Minutes of the monthly meeting of Sangamon Astronomical Society held March 18, 2004 at 7:00 PM at the Morgan Stanley office on 3731 W. Wabash Avenue, Springfield, IL.

The members of the Board of Directors are:

Larry Hardy
Mike Robertson
Ray Watt
Fred Pilcher
Glenn Cunningham

Updates

Treasury Report:    The Treasure made note that several members have still not payed there dues.

Planning and Grants:    no report

Observing Program:   Messier Marathon starts tomorrow. Log books can be found on the web site.

Public and Private Events: Messier Marathon start tomorrow. Just bring $5 to the site for camping. Food is all pot luck so please bring something. Astronomy Day is Sat. April 24th. Centennial Park in Springfield is reserved for this event, which is open to the public. Club members are urged to be at the site by 3pm to setup. The public is welcome starting at 3:30pm. There will be stations set up to teach the public the basics of setting up a telescope as well as solor viewing early on and evening viewing after dark. The Lions club and Boy Scouts will be on hand with food and refreshments. This will be a great event so please come out!

Star Party:   Ray Watt is trying to get speakers lined up for the event. Also a menu has been given to the club by the Lions Club who will be providing the food for the event. The menu can be found on the Star Party web site.

There was a motion brought forth by Larry Hardy to pay a bill for postage for the mass mailing of Star Party materials. The motion was seconded.

Glenn Cunningham continued the new SAS Trivia 50/50 Split. Six Members offered up a dollar to try an answer the question "If you were looking due west, what would your azimuth be? ". Jim Rosenthal was the only person to get it right and earned himself $3, and so 3 dollars were donated to the club.

Glenn Cunningham also announced that the club now has an Online Membership Application system in place on the web site and has already produced one new member.

Comments were made to correct a previous thought that the NEAR and LINEAR comets would be visable in April when in fact that we not be visable till late May.

The next meeting will be held at Don's house on April 15th so bring your scopes!!!!

Presentation

Dr. Fred Pilcher did a great presentation on how to be successfull at a Messier Marathon. Fred handed out logs showing members the best sequence in which to find the objects.

The meeting was adjourned at 9pm.