by James Poinsett, Secretary

• Rex opened the meeting and introduced Larry Kane.
• Larry presented his refractor to the club.
• Kate Otto then introduced Ken Kremer to give his talk on “The Future of NASA Human Spaceflight”.
• After Ken’s talk, Rex called the business meeting to order. He called on Program Chair Kate Otto.
• Kate informed the club that speakers were lined up for meetings through March except for December.
• Talk continued on the Master Plan, specifically bringing video astronomy to the Washington Crossing Observatory. Larry Kane heads the committee and presented a progress report on the “Purchase and Implementation of an Observatory Video System”. The report recommended the board approve a proposal to spend $6000 for the video system. The board approved the proposal and will present the proposal to the membership at the November meeting for a vote.
• The next topic at the meeting was the fate of the Hastings-Byrne refractor at the WCO. John Church’s history on the telescope was discussed along with his opinion that the scope should be donated or sold to an organization that will use it, not just display it in a museum. Another possibility discussed was obtaining an elevator mount to raise the scope. Discussion was tabled until the next meeting.
• The fate of the donated equipment was discussed next. Bill informed us that the state museum has no use for the dome we were willing to donate. It was decided that Rex would place an ad in AstroMart and Michael Mitrano would handle all the responses. If we do not get a taker, the next step may be to scrap the dome.
• Ludy will bring the camera from the donated equipment to the observatory to make it available for use by the members.
• The C-14 will be brought to the observatory to do a comparison as to which one is better (the donated one or our current one). After a decision is reached the fate of the lesser of the two scopes will be decided by the club.
• Peyton Hall will not be unavailable after the first of the year. Several possible locations for the meetings are being discussed. The main concerns were near-by parking and the ease of finding the hall. A decision needs to be made at the next meeting to give us time to reserve the hall.
• Gene showed the club the pictures that are hanging by the locks on the gates that lead to the observatory. Hopefully, this will keep the gates from being locked so the club members cannot open them. He also reminded us to make sure we do not drive on the grass.
• Larry informed the club that the Washington Crossing Park Association is having a membership drive and encouraged club members to join. He also said one of the goals of the association is to be an educational resource, and Larry wants astronomy to be part of that education.
• The meeting was then adjourned.