by Jim Poinsett

Rex called the meeting to order following the lecture on “Measuring the Historic Sky – DASCH – Digitizing a Sky Century at Harvard”

• Rich Sherman proposed a field trip to Mt. Lemmon Sky Center near Tucson Arizona for an Astrophotography seminar using DLSR cameras. Weekend of March 9, 2019. There is room for 3-6 members, cost is $600 -$700 plus flights. Contact Rich at if interested.
• Rex expressed the board’s thanks to all the keyholders for a successful 2018 observing season. The observatory was only open 11 out of 30 possible nights due to weather. A tweet was sent out on 28 of the 30 nights.
• All 5 pins marking the observatory property have been located, there are no wetlands on the property.
• The dew-shield on the C-14 was repaired.
• The water supply was protected, it will be shut off by the time you read this.
• The alignment of the Mewlon and H/B refractor will be worked on over the winter.
• Rex showed examples of his color photography from his central NJ location. His point was to emphasize that there is color out there for the amateur to catch.
• Next was a discussion on the report about asteroid Oumuamua being an alien light sail. It’s trajectory was definitely from outside our solar system. It slowed down as it approached the sun and sped up as it moved away, the opposite of gravitational attraction. It’s mass to surface area was less than 1 gram / cm2.
• There will be an eclipse of the moon in January 2019.
• The meeting was adjourned.