Chris's Introduction

Chris and Garry Dymond will have presentations. After these, we will show "400 Years of the Telescope". Chris noted this year the Butterpot Star Party will be August 13 - 15. We also had the usual spiel on the benefits of membership.

Observations

Ben Llewellyn: cloudy and wet. Mars a few times. Saw Saturn.
Richard Newman: half dozen views of the sun, saw a little bit of sunspot activity.
Garry Dymond: Florida visit: Saw Sirius, but it seemed so bright, and partly due to its height in the sky, he first mistook it for Venus. Omega Centauri. Shuttle: take off and landing.
Gary Case: sun, a few spots. Venus, Mercury, Mars, and Saturn. The Clown Nebula in Gemini.
David Playfair: talked about Marine Institute Course in Celestial Navigation.
Chris Stevenson: Pictures of Saturn, Titan, and four Saturnian moons bunched together.

What's Up

Randy Dodge took care of this feature this month. Randy had a short sheet for a handout. He covered the Sun, Moon, Planets, Meteor showers, Venus and the Moon, and International Astronomy Day.

Sir Wilfred Grenfell College / Meteor / Miscellaneous

Chris showed us the link to the proposed 24-inch telescope to be located at the college. We also saw a YouTube video of a bright meteor in Wisconsin, covered by the local news. Some first light pictures from NASA's new SDO satellite observatory were shown from http://www.spaceweather.com.

The link for the proposed scope is: http://www2.swgc.mun.ca/physics/Observatory/index.html

Criminal Record Screening

Doug announced that any new volunteers who wish to help out at public events can get a Criminal Record Screening form from Fred. Fred can apply en masse on behalf of individuals, saving them a fee. He will keep the applications confidential. Members who applied last year won't need to reapply in order to keep volunteering at events.

Presentations

Ben Llewellyn

Ben donated his book "Infinite Worlds", by Ray Villard and Lynette R. Cook. He reviewed this book for us back in January, 2006. Link: http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/9815.php

Chris Stevenson

Chris showed us some pictures of his new SkyShed POD. Inside the POD he has his new 11-inch Celestron on a wedge. The wedge is on a pillar installed in the ground.

Garry Dymond

Garry just got back from a trip to Florida, which included a visit to the Kennedy Space Center. Garry visited some off-the-beaten-track places. He managed to get some "astronaut training", thanks to his planetarium connections during his visit to the Astronaut Hall of Fame. During a secure tour (you have to abide by some rules and agree to be searched) he visited the first launch bunker for the Vanguard program, the Mercury launch site, and the Apollo 1 launch pad.

During the regular tour he saw the Saturn booster and got to play with some spacesuit helmets. We were treated to a slideshow for both tours.

He also managed to see the Shuttle launch and landing.

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David Bourgeois

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