by Gene Allen, Secretary

Director Rex Parker opened the meeting in Peyton Hall at 1931 with 25 attending. He reported:

Power has finally been restored to the observatory.

Members who are exploring Electronically Assisted Astronomy, EAA, are now formally invited to participate in the Astroimaging subgroup chaired by Michael DiMario. They have always been welcome but it will now be more plain in the introductory verbiage for their Groups.io forum.

Program Chair Victor Davis introduced our speaker for tonight, Astroimaging Chair Michael DiMario, PhD. His talk was Smooth Moves: Why Strain Wave Mounts Are Taking Over.

Twenty minutes of questions and a break followed the talk.

Rex introduced the Unistellar Project Team, four of our student members who have taken on learning to observe and record astroimages with the donated Unistellar Evscope 2. Presenting were Members Eklavya Doegar, Rujula Kadam, Jason Mak, and Sarvesh Raghupathy. They explained the telescope in some detail, described how they organized themselves, and shared images that they captured as well as ways they hope to participate in AAAP events and outreach. At their request, the Board has agreed to formalize and support a student member subgroup.

Rex made an Unjournal Presentation entitled A rock in my hand, a discovery on Mars describing the similarities between his fossilized shell and rocks recently discovered by the Mars rover Perseverence. Both appear to contain vivianite, a hydrated iron phosphate mineral. One way that vivianite forms on Earth is on decomposing organic matter. In a very detailed paper published in Nature, J. Hurowitz concludes that the discovery warrants consideration as a bio-signature. <https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09413-0 >

Member Tom Swords described his capture of the transit of Triton and showed the images. Triton is the largest moon of Saturn and the images showed it passing in front of the planet.

Observatory Co-Chair Dave Skitt shared that the observatory will be open, weather permitting, on Halloween. Some spooky fun may be added to the evening.

Merchandise Shop Lead Facilitator Rich Sherman shared that cooler weather gear is being swapped onto the merchandise website.

The meeting was adjourned at 2158.

As of October 12, we have 214 active members. So far in CY2025, renewals number 98 and expirations number 46, giving us a 68% retention rate. We have added 39 new members.

Submitted by Secretary Gene Allen
October 21, 2025