Minutes of the monthly meeting of Sangamon Astronomical Society held March 16th, 2006 at 7:00 PM at Morgan Stanley.

The members of the Board of Directors are:

Larry Hardy
Mike Robertson
Ray Watt
Jim Rosenthal
Glenn Cunningham

Updates

SAS made a very important announcement at tonights meeting. It was announced that the club has received a large donation. A 16in Celestron Schmidt Cassegrain telescope and the 10 foot ASH Dome and cylander it sits in has been given to the club by Mr. Bob Lanphier of Springfield Illinois. Preparations are under way to refurbish and move the scope and dome to a new location that is yet to be determined. This is a big project that will take some time to complete but SAS is up to the challange. The SAS would like to thank Bob Lanphier for his overwhelming generousity.

Next months discussion topic: Undecided at this point

Treasury Report:  No Report.

Planning and Grants:  No Report.

Observing Program:  No Report.

Light Pollution Committee: No Report.

Public and Private Events: National Astronomy Day is Saturday May 6th. SAS is currently planning something for this day.

Star Party: Registration for the IDSSP 2006 is now open and 10 people have already registered.

Presentation

Tonights presentation was SAS member Fred Pilcher who gave his annual talk on Messier Marathon. Fred detailed how to best capture all the Messier objects in a single night. Some handy handouts were provided at the meeting.

The meeting was adjourned at 9pm.