by John Miller, Secretary

• Assistant Director, Larry Kane opened the meeting, 7:30PM

• Ira Polans introduced guest speaker, David McComas – PPPL and Princeton University. McComas’s presentation centered on the ongoing Parker Solar Probe mission, 2018 through 2025. There were about 55 attendees.

• New member Vince DaGrosa brought a working model of his newly-designed and built parallelogram mount, carrying a pair or 20×80 binoculars.

• Member Bill Murray gave a talk during the break titled “The Past and Future of Astronomy”.

• Public Outreach Chair Gene Allen reported the following planned activities and projects:

February 26 – Stuart Country Day School, sky observing
February 29 – A Sky Safari at Baldpate Mountain, star party
March 3 – Stuart Country Day School, Science Independent Study Project, judging
March 20 – Hopewell Elementary Science Fair & Expo
March 26 – Gene Allen presentation to the Princeton Windrows Science Group
April 17 – Boy Scout visit to the AAAP Observatory
April 26 – Communiversity. AAAP multiple table displays and solar scope set-ups.

• Observatory: David Skitt, Observatory Co-Chair, addressed the status of the pillar repair review. Vince DaGrosa reported his observations about the current condition of the pillars. Additionally, he has been in contact with a mason and plans an informal inspection trip to the observatory with this person. Vince said the current pillars are definitely made of cinder block.

• Dave Skitt also detailed additional Night Sky participation requirements and AAAP opportunities.  He is still investigating how best for the club to utilize The Night Sky Network

• The meeting adjourned at 10:00 PM.