “Stargazing and Wellness/Mindfullness”
October 21/Rain date October 28: Bloomfield Public Library, IOTMN
October 21: Lebanon Jonathan Trumbull Library, IOTMN
October 26: Windsor Public Library (Childrens’ Library), Halloween-themed talk on “alien life” or “constellations”.
Observing reports:
Member observing reports
Observing opportunities until next meeting
Check out https://in-the-sky.org/ for a list of observable objects/events in your area.
Old Business:
NONE
New Business:
Telescope Loaner Program Tolland Public Library has received funding to purchase their own telescope. They would like assistance with how to proceed with the purchase, Chris Markiewicz to send the library specifications on library loaner telescopes and Bill DeNio to help with setup and with the modifications and support afterwards.
J. Sillasen made a motion to limit business meetings to 2 hours which includes one hour for a presentation. Motion tabled to notify membership in advance of the meeting. Meetings are too long so many people have notified the motioner they will not be attending future meetings because they are fruitless with bickering and last too long. Members not in attendance have lost interest and therefore fail to attend. Anything that important needing discussion should be tabled for offline discussions. Members not interested in the topic being discussed can Mute This Topic at the bottom of every ASGH Groups.IO received. They should never select Unsubscribe when Muting a topic is in general what they wanted to do. Motion seconded by Membership Chairman, Dave Allen.
Good of the Organization:
Please search your heart to see if the spirit moves you to run for an office. A list of current officers and committee chairs can be found at https://asgh.org/about-asgh-2/officers-and-committee-chairs/.
Please consider volunteering for a meeting presentation
Upcoming Speakers:
October – Tom Hoffelder – Meteorites, collecting, identifying and what are they.
November – Donya Douglas-Brahshaw, Deputy Director for Planning and Business Management for NASA’s Goddard Splace Flight Center, (GSFC) Engineering and Technology Directorate. She is also the current Project Manager for Mars Sample Return Mission.
https://mars.nasa.gov/msr/
Prior to this she was the Project Manager for the Lucy Mission. That’s a talk we heard from two members of the West Hawaii Astronomy Club last year if you’d like to look it up on our YouTube Channel.
Future – Brendan Hall SpaceX Passenger,
January 2024 – Leonard Specht, Past and future director of the Gengras Planetarium & for Part II.
Meeting Adjourned at 9:30 PM ET after Secretary Sillasen was properly chastised for moving to adjourn too early while there were more slides to come.