Richastro
Richmond Astronomical Society
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    Speaker

    Next meeting

    The next meeting will be held at 7:30 PM on Tuesday, March 9 at the Science Museum of Virginia.

    Betty Wilson will presenting this month on the many astronomical sights to see and things to do throughout the year and John Raymond will reviewing the Winter Star Party in Florida.  Please join us for the meeting and for a pre-meeting dinner at Arby’s across the street from the museum.

Events

Observatory Open House

John Barnett will be hosting an open house at the RAS Ragland Observatory on January 24th, starting at 6:00 PM.  The moon will be visible early in the evening on the 24th and for those that stay until 9:00 PM that night, Mars will clear the eastern tree line and treat us to a view of the planet with a disk 14.1 arc-seconds in diameter.  Watch the Richastro Yahoo Group or check back at this site for weather updates on the day of the event.

A deal on the Ottewell Calendar?

If you ‘re not familiar with the Ottewell Calendar, this may be a good way to get introduced to it. For those who are not faimiliar with this treasure, it’s a large (11 x 15 inches) paperbook compilation of information about sky events for the coming year.

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Observatory Open House

The December monthly open house at the Ragland Observatory is scheduled for December 26, starting at 6pm.  The moon will be ten days old, which will highlight the crater Clavius and Jura Mountains.  A last look at Jupiter may be possible early.  This would be a good time to set up new Christmas and Hannukah telescopes on the grounds!  I will send an email (on the Richastro Yahoo list) early on the 26th day confirming to go ahead or cancel the event, depending on the cloud prospects.
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John Barnett

Leonid Meteor Shower 2009

The year’s show should be exceptional, at 30 to 300 per hour. Look between 2 and 4 am (Tues. morning).

Observatory Open House

John Barnett will be hosting an open house at the Ragland Observatory on November 22 at 6:00 PM weather permitting.

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Road trip–Hands On Optics

The store

Every year, Hands On Optics, hosts The Eastern Astronomy Show. Several RAS members, like myself, John Raymond, and Bill Jeffries, have gone in the past and liked it, so John organized a road trip for the 2009 event (Saturday, Oct. 31). Joining John and me, were Bill Jeffries, Dave Walton, Tim Streagle, and Jim Langley.
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Woodlake Skywatch

Thanks to everyone who came out for the skywatch at Woodlake.  It was one of those events where the weather made it a tough call whether to have the skywatch.  Reports at the site indicated clearing and there was some clear sky to the west, so it made sense to go ahead with the event.
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Clouds prevailed, however, but thanks very much to John Raymond and Terry Barker for bringing their telescopes.  Hopefully we will have better weather next time.  Please watch the calendar and website for updates.

OBSERVATORY OPEN HOUSE AND CLASS CANCELED TODAY (Oct. 24)

Clouds, wind and rain are forecast for today, so we’ll try again next quarter moon period for an Open house at the observatory. Tentatively the Open House is rescheduled for Sunday, Nov. 22nd at 6pm.  The staff class is canceled as well, and I’ll be in touch with those signed on for it.
John Barnett

Meetings

January 2010 Meeting Minutes

Richmond Astronomical Society
724th Consecutive Meeting
January 12, 2010
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Jim Browder called our meeting to order, in the IMAX Planetarium.

Greeting & Announcements – approximately 43 in attendance at the meeting.
The RAS blog and newsletter have been updated.  There is a link to the blog on the RAS webpage. http://richastro.org/index.php/category/blog/
Share table:
Terry Barker brought a 2010 Guy Ottewell Astronomical Calendar for people to look at.  He stated he bought it for a couple of dollars through a book club.
Chris McCann also brought one, along with a copy of the RASC Oberver’s Handbook
John Barnette had several items of Mars information, related to his presentation later in the meeting.
Ken Wilson brought a get well card for us to sign for Jane Hastings, who took a bad fall over the Holidays.
RAS members can purchase the Ottewell Astronomical Calendar through a special website,  www.Universalworkshop.com/clubs.htm , or call 800-533-5083.�
It claims the sale price of $19.95 expires on December 31, 2009, but still displays it.  Give it a try.  If not, the regular price is $26.95.
Past Events:
Last month’s skywatch was ’snowed’ out.  That doesn’t happen too often around here!!
Individual observing included the viewing of the Orion and Mars.
The 60th Anniversary dinner in December had a good turnout.  There were a few comments about how good the speaker was.  The speaker was Jim Condon from the National Radio Astronomy Observatory.
Upcoming Events:
Annual dues are due and should be given to Jim Blowers.  Membership is $30.  Observatory memberships and magazine subscriptions increase the amount.
Payment can be made by PayPal at http://richastro.org/ras_payments.htm
See observatory report about an open house for January.
John Raymond is planning a skywatch at the Petersburg Battlefield and at the BonAir residence center.  More information will be coming soon and should be on this website and through mass emails. Please let John know if you can help.
January’s skywatch is Friday, January 15.
Astronomical League report (www.astroleague.org):
Due to multiple laptop and screen issues, the planned Web site demo was postponed until after the break. It was then postponed again until the February meeting, due to shortness of time after resolving the laptop connection issues.

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