Minutes of the monthly meeting of Sangamon Astronomical Society held June 17th, 2004 at 7:00 PM at Don Jardine's Observatory.

The members of the Board of Directors are:

Larry Hardy
Mike Robertson
Ray Watt
Fred Pilcher
Glenn Cunningham

Updates

The Astronomical League will increase its dues starting July 1st. It is a $2 increase. A motion was brought to the floor to raise SAS's annual dues from $15 to $17 to absorb this increase. The motion was voted down by the members so the annual dues of the SAS will remain at $15. Benifits of Astronomical League membership are as follows: Reflector Magazine subsciption, club liability insurance, observing clubs, merchandise and educational material.

The SAS also voted for a new President, Vice President and Executive Secretary of the Astronomical League. We voted for Bob Gent as Pres. , Terry Mann as Vice Pres. and Janet Stevens as Exec Secretary.

We Also voted for two proposed changes to the Astronomical League's by-laws. These ballots were mailed to the Astronomical League.

Our Transit Of Venus event went very well. The weather cooperated for this historic event with many people showing up at Centennial Park in the early hours of May 8th. We even had one person join us all the way from Seattle.

Treasury Report:    Motion was put forth to pay a bill for our post office box. It passed. There was another motion put forth to purchase 4 tents for the star party. This motion passed.

Planning and Grants:    No Report

Observing Program:  Darren Hulskotter was the first SAS member to be awarded a SAS Observing Club Award. Darren viewed all the binary stars in the club program and submitted his results to the Astronomical League. Way to go Darren!

Public and Private Events: The next event is Womens Christian Group at camp CILCA on June 23rd. There is also a Cub Scout / SAS Club outing at the Jim Edgar Panther Creek State Park on July 17th. SAS will also be doing a presentation at Camp Courage in Jacksonville on July 19th.

Star Party: 11 people have registred for the star party so far which is not uncommon for this time in the year. We now have three speakers confirmed for the star party with more to come.

The next meeting will be held at Don's house on June 17th so bring your scopes!!!!

Presentation

The presentation tonight was given by Larry Hardy on astrophotography. Members of the SAS were out back using various digital camera's and ccd's.

The meeting was adjourned at 9pm.