by Ira Polans, Program Chair

Monthly Meetings Resume–Virtually
The June meeting will be held on 9th at 7:30 PM using Zoom (See Using Zoom below for details). We will follow the same procedures that we did for May. This meeting is open to AAAP members and their friends and family. 

We are planning to make use of chat for the Q&A session and are planning on ways to reduce the background noise. To address background noise, we are going to follow the rules  in the table below regarding the audio. If the background noise gets to loud during Q&A or the Business Meeting we will Mute All.

Only the Business part of the meeting will be locked.

Featured Speaker: Since we normally meet at the NJ State Planetarium in June, I thought it would be appropriate for club member  and planetarium host William Murray  to be the June speaker. Bill will give a talk on How the Stars Got Their Names. “Betelgeuse? How does a star get a name like Betelgeuse!” If you’ve ever wondered how stars have the really strange looking names that they do, what they mean and what those strange looking designations next to stars  on your star charts are this talk is for you. A light mix of stellar nomenclature and astronomical history will help you appreciate the hobby of astronomy a bit more.

Using Zoom: While we are, social distancing the Board has chosen to use Zoom (at least for May and June) based our belief that many members have already used Zoom and its ease of learning. One of its great features is you can choose whether you want to install the software on your computer or use it within your browser.

How to Join the June Meeting: For the meeting, we are going to follow a simple two-step process:

1. A couple of days before the meeting I will send an email invitation to the membership with the meeting details.
2. The night of the meeting just click on the link in the email and you will be taken to the meeting. You do not need a Zoom account or create one to join the meeting. Nor are you required to use a webcam.

NOTE: We plan to open the meeting site 15-20 minutes before the 7:30 start time. This way you won’t have to rush to join the meeting. If you haven’t updated to Zoom 5 prior to the meeting, please remember that Zoom will automatically install the update when you join the meeting.

More Information: The Zoom site has many training videos most are for people who are hosting a meeting. If you’re unsure how Zoom works you might want to view the videos on how to join a meeting or how to check your computer’s audio and video before the meeting.