Light pollution is one of the least talked about type of pollution that is adversely affecting every aspect of our suburban lives, from watching the sky and disrupting our ecosystem balance to playing havoc with our health. Artificial light is a fairly new power in our hands and like any other power in human hands, it is proving to be a curse when used improperly.
This pollution keeps us from witnessing the marvels of our own galaxy in the night sky from our homes that generations before us did. The fauna around us is struggling with the disturbances in their diurnal/nocturnal rhythms resulting in various negative effects on their lives which include reproduction, diapause, growth, migration, and even coloration of plumage or body. World over, the flora is battling with interference in their photoperiodism, effecting in changes in their flowering patterns leading to timing mismatches with the emergence of their pollinators. This mismatch in turn is rapidly leading towards less food production for the world’s animal populations and the alarmingly growing human population. Interrupted sleep, fatigue, depression, obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and many other chronic problems have been linked to our confused circadian rhythms. The pollution’s contribution to climate change is enormous and requires a whole new article.
Larry has brought up a subject that really requires our attention with utmost urgency. I am in complete agreement with him. As a group of sky watchers we should put our concerted efforts to save our night skies and our local ecosystems. We have to adopt a multipronged approach for this cause. Creating awareness of the negative impacts of light pollution via our social media, local library and school talks is one prong. Taking take this cause to our local governments and pushing them to bring about sensible changes in legislation is the second one. Once we formally adopt this cause in our meeting agendas, I am sure we will add more prongs. Rex has successfully guided Hopewell Township to amend their light ordinances. I am pushing for changes in Monroe and South Brunswick using a copy of the ordinances that Rex has provided me. You will soon find a new page on our website with a copy of this document and links to our presentations on the subject. Feel free to take a copy of the document to your town council. You are also welcome to use my power point presentation.
I hope that my fellow club members will readily join in this effort to curb light pollution in their local areas.
Before and during the 2003 Northeast blackout, a massive power outage that affected 55 million people. Photo:Todd CarlsonExcessive yard lights
Meeting was convened on Zoom by Director Rex Parker at 1930. Following a brief introduction and presentation of an agenda, Program Chair Victor Davis introduced Speaker/Member Dr. Robert Vanderbei. He described the background and evolution of his latest book, Welcome to the Universe in 3D. Notable in his talk was the technique of holding the viewer against one’s face and then moving it slowly away until the images become 3D for you. He also described the need to be able to view them “splay-eyed” rather than cross-eyed. After being shown the unimaginably sophisticated techniques Dr. Vanderbei had used to create the stereo images that essentially justified the publication of this third version of the book, it seemed patently unfair that Tyson had given no credit to Dr. Vanderbei in his television interview on The Late Show on April 19. More than 55 attendees were noted on Zoom throughout the presentation.
After a brief break following questions, the meeting resumed at 2109 with 40 some attending a detailed and impassioned Unjournal Presentation about the International Dark Sky Association (IDA) by Member Rich Sherman. All AAAP members are strongly encouraged to join, support, and actively participate in the IDA.
Secretary Gene Allen was asked to conduct the election of officers for the coming year. The AAAP Membership Roster had been updated the day prior to show 175 current members, meaning that the required 15% quorum amounts to 26. Earlier in the meeting he had noted that current members in attendance numbered beyond that threshold.
The election of officers was held on Zoom by a show of hands. Screenshots were taken of each page in Gallery View for subsequent confirmation.
There were 40 people online at that time and 33 of them were verified as current members. Of the members, 23 were physically holding up hands to their cameras and 5 had selected the Zoom “Show Hand” function. No hand was displayed in any manner by 3 very active members who had their video turned on, and they have since confirmed by email that they intended a “yes” vote and had lowered their hand before the page was recorded. One member unable to attend had emailed his affirmative vote to the board in advance. Only 2 members had their video off with no hand displayed. Two non-members got caught up in the moment and voted to accept the slate! The Secretary was remiss in not asking members to clear their hands and then calling for those opposed, but there were only 2 possible “no” votes. In sum, we had 32 votes in favor, and a possible but unconfirmed 2 against. The slate was confirmed:
Director: Rex Parker
Assistant Director: Larry Kane
Treasurer: Michael Mitrano
Secretary: Gene Allen
Program Chair: Victor Davis
Observatory Co-Chairs: Jen & Dave Skitt
Outreach Chair: Bill Murray
A Members’ Night is scheduled for Saturday, May 14. Members are encouraged to bring their scopes to the observatory to show them off or to get help in dealing with issues they may be having with hardware or technique. Should the weather turn out to be uncooperative, it will be rescheduled.
An astrovideo Zoom event is planned for the total lunar eclipse that will occur through the middle of the night of May 15. Several members here in New Jersey will bring their telescopes to bear on the Moon, as well as one in Florida and one on the Outer Banks, where the weather may be more cooperative. Members are encouraged to view from home, with binoculars or telescopes if they have any, and report their experiences during the session. A link to connect will be disseminated by email. There was some discussion about star focus being perfectly acceptable for images of the Moon, and the need to keep camera exposures short.
Incumbent leaders have continued to serve the organization, but new, younger participants will be needed at some point. Members who aspire to leadership positions are encouraged to attend Board meetings when they occur and step up to be mentored by the respective officer.
Observatory Co-Chair Dave Skitt offered an update on the Observatory.
We still seek someone to coordinate and oversee professional installation of new carpet.
While the Nature Center post in the state park is currently vacant, the traditional solar viewing event held there over Memorial Day weekend is being planned. Members able to help answer questions and manage visitors or who can bring a properly filtered solar scope are encouraged to be in contact with Dave.
The ASI294 astrocamera out for repair is expected to be returned to us shortly.
After several weeks of rains outs on public Friday nights and scheduled members nights, AAAP finally got a break with its Solar Observing event hosted at our observatory in Washington Crossing State Park. The skies were clear with only a few puffy clouds to hide the Sun (and Venus!) on Sunday, May 29, 2022.
Setup for the 1 pm event began with Victor Davis placing a billboard at the park’s main entrance. He quickly moved to set up his scope and binoculars on a parallelogram mount. Victor then paced (plodded?) out a scale model of the solar system along the road to the observatory. Some thought he had gotten lost in space when he didn’t return after dropping Neptune in its way-out orbit. We all were relieved when he did reappear to attend to his equipment. Who else would keep his filtered binoculars on track with the Sun?
Victor Davis putting up signs
Ira Polans, Tom Swords and Dave Reis appeared next to assist me with setting out banners, the literature table and signs. Did you know that 10-Jupiters or 110 Earths can fit across the diameter of the Sun?
10 Jupiters can fit across the diameter of the Sun
Tom Swords whipped out his Scope-on-a Stick in no time. There isn’t much to it. It’s just a series of simple lenses mounted on a rail arranged to project the Sun’s image onto a white card at the rear. “It works”, Tom says.
Tom had the same comment about Michael Hester’s, Raspberry Pi driven camera attached to a hydrogen-alpha filtered telescope. I admit I didn’t get to poke my head under the black cloth Michael had over his monitor, but I can’t believe that anything that he sets his mind to wouldn’t work. His assortment of gear takes a large cart to reach its’ final observing destination. See if you can spot Tom’s “Scope-on-a-Stick” and Michael’s mysteriously shrouded scope in the panorama photo posted on our Twitter https://twitter.com/princetonastro and Facebook https://www.facebook.com/Amateur-Astronomers-Association-of-Princeton-225112680910838/ accounts.
I don’t know who showed up next as I ventured off to get the C-14 and Hasting-Byrne scopes fitted with their solar filters and fire up their mounts. Before I knew it, we had a total of 9 scopes or binocular setups pointed upwards and hordes of members and public wondering in to explore the Sun and Venus in all their splendor. I estimate we entertained, wowed and informed 75 persons. Maybe more.
I told my wife, Jennifer, that I felt like a groom and bride at their wedding reception when everything is such a blur, but you want to savor every minute. I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of the event. Explaining what we were seeing, talking to new and seasoned members and looking through the various scopes.
I know I missed some things but there was so much to take in! All I have now are the memories and these few photos. Many thanks to everyone who helped organize, publicize, set up, host and who attended this warm and sunny event. I look forward to more member events and the next Solar Observing planned for Labor Day Weekend!
This month was very weather challenged. I was hoping to see the May planets dance but awoke to find many clouds.
I did get lucky with the Total Lunar Eclipse on May 15
We managed to dodge the clouds long enough to get to totality before a solid wall of clouds and the rain started. Photos were taken from 10:10 PM EDT – 11:33 PM EDT (Morganville, NJ)
Spotting Dots on the Sun In the short time since its launch in February 2020, Solar Orbiter has already returned some incredible photos and data of the Sun. The joint European Space Agency–NASA mission is expected to have its biggest scientific breakthroughs when it tilts its orbit to be able to see the Sun’s poles — a region that we’ve never photographed…more
-Sky & Telescope
Mystery of the Sun’s Chemical Makeup lingers An international team of astronomers says it has just solved a solar mystery that’s stood for well over a decade. There are two ways to work out what the Sun is made of. The first, called spectroscopy, looks at the Sun’s spectrum. Precise wavelengths of light are missing from this spectrum…more
-NYT
Hear the Weird Sounds of a Black Hole Singing In space you can’t hear a black hole scream, but apparently you can hear it sing. In 2003 astrophysicists working with NASA’s orbiting Chandra X-ray Observatory detected a pattern of ripples in the X-ray glow of a giant cluster of galaxies in the constellation Perseus…more
-NYT
Shards of the Planet Mercury May Be Hiding on Earth New research explains how meteorites called aubrites may actually be shattered pieces of the planet closest to the sun from the early days of the solar system. Mercury does not make sense. It is a bizarre hunk of rock with a composition that is unlike its neighboring rocky planets…more
-BBC
Interstellar probe: A mission for the generations Imagine working on a project you know you have no hope of seeing through to completion. Would you have the motivation to even get it going? Absolutely, says Ralph McNutt from Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU-APL) in the US. McNutt, with colleagues, has just published a detailed report…more
-BBC
Large hadron collider: A revamp that could revolutionize physics Deep underground amidst the Alps, scientists are barely able to contain their excitement. They whisper about discoveries that would radically alter our understanding of the Universe. “I’ve been hunting for the fifth force for as long as I’ve been a particle physicist,” says Dr Sam Harper. “Maybe this is the year”…more
-BBC
Perseverance: Nasa rover begins key drive to find life on Mars Nasa’s Perseverance rover has reached a big moment in its mission on Mars. Tuesday will see the six-wheeled robot begin the climb up an ancient delta feature in the crater where it landed. It will roll uphill, stopping every so often to examine rocks that look to have the best chance of retaining evidence of past life on the planet…more
– NYT
This NASA Mission Listened to Mars Shake, but Soon It Will Go Silent The InSight spacecraft, which carries a seismometer and studies the red planet’s insides, is expected to cease functioning by the end of the year. InSight, a stationary robotic probe on Mars, has been steadily growing weaker as dust accumulates on its solar panels…more
-BBC
Asteroid mining “They essentially hold on to the side of the asteroid for dear life as it screams through the solar system.” Mitch Hunter-Scullion is describing a six-legged robot called Scar-e, the Space Capable Asteroid Robotic Explorer, which he aims to send to an asteroid to drill for precious metals such as iron, nickel and platinum…more
-BBC
Moon soil used to grow plants for first time in breakthrough test Scientists have grown plants in lunar soil for the first time, an important step towards making long-term stays on the moon possible. Researchers used small samples of dust collected during the 1969-1972 Apollo missions to grow a type of cress. Much to their surprise, the seeds sprouted after two days…more
-BBC
Northumberland shooting star caught on one-in-million photo A family photo with the Northern Lights became a “one-in-a-million” shot after a shooting star flew in the background. Steve Swan, his partner Louise Redpath and their children were posing during a stargazing night in Northumberland on Saturday when the out-of-this-world event took place. Photographer Wil Cheung said he knew he would “never get that shot again”…more
by Rex Parker, PhD director@princetonastronomers.org
Gravitate to Our Spring Events! A total lunar eclipse, fantastic galaxies high overhead, and a close collection of planets before dawn make up a spectacular astro palette over the next month as spring emerges in full glory. With social life returning to normal around the state, we’ve scheduled a few events to bring you back to shared astronomy experiences with fellow members – see the list below. Note that the May 14 gathering is mostly a daylight event (starting at 5pm) to give us a chance to greet each other in person, maybe the first time in over two years. On May14 we ask you to bring your personal telescope equipment to display and share your knowledge, or on the other hand learn how to set up and use it, ask questions and solve problems. Shake off the cobwebs and get the hang of setting up your astro equipment in the daylight so you can better use it at night. And if you feel like staying after sunset on May 14, this can be an observing night too. But read on…
On Sunday May 15 we will have a total lunar eclipse here, and the Observatory will be open after sunset for members to observe it through the club’s top-notch telescopes. The eclipse begins in earnest when the moon enters the deep shade part of earth’s shadow, the umbra, just after at 10:30 pm. Total eclipse begins about an hour later. Full eclipses occur on average only about once every 2.5 years at any given location, so don’t miss it. And if you decide to get up before twilight that morning and throughout spring, you can see Saturn, Mars, Jupiter, and Venus all lined up in the southeast sky.
AAAP Spring Events
May 10, monthly meeting (7:30pm, Zoom); election of officers; guest speaker info below (see Victor’s article).
May 14, Rescheduled to May 22 – Members Day at Observatory (daytime event). We’ll gather at 5:00 pm and continue into darkness as desired (sunset is at 8:08pm). Meet and Greet, make contacts within the club, learn more about how to use your own telescope equipment (bring your telescope) and learn about the club’s observatory at Washington Crossing Park.
May 15, Lunar Eclipse at Observatory (night event). Moon enters umbra at 10:34pm, totality starts ~ 1hr later. Members are invited to view the eclipse through telescopes — weather permitting.
June 14, monthly meeting (7:30pm) in person at the Planetarium in Trenton. Hosted by Bill Murray, AAAP member and staff associate at the Planetarium. This is the last meeting of the traditional academic season for AAAP.
Board Election May 10. At the regular meeting on May 10 (Zoom) we will elect officers. The bylaws set out 1-year terms for the 7 members of the Board of Trustees, with elections to be held at the May meeting. Here I’d like to thank the Nominations Committee (Joy Saxena, chair; Mark Walker, and Jennifer Sturgiss) for reaching out to the membership for candidates. We got a couple of responses from newer members, but as the slate shaped up it has turned out to be the incumbents (below). We do need to vote them in of course, so I am asking you to join us by Zoom for the May meeting.
Don’t Miss It – the Best Season for Galaxies Is Spring. Many dozens of galaxies are visible this month in small telescopes from right here in New Jersey, and even more if you’re doing astro video/photography with your scope. The constellations Virgo, Coma Berenices, Canes Venatici, and Ursa Major are chock full of galaxies, and these remain well overhead in good observing position after twilight all through May. A fine example is Messier 101 which I was fortunate to photograph last week (below).
The Pinwheel Galaxy, Messier 101, from a Telescope in New Jersey.M101 is a face-on spiral galaxy about 25 million light-years away from us in Ursa Major. It’s huge, about 170,000 light years diameter, twice the size of our Milky Way galaxy. Astrophoto by RA Parker from NJ using 12.5” telescope and ASI2600MM LRGB filter technique, total exposure ~8 hrs.
The May 2022 meeting of the AAAP will take place (virtually) on Tuesday, May 10th at 7:30 PM. (See How to Join the May Meeting below for details). This meeting is open to AAAP members and the general public. Participants will be able to log in to the meeting as early as 7:00 pm to chat informally with others who log in early. We will not be using the “waiting room;” participants will enter the meeting as soon as they log in. However, you will enter the meeting space with your microphone muted. This will help to remedy some of the background noise we experienced during some previous meetings. Please be aware you must unmute yourself to be heard by other participants.
For the Q&A session, you may ask your question using Zoom’s chat feature or you may unmute yourself and ask your question directly to the speaker. To address background noise issues, we are going to follow the rules in the table below regarding audio. If you are not speaking, please remember to mute yourself. You are encouraged, but not required, to turn your video on.
Meeting Event
~Time
Participant Can Speak?
Participant Can Self-Unmute?
Pre-meeting informal chatting
7:00 – 7:30
Start All on Mute
Yes
Director Rex’s General Remarks
7:30 – 7:40
Yes
Yes
Program Chair Victor’s Speaker Introduction
7:40 – 7:45
Yes
Yes
Speaker Presentation
7:45 – 8:45
No
No
Q&A Session
8:45 – 9:00
Start All on Mute
Yes
5-minute bio break
9:00 – 9:05
Yes
Yes
“Unjournal Club” – No presentation scheduled
N/A
Start All on Mute
No
Business Meeting
9:05 – 9:50
Start All on Mute
Yes
Director’s closing remarks/Informal chatting
9:50 – 10:00
No
No
Only the Business part of the meeting will be locked.
“Reality favors symmetry.” Jorge Luis Borges
It’s worth noting, as club member Ira Polans pointed out to me, that this month’s speaker Bob Vanderbei was the first guest speaker to address the club virtually via Zoom after Covid-19 chased us out of Peyton Hall. Two years later, it may be (yes, I’m saying it out loud) that he may be the last wholly-virtual presenter. Next fall, in-person meetings may resume in an as-yet-undetermined venue.
Featured Speaker: Robert J. Vanderbei Professor, Operations Research and Financial Engineering, Princeton University (rvdb@princeton.edu)
Welcome to the Universe in 3D Prof. Vanderbei will discuss his recently published book of this title he co-authored with J. Richard Gott, Michael Strauss (both also at Princeton) and Neil deGrasse Tyson, Director of NYC’s Hayden Planetarium. His book depicts in 3D the things we see in the night sky, from planets and moons to nearby stars and out to nebulae, galaxies, and beyond. In this talk, Prof. Vanderbei will show some of the stereoscopic pictures from the book, and describe the various methods he used to make these stereoscopic pairs of images give an accurate 3D rendition of how things really are.
A bit about Prof. Bob
A native of Grand Rapids, Michigan, Vanderbei earned his BS in Chemistry and MS in Operations Research and Statistics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI). He completed his PhD in Applied Mathematics at Cornell in 1981. In his thesis, he developed probabilistic potential theory for random fields consisting of tensor products of Brownian motions. He was awarded an NSF postdoctoral research fellowship to pursue his interest in probability theory at NYU’s Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences. Following his fellowship, he moved to the Mathematics department at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana. A few years later, Vanderbei left academia for a job at Bell Labs, where he made fundamental contributions to the field of optimization and holds three patents for his enhancements to a new class of algorithms for linear programming.
In 1990, Vanderbei returned to academia to teach at Princeton University. He is a Professor in the Department of Operations Research and Financial Engineering, and chaired the department from 2005 to 2012. He also holds courtesy appointments to Princeton’s departments of Mathematics, Astrophysics, Computer Science, and Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. Vanderbei holds leadership positions in many professional organizations and is the 2017 winner of the Khachiyan Prize for his work in optimization.
In addition to hundreds of research papers, Vanderbei has written two widely adopted textbooks, a popular software package, and two popular-level books. Sizing up the Universe is an introductory astronomy book written jointly with J. Richard Gott and published by National Geographic in 2011. Welcome to the Universe in 3D was published just this April by Princeton University Press.
Vanderbei was an active glider pilot and flight instructor for many years. In 1999, a colleague enticed him to move his sights a bit higher by taking him to a star party hosted by AAAP. Vanderbei quickly transitioned from visual observing to astrophotography, and regularly posts new astroimages on his website vanderbei.princeton.edu.
AAAP webcast: This month’s AAAP meeting, beginning with Rex’s opening remarks and ending at the beginning of the business meeting, will be webcast live on YouTube and recorded for subsequent public access on AAAP’s YouTube channel. Be aware that your interactions during this segment, including questions to our guest speaker, may be recorded for posterity.
This session will be recorded and saved on YouTube. Send me an email at program@princetonastronomy.org if you have any concerns.
Using Zoom: While we are social distancing, the AAAP Board has chosen to use Zoom for our meetings, based our belief that many members have already have used Zoom and its ease of learning. One of its great features is you can choose whether you want to install the software on your computer or use it within your browser.
How to Join the May Meeting:For the meeting, we are going to follow a simple two-step process:
Please make sure you have Zoom installed on your computer. You do not need a Zoom account or need to create one to join the meeting. Nor are you required to use a webcam.
There is no “Unjournal Club” presentation scheduled this month. As you may know, guest speakers receive a baseball cap with the AAAP logo embroidered upon it as a “thank you” for making a presentation to us. We’re expanding the hat giveaway to members who contribute an “Unjournal Club” presentation to encourage participation.
We hope to make these short presentations a regular feature of our monthly meetings. We’d like to know what members are doing or what members are thinking about in the broad range of topics encompassed by astronomy. A brief ten-minute (or so) presentation is a good way to introduce yourself and the topics you care about to other club members. If you are interested in presenting a topic of interest, please contact either director@princetonastronomy.org or program@princetonastronomy.org.
Upcoming Webinar
Last month, Dr. Paul Daniels spoke to our club on the Megaconstellation threat. He and his organization, Federation of Astronomical Societies in the UK, are hosting a free, two-day international Zoom webinar on May 7th and 8th, before our next meeting but hopefully after you’ve perused this newsletter. The aim of the webinar is for professional space operators and astronomers to explain the many challenges posed by satellite megaconstellations and future policy prospects for mitigating their adverse effects on the environment.
Dr. Daniels has sent along a brochure in PDF format that gives more information on the goals of the webinar, its roster of speakers, and details of how to register. The file is also posted on our website.
Bill Murray, AAAP Outreach Chair and astronomer at the New Jersey State Museum will once again (following a Covid hiatus) give club members a private sky tour at the museum’s planetarium. He’ll show off the refurbished planetarium’s state-of-the-art Digital Sky 2 8K projection system. This is an opportunity to put aside Zooming and commiserate with AAAP members in the real world.
July – August, 2022
There will be no monthly meetings of AAAP during the academic hiatus of July and August, though the observatory (and public observing every clear Friday night) will be operating. There are not yet guest speakers confirmed for post-summer – and hopefully post-pandemic – meetings. It is not known whether we’ll have the option to meet corporeally, though we intend to include a Zoom component for the foreseeable future.
Thanks to Bill Thomas, Ira Polans, and Dave Skitt for all that you do. Special thanks this month to Bob Vanderbei, who so quickly and gracefully became this month’s guest speaker.
As always, members’ comments and suggestions are gratefully accepted and much appreciated.
The meeting was convened on Zoom by Director Dr. Rex Parker at 1930 with the agenda for the evening.
He noted that this marks two years of Zoomed meetings.
His desktop computer failure disappointingly followed closely on the hijacking of our domain name by the current registrar, which shut down our website and group email capability for several days. Thanks go to Tech Chief John Miller for unraveling and correcting the issue with support from Princeton University IT alumni.
Covid restrictions have been lifted at all NJ state parks. While they still recommend prudence, we are thrilled to be back to near normal at the observatory.
Upcoming events have been collected here:
April 13: Assistant Director Larry Kane reported a Sierra Club webinar about light pollution. He will send the invitation to all members.
April 15: Simpson Observatory opens the season with our first Public Night. It will be a Full Moon.
April 22: Lyrid meteor shower peak with possible 20 per hour before Moonrise at 0150.
April 22 or 23: Outreach Chair Bill Murray is expecting a group at the observatory and will need additional Keyholder support, whether on the Friday Public Night or to open on Saturday.
May 10: The next AAAP meeting will feature the election of officers.
May 14: Members Day at Simpson Observatory 1700 (5pm) to dark. Just meet and greet or bring your unfamiliar scope for some help setting up.
May 15: Outreach Chair Bill Murray added the total eclipse of the Moon from 2230-0130. He invited members to bring scopes. We may consider shifting the Members Day from the preceding evening. Stay tuned!
May 22-30: International Dark Sky Week. Member Rich Sherman suggested trying to get some IDA (International Dark-Sky Association) literature to hand out at the observatory.
June 14: The June AAAP meeting will once again be held in the Planetarium of the NJ State Museum in Trenton.
At 1945 Program Chair Victor Davis introduced featured speaker Paul A. Daniels, FRAS, President, Federation of Astronomical Societies. The plummeting cost of launching small satellites has led to several companies having ambitions to place tens of thousands of them (potentially 100,000+) into low Earth orbit over the next few decades. Dr. Daniels, a leader in the Royal Astronomical Society’s Megaconstellation Working Group (Optical) will discuss the serious threats to professional and amateur astronomy posed by the projected astronomical growth of these reflective and emissive objects. A ten minute question session concluded at 2110.
We reconvened at 2115 with Observatory Co-Chair Dave Skitt offering observatory updates:
A special opening by Outreach Chair Bill Murray and Observatory Co-Chairs Jen & Dave Skitt on April 2 for a scout troop of 20 kids and 15 adults revealed that guests seem to need to look through scopes. Having only monitors displaying the greatly enhanced EAA images of deep sky objects is not enough.
We still need someone to offer to coordinate professional installation of new carpet.
Training has been difficult with our miserable spring weather and ranks have thinned. We need more Keyholders.
There is no new news on the progress of the repair of the ZWO astronomical camera.
We are encouraged that Treasurer Michael Mitrano has been able to connect with a human in our long-frustrated efforts to obtain permission to repair the columns. The contractor we previously identified is still onboard to perform the work.
Members were moved to social activism by the depressing future presented by Dr. Daniels.
Member Michael DiMario suggested trying to encourage the IDA to engage on satellite proliferation as a light pollution issue.
Director Rex Parker suggested contacting legislators jointly for a more powerful voice, perhaps engaging with activists among the Princeton University astrophysics faculty.
Member Dave Misiura suggested trying to find a PAC (Political Action Committee) that is focused on the satellite proliferation issue.
Program Chair Victory Davis has offered a “Night Under the Stars” at Simpson Observatory as a silent auction fundraising item on behalf of the New Jersey Ballet Company Gala to be held at the Chrystal Plaza in Livingston, NJ. He will coordinate a private opening by a few Keyholders for five or so guests of the winning bidder.
A question about progress toward securing a meeting venue was met with the response that we are working on it.
We are looking into the possibility of Zooming the planetarium meeting in June.
AAAP officer nominations are open through the end of April. Any member who wishes to be considered for a position should email the nominating committee at nominations@princetonastronomy.org.
Consider acquiring summer season merchandise from the AAAP online store. Merchandise Shop Lead Facilitator Rich Sherman advises that more items are available than we are able to display, so if you want something not shown, email him at merchandise@princetonastronomy.org. A suggestion was made that we add items suitable for children and grandchildren.
Facebook Lead Facilitator Debra Mayes was encouraged that she was approached by a PA park through Facebook about arranging a star party. They ended up engaging a more local club, but activity has been increasing. She invites members to like and share entries on Facebook and Twitter.
Member Len Cacciatore is still supporting Discord but wishes to identify a replacement or two to assume his role. He indicated that we need to transfer ownership to the club.
Webmaster/Editor Surabhi Agarwal is withdrawing from her role as webmaster but continuing as Co-Editor of the Sidereal Times newsletter along with Co-Editor Sam Sherman. She will continue to be available for webmaster duties on an emergency backup basis. Tech Chief John Miller leads on all IT issues and coordinates with Webmaster Jeff Pinyan. Monthly updates of speaker and such are critical. While redesign of the website is highly desirable, it is an extensive, time-consuming project. For now, moving our domain name from Network Solutions to another registrar is the top priority.
Member Tom Swords shared his astrophoto of the conjunction of Saturn and Mars taken with his 4” refractor. He managed to capture them between the branches of a tree on April 4.
The meeting was formally adjourned at 2204.
There were some 40 Zoom attendees throughout the speakers presentation and question session. 38 remained for the start of the business meeting and 33 were still hanging on at 2152.
The AAAP Roster presently shows 193 members. So far this year 11 members have failed to renew after three renewal notices and their email addresses have been removed from the server. Another 21 members have been sent notice that they are currently overdue and their membership will expire at the end of the month. This large group is the last of those who were not reminded in a timely manner during the transition to individual renewal terms and the change of Secretary.
Amateur Astronomers Association of Princeton 