Monthly Meeting Notes

Ron DiIulio showed a video he took through one of NTSU's telescopes of the occultation of Saturn on December 28th. It was a "real time" video, not a time lapse, and dramatically showed the speed of the moon in its orbit. He also told a sad story about how he ended up blowing a breaker, stopping the telescope's drive and his video camera only one minute before Saturn was to reappear! Better luck next time Ron! And fortunately that next time is coming soon, the afternoon and evening of February 20th.

Harry Bearman announced that he's going to have "Constellation School" for all those are interested. Class will be held every three months, starting February 2nd, at the observing site. There's elsewhere in this bulletin.

Tres Ross gave a slide show on M31, the Andromeda Galaxy. In addition to the beautiful, color full view of M31, M32 and M110, there

were close up views of its apparent double nucleus, the globular clusters at its periphery, open clusters and dark nebulas. Also shown were what Andromeda looks like in virtually every wavelength, from X-Rays to radio waves. The radio "pictures" were especially fascinating because of the large number of background galaxies that didn't show up in the other pictures.

Inside this issue:

Observing Notes

Sallie Teames and other FWAS members hosted an observing party at Rosemont 6th Grade center for the kids and their parents.  See full article on page 4!