By Gene Allen, Secretary
Director Rex Parker opened the meeting in the Sherrerd Hall lecture room 101 at 1930 with 28 of the 48 seats occupied. He shared a NYT on the Perseverance Rover which has done 28 miles on Mars and counting. He reminded us of the geography discussion of October 2025. NJ state legislature has bills under consideration to reduce light pollution. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine will present a briefing requested by NASA entitled Human Exploration Across the Moon on October 21 at 1300. Construction at Peyton Hall has wrapped up and our return is being considered. Discussion about creating a AAAP Student Membership category preceded a motion, second, and unanimous vote of approval.
Outreach Chair Bill Murray reported on five upcoming outreach events:
October 16 – two groups, one from the Planetarium, will add to observatory attendance.
October 17 – 4 have volunteered for a stargazing party at Tulpehaking Nature Center.
November 13 – 2 have volunteered for stargazing at the St Catherine School in Spring Lake.
Late November – a solar viewing event in Mt Laurel
December 2 – a Science Fair at Stone Bridge Middle School in Allentown, NJ.
Member Tom Angle introduced the speaker for tonight, astrophotographer and author Charles Bracken. He guided us through his selection of the most worthy astronomical objects for photography, the basis for his mammoth volume, The Astrophotographer’s Universe. He sold and signed copies during the break.
The business meeting convened at 2108. Many images and videos taken by members of the Jupiter occultation by the Moon on October 6 were shared.
Member Hasan Hafiz described his efforts to develop a process to automatically identify astronomical objects. He is a senior at Steinert High School and his work included code that he wrote in Python.
Member Rujula Kadam reported on the student member activities with the Unistellar telescope. They had done outreach at the Martin Luther King Jr School in the summer and will repeat outreach at Stone Bridge this coming December. They will come up with a plan to revive and improve our social media presence, neglected since the resignation of our Program Chair. Rujula is a senior at West Windsor Plainsboro High School South.
Rex called our attention to his Sidereal Times article in the October issue dealing with the growing contention between Cold Dark Matter (CDM) and Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND) theories about the composition of the universe. He suggested that we read up on that to be better prepared for our November speaker.
The meeting was adjourned at 2156.
As of October 9, we have 200 active members. So far in CY2026, renewals number 94 and expirations number 46, giving us a 67% retention rate. We have added 40 new members, but only 44% of first year members are renewing.
Submitted by Secretary Gene Allen, October 30, 2026
