by Rex Parker, PhD  director@princetonastronomy.org

May 12 Meeting on Campus at Sherrerd Hall.  This meeting is an important event for members to attend in person if possible, and by Zoom if you cannot be there on campus.  Here I will describe why I say this meeting is imperative, that the club needs your participation.  Firstly, we have invited highly acclaimed science journalist John Horgan of the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken NJ as guest speaker May 12.  The highest priority of AAAP is hosting dynamic presenters at our monthly meetings — this can be sustained only if members come to the meetings. 

As a long-time contributing writer for Scientific American, dozens of John Horgan’s articles have circulated through the decades. The number of prominent scientists he has interviewed in this role is astounding, including Stephen Hawking, Edward Witten, Nobel laureates Steven Weinberg, Murray Gell-Mann, and Hans Bethe, and also Freeman Dyson, Roger Penrose, Douglas Hofstadter, and John Wheeler.  His interviews weren’t restricted to physicists and included famed biologists Richard Dawkins, Stephen Jay Gould, Lynn Margulis, E.O. Wilson, and Francis Crick, and philosophers Karl Popper and Thomas Kuhn.  Mr Horgan’s current on-line blog thoughtfully takes on modern science controversies, and I urge you to check it out at https://johnhorgan.org/  His recent book (published on-line at no cost on his website) is My Quantum Experiment, explaining with wit and candor how he undertook learning quantum mechanics as an older person without an advanced degree in physics or math.   

For our May 12 meeting John Horgan will talk about his most renowned and controversial book, The End of Science, written back in 1995 but perhaps more relevant now than ever and steadily selling today.  While he is viewed by some as a provocative science critic, my own take is that his ideas are refreshingly honest and clear-minded, and his work triggers meaningful debate within the science community for very good reasons. You are welcome to bring a copy of the book for signing at the meeting.  It’s available from many vendors including Labyrinth Books in Princeton as well as Amazon as both paper and Kindle versions.

The May 12 meeting will be held in Sherrerd Hall (first floor auditorium) on the Princeton campus.  Thanks go to Asst. Director Bob Vanderbei for setting up this venue.  This became necessary because we were bumped by exams in Peyton Hall in May, and construction work is planned this summer through the end of the year.  Automobile parking for Sherrerd Hall is close by and it is an easy walk (see Map below).  Campus Lot 10 or Lot 13 (the Princeton University Press parking lot) are both easily accessed from Willams Street (turn from Washington Rd).  Visitors are permitted to park free after 4pm at these lots. If those lots don’t have space, there is street parking on Williams and nearby streets.  Paid parking ($1/hour) on the street ends at 8pm, then it is free (to pay, merely enter license plate number and use credit card). Sherrard Hall is a newer glassy building located along Shapiro Walk a short way from those parking lots.     

The second big reason we need your attendance May 12 is the election of officers.  As specified in the by-laws, the vote is held at the May meeting and a quorum is required.  The candidates standing for election are the current officers, listed below;  each has agreed to serve another year.

Candidates for the Board May 2026
Director, Rex Parker PhD
Assistant Director, Bob Vanderbei PhD
Secretary, Gene Allen
Treasurer, Ira Polans
Observatory Chair, Dave Skitt
Program Chair, Victor Davis
Outreach Chair, Bill Murray

The third main reason to attend is the expenditure proposal for a new telescope for the observatory.  The following serves notice, as required in the by-laws, of the recommendation by the Board to upgrade the observatory’s main instrument, the Celestron-14 Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope. We propose purchasing a new Celestron-14 Edge HD optical tube assembly, focal reducer, and related accessories at cost up to $12,000.  The proposed expenditure must be approved by a majority of the votes cast and not less than 30% of the paid membership. Members not attending the meeting can vote by e-mailed ballot sent to the Secretary within 40 days of the meeting (by June 22). Before the vote we will discuss the rational for the proposal and confirm that the treasury balance supports the expenditure. The acquisition will be contingent on renewal of our lease agreement with the state for the Washington Crossing observatory site (current lease expires Feb 2027).