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Past Meetings

March Meeting - "Basics of Astrophotography."  by Phil Hoyle.

February Meeting - The program was member show & tell.  There was one participant.  John Waechter brought his new, recently acquired, mount to show. It was a short program. Thanks to Gene Rickenbrode for bringing refreshments

January Meeting - Thanks to Bill Castro for presenting the AAVSO program "Introduction to visual & CCD Observing of Variable Stars". Thanks to Bill Castro for providing refreshments. The links below are to more information on variable stars.

November Meeting - Thanks to John Waechter for recording "Seeing in the Dark, PBS, Timothy Ferris" that was shown at the meeting. An excellent video on amateur astronomy. Thanks to Brian Gray for providing refreshments, October Meeting - Fifteen members visited the Mount Union campus to hear Dr. Steve Cederbloom give a talk about variable stars in globular clusters.  Many thanks to Dr. Cederbloom for his time and effort.

September Meeting - Dave Gill showed the video "Cosmic Collisions" and Bill Castro gave a short talk on the Very Large Array. www. http://www.vla.nrao.edu/ Thanks to Dave and Robin Gill for providing refreshments.

August Meeting - Ken Schneller gave a talk on observing Mars with lots of tips and suggestions on how to get the most out of the upcoming opposition. Check out Ken's file folder on the Club's Yahoo Group for additional information. Thanks to Nancy Castro for providing the homemade cheesecake and thanks to Bill for bringing them!

July Meeting - Club members gave short programs on books and other astronomy related topics. Thanks to all who participated and thanks to Rick and Norma Breehl for providing refreshments.

June Meeting - Friday June 8th. The program topic was: Favorite Off-ramps on the Information Superhighway. Club members shared favorite astronomy-related spots with the rest of the club via internet connected PC in the meeting room. Sites included technical/reference sites, social sites, NASA sites, a blog and podcast sites. Thanks to Dave Gill for gethering and presenting the information. Thanks to Bill Castro for providing refreshments. The link below is to the sites listed at the meeting. Use your browser's back button to return to this page.

  • Favorite Off-ramps on the Information Superhighway
    • May Meeting - John Weiss gave a program on Double Stars. Thanks to Gene Rickenbrode for providing refreshments.

    Field Trip - The April meeting was canceled. Sixteen club members and family attended the YSU planetarium show on April 21.  The presenter gave a nice show and summarized the history of the planetarium.  Afterwards, the club was treated to a demonstration of the Chronos projector and other related equipment.

    March Meeting - The March meeting program was by Dave Gill, " The Art and Science of Saturn". It had  NASA Cassini-Huygens Saturn mission updates from JPL Solar System Ambassadors group and presented by Dave Gill. Thanks to Jeff Brest and Ken Craddock for providing refreshments.

    February meeting - We had 2 short programs. The first was "The Night Sky Observers Guide" by Phil Hoyle, Phil reviewed how to use these manuals that we have in the observatory. the second program was "Messier Marathon" by John Waechter. John discussed some history of the marathon as well as how to do it. Thanks to Rick and Norma Breehl for providing refreshments.

    January 07 meeting - Thanks to Dave Gill for presenting his program on Comet McNaught. The skies were clear again. With the moon just past 1st quarter it was a night to observe clusters. Nebula and galaxies were ok if they were not interfered by moon glow. Both Saturn and the Moon  were bubbling due to the unsteady atmosphere. Daves' links to McNight are below: November 06 meeting - Thanks to Brian Gray for presenting the Night Sky training material for the new tool kit titled "Shadows and Silhouettes". Thanks to Rick and Norma Breehl for providing refreshments. If you weren't there you should have been. The skies were clear so we had an informal 10 minute business meeting and then spent the rest of the night in the observatory. Good observing was had by all. Remember Public Viewing Night is Friday December 1st.

    October 06 meeting at Mount Union College, "Magellanic Clouds" by Dr. Peter Lucke.
    As is our annual custom, for our October 27 meeting, the WCAC will visit Mount Union
    College in Alliance. Our host will be Dr. Peter Lucke, Professor of Physics and Astronomy.
    Peter will talk to us about the Magellanic Clouds - the nearby irregular companion galaxies to the
    Milky Way. Dr. Lucke worked with Dr. Paul Hodge on cataloging stellar associations in the
    Large Magellanic Cloud, so he is very familiar with these southern hemisphere neighbors. The
    meeting will start at 7:30 PM in the lower level lecture hall in Bracy Hall. Mount Union is located near the intersection of US 62 and OH 183. The attached map shows parking, which is readily available adjacent to the Mount Union Theater and on the east side of Union Ave.

    September 06 meeting - The program was "Deep Impact Probe" by Matt Hawrysko. Thanks to Bill Castro for providing refreshments.

    August 06meeting - The program was "Air Pollution, Light Pollution and Observing" by Phil Creed. Thanks to Brian Gray for providing refreshments.

    July 06 Meeting - The program was "Some Lunar Observing Topics" by Ken Schneller.

    June 06 Meeting - The program was "How To Make An Observing List" Coordinated by Dave Gill and given by various members was a great sucess. Thanks to Fred Grosse, John Waechter, Bill Castro, Phil Hoyle, Dave Gill, Ken Schneller and others for contributing. Thanks to Fred Grosse for providing refreshments.

    May 06 Meeting - Program: Extinction of Experience, or How to Create a Conservationist, by Gordon Maupin, Executive Director, The Wilderness Center. Naturalists such as Robert Michael Pyle have written about the current young generation’s lack of experience with nature and the consequences of that deficit. Watching videos and reading books about nature are not the same. It takes direct, frequent contacts with nature to create a nature lover. Parents no longer tell their children to “go out and play, and don’t come home until dark!” The result is fewer children feeling an attachment for nature and therefore will not become environmentalists. Gordon Maupin discussed this phenomenon and what TWC is doing to combat it. Thanks to Rick and Norma Breehl for providing refreshments.

    April 06 Meeting - The program: "Deep Impact Probe" by Matt Hawrysko was canceled due to nice weather and having our meeting in the Astronomy Education Building. We had refreshments and observed under clear skies. Observing highlights included Comet SW3-B and C, Saturn, Jupiter and all the other usual suspects of the night sky. Thanks to Matt Hawrysko for providing refreshments and agreeing to postpone his program to a later date.

    March 06 Meeting - The March meeting program was "Goldilocks and the 3 Planets"  by Dave Gill. Thanks to Robin and Dave Gill for providing refreshments.

    February 06 Meeting - The February meeting program was :Telescopes: Eyes on the Universe", presented by John Waechter, with material from the Night Sky Network. John reviewed the activities and a power point presentation that discussed how telescopes have helped us understand the universe.  There are many activities suitable for classroom and public viewing night demonstrations. See John Waechter, Bill Castro or Brian Gray if you would like to borrow some for your group. We will be using the power point presentation in the planetarium shows. Thanks to Jeff Brest and Ken Craddock for providing refreshments.

    January 06 Meeting - We had 4 short programs for this evening. Thanks to Carl and Jordan Fritter for providing refreshements. The programs were:

    November 05 Meeting- We had 2 short programs for the evening. Gordons program will be rescheduled for early  2006. Thanks to Brian Gray for providing refreshmements. The two programs were: October 05 Meeting - 7:30pm @ Mount Union College, Bracy Hall, Lower Level, The program was "Globular Star Clusters" by Dr. Steve Cederbloom. He again did a talk that folks of all levels could walk away from with new knowledge.  And special thanks to Kristen Thomas, one of the Physics majors at MUC and a couple others who opened up the observatory for observing afterward. Thanks again to Roy Preece for providing refreshments. September 05 Meeting - NASA Glenn Speaker - Thanks to Scott Benson who give us a talk about Saturn and the Cassini mission. The date is Friday, September 30th at 7:30pm. Afterward we went to the observatory where the new video transmiter/receiver was used to display a live feed from the Resetar telescope to the planetarium PC projector. See pics below.
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    Clockwise from upper left: M15, M31/M32, M57 close and M57 with group.

    August 05 Meeting - Thanks to Ken Schneller for his program on Observing Mars. Thanks to Phil Hubek for providing refreshments.

    July 05 Meeting - Thanks to Dave Gill  for his program on How To Build A Solar System..  Thanks to Bill Castro for providing refreshments.

    June 05 Meeting - Thanks to Dave Ross for his program on Deep Impact.  Thanks to Barb Vaughn for providing refreshments.

    May 05 Meeting - Thanks to Mike Rosetti for his program titled "The Life, Discoveries and Catalogue of Charles Messier. Bill Castro and John Waechter presented the training video and materials for the Night Sky Network Our Galaxy Our Universe tool kit. Thanks to Fred Jarka for providing refreshments.

    April 05 Meeting - The April meeting was held in the planetarium The program was titled "There is Big Bend and There's Everywhere Else" by Phil and Phill. They shared their Texas star watch vacation pictures and stories of extremely dark skies. Thanks to Dave and Robin Gill for providing refreshments.

    March 05 Meeting - Thanks to Gene Rickenbrode for providing the video about the early Dutch mechanical planetarium. Thanks to Ken Craddock and Jeff Brest for providing refreshments.

    February 05 meeting - Thanks to Dave Gill for the program "Planetary Nebula". Thanks to Gene Rickenbrode for providing refreshments.

    January  05 meeting - Thanks to John Waechter who gave a talk about  "The Night Sky Network" and introduced this new program to the club. More information can be found at:
     


    click here to go to the Night Sky Network page.

    Information and material is provided and sponsored by NASA-JPL and the Astronomical Society of the Pacific.

    November 04 meeting - Thanks to Dave Ross who gave a talk titled "Meteor Dating". Thanks to Rick and Norma Breehl for providing refreshments.

    October 04 meeting - Thanks to Dr. Peter Lucke, of Mount Union College, who gave a talk titled "It's About Time". Thanks to Roy Preece for providing refreshments.

    September 04 Meeting - Thanks to Mike Unsold who gave a talk and demonstration titled "Digital Image Processing with ImagesPlus". Thanks to Fred Grosse for providing refreshments. More information about ImagesPlus can be found at:

    http://www.mlunsold.com/ - ImagesPlus Version 2.00
    August 04 Meeting - The meeting was about Meteorites by Joann Ballbach and Dave Ross. It was great to see Joann again. Thanks to John Waechter for providing refreshments at the last minute. Here is the link to the Solar System Simulator Studio that was used in the program.
    http://www.sssim.com/en/product/studio/download.html - Solar System Simulator
    July 04 Meeting - The meeting was held in the Astronomy Education Building. The program was "Show and Tell" followed by a swap meet. The show & tell portion consisted of Dave Gill, Norm Lowe and John Waechter. Thanks to Barb Vaughn who brought great snacks.

    June 04 Meeting - The program was "Astro-photography Techniques". Thanks to Bill Castro, Dave Gill, John Waechter, Phil Hoyle and Paul Piotrowski for bringing in equipment to see how this is done. Thanks to Brian Gray for providing refreshments.

    Dr. H. John Wood Spoke at TWC on Wednesday, May 5 - 2004
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    We had an opportunity to host a special event at TWC with Dr. H. John Wood, a NASA engineer.  Since 1990 Dr. Wood has been the lead optical engineer on the Hubble Space Telescope project at NASA Goddard.

    Dr. Wood  was visiting northeast Ohio to participate in Space Day events at The National Inventors Hall of Fame in Akron. We learned that Dr. Wood, who is also an astronomer, was free on Wednesday evening, so we took the opportunity to invite him to visit the astronomy facility at The Wilderness Center.  He showed a few recent slides on Mars updates, his main talk was titled "Accelerating Universe". Afterwards the skies were somewhat clear for planetary observing.

  • Hubble Space Telescope and the Accelerating Universe - Abstract for the lecture. (Use your browser back button to return)
  • Brief Biography - for Dr. Wood. (Use your browser back button to return)
    • May 04 Meeting - The program was "Venus Transit" by Robin Gill. Thanks to Gene Rickenbrode for providing refreshments.

    April 04 Meeting - The April meeting featured "Satellites of the Solar System" by Br. Albert Heinrich. It was an excellent talk about the over 100 satellites of the different planets. Thanks to Rick and Norma Breehl for providing refreshments.

    March 04 Meeting - The March meeting featured "Phil and Phil's Excellent Adventure" by Phil Hoyle and Phil Creed. It was an excellent talk and presentation about their observing trip out to Arizona. Thanks to Jim Quinn for providing refreshments.

    February 04 Meeting - The February meeting featured Jim Quinn's program: Cosmic Kodak Moments - Mars in 3D. Thanks to Robin & Dave Gill for providing refreshments. Here is some more info from Jim:

    For those of you who didn’t get enough of the 3D photography seen at the club meeting Feb. 27, here’s how to get more.

    The personal website of Japanese astrophotographers Akira Inaka features dozens of his unique 3D images.   Don’t worry if you don’t have any 3D glasses.   His work is also displayed in side-by-side images you can view just by crossing your eyes slightly. <http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~aq6a-ink/indexusa.htm>

    The collection of 3D photos taken by the Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity continues to grow at the special site maintained by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.  There’s a huge amount of information available on this site, including lots of cool animation and the complete collection of every raw image by both rovers. <http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/3d/>

    Finally, you can find something a little different at the European Space Agency’s site for Mars Express.   We didn’t talk about this spacecraft at the meeting, but it is equipped with a unique camera that can produce spectacular high resolution images 3D images of Mars, including the photo below.   Check out the animation; it’s like flying low over the Martian landscape. <http://www.esrin.esa.it/SPECIALS/Mars_Express/>

    January 04 Meeting - The January meeting featured Ken Schneller speaking on "Seeing, Resolution and Observing Tips". Remember, when we get that high pressure system in from over Lake Erie don't be afraid to use higher power than conventional wisdom would indicate. Or as Phil Creed sez "smoke's if you got them!" Thanks to Carl Fritter for providing refreshments.

    November 03 Meeting - (click on image to enlarge it, close new window to return.)
    Mars image by Tom Dobbins.Saturn image by Tom Dobbins
    The November meeting featured Guest Speaker Tom Dobbins (Contributing Editor for Sky and Telescope Magazine). He gave an excellent talk about "Adventures in Webcamming". The above two images are examples of his work with a ToUcam, C14 and Registax. The instruction sheets that Tom used during his talk are linked below. Thanks again Tom. Thanks also to John Waechter and Bill Castro for providing refreshments.

    Back to WCAC Home Page
    | Current Stories/News | Past Meetings | Past Special Events | Past Horizon Newsletters |
    | About Us | Keller Telescope | Planetarium | Officers | AEB Calendar |
    | Event Horizon | Online Horizon | What's Up? | Research | SIG |
    | Photo Gallery | Links | Tutorials | Glossary | Pronunciation Guide |
    | The Wilderness Center Store | Membership Application |
    Last updated March 14, 2008 by Bill Castro and Brian Gray