Minutes of the monthly meeting of Sangamon Astronomical Society held January 15, 2003 at 7:00 PM at the Morgan Stanley office on 3731 W. Wabash Avenue, Springfield, IL.

The following member who are in attendance:
Glenn Cunningham
Larry Hardy
Tony Hopp
Ed McClure
Ed Munyer
Luis Perez
Mike Robertson
Hank Rohs
Jim Rosenthal
Larry Trutter
Don Walker
Gary Woerner
Kerry Wright
Clark Woodruff


The members of the Board of Directors are:
Fred Pilcher, Ray Watt ( Chairman) Mike Robertson, Larry Trutter, and Larry
Hardy

The officers for SAS for the coming year are: President Larry Hardy, Vice
President Mike Robertson, Secretary Larry Trutter ( also Dark Sky Liason),
Clarke Woodruff Treasurer, Assistant Treasurer Luis Perez ( appointed ) and
Ray Watt Legislative Liason ( appointed).

Treasury Report
Clark preseneted the year-end treasury report to the club members. A need for audit committee was discussed and 2 people volunteered - Luis Perez and Kerry Wright. The audit will be helpful for doucmentation purposes such as providing info for federal 501(c)non-profit status.

Club Ojectives
Larry Hardy is asking for input about the the objectives of the club. If one objective of the club is to get a dome for site m, then there is a need to need to have a commitment from the State of Illinois and club members to maintain the observatory. One question is should the club be getting telescope for the dome or just buy equipments for the club's use? An issue of where to store the equipment was raised.

Other ojectives would be to do more observing time. When weather permits, club members could go to Don's house to observe. Also have workshops such as Christmas telescopes. This workshop is open to the public. Basically, club members provide advice on setting up and using the telescope.

Other workshops could include 35mm or digital astrophotography. Larry Hardy got the Nikon Coolpic camera and would like to show how to use the camera. Hopefully, the dates would be picked out by next month to plan observing and workshop for 2003.

Star Party
Larry hardy never heard from the chicago folks regarding the joint star party idea. Larry Hardy made reservation with the State for all of the cabins and the group sites from Sept. 25th to 28th. The primitive camp area is not reservable but is open to others. It is possible to increase accomodation to 600-1000 people if needed.

Messier Marathon
The member discussed, in details, choosing a date for the marathon and reserving cabin or group site. The pros and cons were debated between the two options. There is electric heater to put into cabins, some members may want to practice hunting objects on March 1st and participate in the marathon on the 29th. Last year there were 18 people, 8 scopes used and a binocular with tripod used. A motion was made by Don Walker to rent to group site for Fri. and Sat nite on the March 29th weekend and was seconded by Luis Perez. It was passed by voice vote. A motion was made by Don Walker to have $5 a night for food and the club to pay for the pavillion and group camp. It was seconded by Luis Perez and passed by voice vote.

Luis has a software related to the Messier Marathon available. Please contact him if you need one.

Misc.
A request was made by Springfield College to provide them assistance with telescope use.

Larry Hardy appoints Glenn Cunningham as webmaster for the club web site. Larry Trutter provided him with the information on the web site.

Larry Hardy passed out handouts concerning a list of observable comets, a National Dark Sky Week, and Sky & Telescopes' latest news. A new club member officially joined the club.

Luis Perez is working on the federal non-profit status paperwork. He requested copies of any supporting documents to indicate that the club is in existence for a long time. The more document he can get, the more smoother the application process will be. It needs to be done soon or the club will have to pay income taxes for that year.

Treasurer Clark reported some outstanding bills that haven't been paid due to a lack of quorum. The lack of a quorum has been a problem for several meetings. After a discussion, a motion was presented by Don Walker to have unanimous approval by club members present to pay the bills. It was seconded by several club members. The motion was passed unanimously. The bylaws needs to be revised to make it easier for the Treasurer to pay the bills.

The next meeting is February 20th -> topic is "Sketching" by Larry Hardy.

Don Walker's presentation on "goto" scope. When you first get a new telescope, learn how to use it at home before going out to the field. It will make things easier -less confusion out in the field. Don demonstrated a step-by-step process of setting up the scope to give an idea how hard or easy it is to set up a telescope. He got a big craftsman box for $50 to keep his tools and equipment in there. There is an LXD-55 group on the Yahoo mailing list group. Don showed how to set up the equatorial mount and where to point it. He also showed how to set up the counterweight. When selecting counterweight, take the eyepiece into account. Vibration pads were found to be useful. The foam also cuts on vibration. The telescope is LXD55 EMC 1200 f/8 6 inch refractor. There were a lot of discussion about the optics/magnification/focal lenth which many club members participated in.

Larry Hardy mentioned that Joe Mayer invited the club to participate in a research project to monitor a type of object. Larry Hardy will get more information about this project.

The meeting was adjourned at 9pm.