by Gene Allen, Secretary

Director Rex Parker opened the meeting in PeytonHall at 1930 with 28 in the auditorium and 24-some online. He informed us that Peyton will be unavailable in May due to exams. We will relocate to the auditorium of Sherrerd Hall about two blocks to the west. A map and directions will be distributed before the meeting and the change will be posted on the website. Parking in Lot 10 is closer to Sherrerd than the Stadium Garage is to Peyton. He continued sharing thoughts about and images from the Artemis II mission around the Moon. He was inspired to take an image of the Moon and caught an airliner going by. He showed how numerous galaxies are in the spring sky with an image from The Sky X and shared excellent images of comet C/2025 R3 captured by Member Tom Swords on his Seestar S50 and by Assistant Director Bob Vanderbei on his Seestar S30.

Outreach Chair Bill Murray reported on two upcoming outreach events:

April 22 – stargazing at the Newgrange School in Pennington.
May 16 – stargazing at the Mercer Meadows Pole Farm has been rescheduled.

Program Chair Victor Davis introduced our speaker for tonight, Brian Lacki, PhD, Astrophysicist and Theorist at Breaktrhough Listen. His talk was titled A Billion Whispers: Breakthrpough Listen, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) and Cosmic Energy.

At 2110 Rex continued the meeting without a break. Twenty remained in the auditorium as he called our attention to the following hot topics:

Our annual; election of officers will take place in May. Nominations Chair Michael Mitrano has determined that all current officers are willing to serve another year. He reported that there was no response to his email to the membership for nominations. No one even asked any questions about the leadership roles.

Rex shared a proposal approved by the Board to replace the large, donated, semi-vintage C14 scope in the observatory with a new Edge HD model. We would need additional hardware to support the new scope, so the total cost is likely to reach $13,000 and requires membership approval. Tom Swords has offered to detail the shopping list.

The Artemis II mission has renewed interest in the lunar south pole region and the prospect of finding water ice in permanently shadowed craters. Rex shared his images of the region and showed the difficulty in capturing anything close.

Additional support for the student subgroup will be to provide a specific place for them to gather on groups.io, where the astroimagers share techniques and images. Bill Murray can provide them the observing challenges he created for the sky parties we formerly held in north Jersey.

Member Tom Angle made an enthusiastic presentation about his first visit to the NEAIC/NEAF weekend.

Student Members Sunny Cui and Abhinav Sukla requested assistance in creating an astronomy manual for the members of their astronomy club in Princeton High School.

The meeting was adjourned at 2150.

As of April 13, we have 202 active members. So far in CY2026, renewals number 34 and expirations number 22, giving us a 61% retention rate. We have added 15 new members.

Submitted by Secretary Gene Allen
April 18, 2026