Minutes of the monthly meeting of Sangamon Astronomical Society held February 20, 2002, at 7:00 PM at the Morgan Stanley office on 3731 W. Wabash Avenue, Springfield, IL.

Attendance:
Rick Branson
Glenn Cunningham
Larry Hardy
Tony Hopp
Don Jardine
S. Beata Knoedler
Luis Perez
Fred Pilcher
Mike Robertson
Jim Rosenthal
Larry Trutter
Donald Walker
Ray Watt
Matthew Will
Gary Woerner
Kerry Wright


Larry Hardy began the meeting by asking if anyone had a chance to review the minutes to the last meeting which is posted at the web site. The treasurer’s report was given.

Star Party Update
An astronomy group in Chicago has officially decided not to join us in this effort. However, they are looking into providing some information will be helpful for the Illinois Dark Skies Star Party. The fees will be the same as last year’s fees and the cutoff date for registering by mail is Sept. 1st. Larry Hardy stated that he plans to attend some of the St. Louis astronomy club meetings. It would be helpful in letting them know about our Star Party.

Astronomy Day
Astronomy Day was discussed. Last year was successful, resulting in award from the Astronomical Society for doing most for a small group. Please share any ideas you have for this year’s Astronomy Day, your input is welcomed. Tony Hopp look into possibility of having Astronomy Day at the mall again.

Web Site
Tony Hopp gave a brief overview about the new AstroImage database at the club’s web site, www.sas-sky.org. He described how it works, how to view the images and upload the images. Any club member who have account and password can upload their images to the AstroImage database.

Glenn Cunningham, the club’s webmaster, gave an excellent overview of the changes that he likes to implement for the club web site. Glenn did an excellent job on the main web page. He also create an SAS logo on the web page which is similar to our Star Party logo. A motion was made, seconded, and passed to have the logo as the official SAS logo. Luis Perez indicated that he will set up a newsgroup on Yahoo so that anyone who is not a club member can ask question about our Star Party.

Workshop
Astrophotography workshop will be held on March 1st, 2003 at Don Jardine’s place. This is for any club members who are interested or curious about astrophotography. You can bring photography equipments to get the most out of this workshop. The directions to Don Jardine’s house will be given out in the email to the club members. Have fun!

ByLaws
The revised club ByLaws was presented by Ray Watt. The ByLaws were based on a Kansas City astronomy club and was revised to meet our club’s needs. Several days prior to the meeting, he emailed the proposal to the club members. Minor changes and corrections were made based on members’ inputs. Ray Watt did an outstanding job on the ByLaws and the new membership form. A motion was presented by Larry Hardy to adopt the bylaws. It was seconded by Don Walker. The motion was passed. The new ByLaws and the new membership form will be posted on the web site.

Messier Marathon
Mike Robertson reported that the boy scouts were invited and they will come out to camp near the East Shelter at the group camp site. There will be at least 15 scouts out there. At least 6 of the club members indicated that they will participated in the marathon. The Chicago astronomy group members were invited to participate and some of them may come.

If anyone is bringing side dishes, please let Mike Robertson know so he can coordinate. Any SAS club member can participate and the food will be provided each night. The food is $5 per night.

There are also Messier marathon materials that would be helpful and they are usually available on the web. Mike Robertson ordered some Messier Marathon materials from the Astronomical League. The messier logs with a checkbox will be available at the marathon or you can bring your own. There is a possibility of having a board which would indicate what was observed.

Sketching the Lunar Landscape
This program is presented by Larry Hardy. He discussed some of the lunar features and craters. There are so many of them on the moon. Larry Hardy discribed drawing techniques and handed out blank papers and #2 pencils for the club members to participate. It is best to start out using simple objects so you can get more experience. Lightly shade the paper first and then you can use the eraser to make some craters. Use a combination of shading and erasing for your drawings. Club members made drawing based on a picture show on the overhead projector. Deep sky objects can be drawn in a similar manner. Type of paper matters and the more you sketch, the more you can see.

Next Meeting
There will be a demo of the Jim Rosenthal’s new10" LX-200 goto telescope. Larry Hardy will bring a camera which will allow club members see the view on TV inside the building.

The meeting was adjourned around 9:00pm