by Gene Allen, Secretary

Minutes taken from the Zoom recording of the meeting.

The meeting convened at 1900 on September 15, 2025

In attendance:

Director Rex Parker
Treasurer Ira Polans
Program Chair Victor Davis
Secretary Gene Allen (joined late)
Observatory Co-Chairs Jenn & Dave Skitt
Outreach Chair Bill Murray
Astroimaging Chair Michael DiMario
Editor Surabhi Agarwal

Rex, Dave, and Michael briefly reviewed the two quotes for replacing the failed underground power line between the pole and the observatory panel. The quotes were sent to everyone in advance and have been made part of this document. Discussion followed which fairly quickly revealed a preference for the Holcombe Electric estimate. It seems perfectly adequate and complete, supports a smaller, more local business, and comes in at $4,000 less. They had done good work for Michael in the past, and we may be able to get on their schedule more promptly. The motion to have Holcombe do the job was seconded and approved unanimously.

To recap, a UniStellar eVscope 2 was donated to the club last spring. After polling all members for a project team to take on learning the scope and presenting to the membership, some 16 youth members responded enthusiastically. The scope was handed over to them with the expectation that they will organize themselves to learn to use it and then make an Unjournal Presentation, now scheduled for the October meeting.

Rex has been coordinating with them, and Jason Mak, a high school age Keyholder, is requesting that we officially establish a youth subgroup. Pros are that it will add legitimacy to youth membership, we can Bill expects they can be a great outreach resource at events such as the Stone Bridge Middle School Science Fair coming up again in November. Dave has seen youth interest at a recent event at Plainsboro Preserve. The group should remain mostly self-organizing with little structure forced on them. They should be members, but Dave, Mike, and Surabhi spoke out for implementing tiered memberships. The only con that came up is that they will age out of the group and it may not be self-sustaining. Connecting with astronomy club advisors that we think exist in most schools should help keep youth membership refreshed. There does need to be a formally appointed advisor, and our Assistant Director Bob Vanderbie has the panache of being a retired Princeton University Professor. [In completing these minutes, it was noted that he had accepted that role at our April Board Meeting.] Dave kept coming up with projects we could suggest to them, including a human sundial, a solar system walk, creating a real-world horizon from panographic photos for The Sky X software that runs our observatory scopes, and manning the greeting and literature table function at the observatory. There was universal support for creating a youth member subgroup.

The failed underground power cable to the observatory has been replaced, but the trench refill was done poorly, with many sharp-edged rocks making it a hazard. A motion, second, and unanimous approval vote authorized spending $2000 to pay a landscaper recommended by Michael Mitrano to clean it up. Dave will follow up. JCP&L continues to be even more unresponsive in hooking us up than the state. It was noted that the end of the conduit at the building is open and that the electrician responded that a weather head was not included in the quote, though it probably should have been.

Michael DiMario reported that the astroimaging Group.io free account is using 80% of its free allotment of 1GB for archiving both images and the conversations supporting them. He expects it to be full early next year and proposes that the lowest paid increment provides 30GB and costs about $200 a year. While only 10 or so out of the 45 or so in the group provide most of the images and discussions, he finds 20% active participation is also shown in the other two astronomy clubs to which he belongs. At present, EAA does not comprise much of the activity, and the introductory description should add that. A motion, second, and unanimous approval vote authorized spending the annual $200.

The beta website has generated no feedback and it is suggested that having two sites in parallel is confusing and not as productive as we had hoped. There was consensus that we need to migrate content from the old website to the new, populating the blank blue boxes and preparing to go officially live with the new site around about the first of next year. The website team will see what Jeff’s plans are. In that process, Mike suggested that we make the Sidereal Times newsletter a members-only benefit, as it is at his other clubs. Since everything else we do is free to the public, that would make it a reason to pay dues and might add legitimacy to the document. It could be moved to beyond the members login with little trouble, and Surabhi reported that a “teaser” extract on the public side could easily be created to entice joining.

Bill noted in closing that the planetarium is planning to bring groups to the observatory on October 10 and 24.