All -
Coming out of our planning committee meeting last week, here are some
suggestions from the membership, from emails and from me. These are
ones that we felt were worth further discussion with the membership.

1. Quarterly, in place of the normal meeting programs, do a seasonal
sky observing program. It could be in the planetarium or as a
powerpoint - or some combination thereof. This would be similar to the
old "Seasonal Starfest" programs we did. They would emphasize observing
- finding constellations, named stars, bright/important deep sky
objects, guide lines for finding things, other things going on -
planetary, meteors, asteroids crashing into Earth etc. This would end
up being a 30-45 minute program. It could be followed by a planetarium
review after the meeting, or whatever makes sense.

2. Have a series of "For Beginners" programs emphasizing the nuts and
bolts of observing - techniques, equipment, jargon, etc. There was
discussion about when to do this - before meetings, after meetings,
during meetings. All have advantages and drawbacks.

3. Offer a college-level "intro to astronomy" course. (this is minimal
math, mostly conceptual - similar to what I taught at MUC & Walsh). If
I did this, I would probably offer it at the McKinley
Museum/Hoover-Price Planetarium, and open it up to the public as well as
club members. We'd hold "lab" sessions at TWC. No actual credit would
be given through any institution. We could make it text-book optional -
there are a lot of Internet resources available for free. We'd have to
agree on a time - Saturday mornings or some evening - probably for about
15 weeks. There would be a fee for this - determined by the Museum.

4. Day trips - again, the idea of day trips came up. There was some
suggestion of family-friendly camping - but you'd have to find someone
to lead this, because there is no such thing as Gill-friendly
camping.... I'm open to suggestions, but we need someone to step up for
this one. Other trips like NASA, Natural History Museum/Planetarium,
Carnegie Sci Center/Planetarium could also be done. Need suggestions
and input.

5. Social events - we used to do a summer star-b-q and a Christmas
party, but these kind of folded. We could resume them, but someone
would need to take the lead. The new shelters at TWC would be nice for
a picnic.

6. Observatory equipment training - Hands-on training for the Keller,
Resetar, Giust, H-alpha, and new video Stellarcam. Would be coordinated
through Brian Gray, John and Bill. All this equipment is working pretty
well, and is at the disposal of the members. In particular, the Keller
has benefited greatly from the recent upgrades (wide-field finder, 2"
focuser, and low power eyepiece). The thermal problems still keep us
from pushing the power, but it does give 16" of aperture and the 65mm
eyepiece yields about 70x with about a 6mm exit pupil.

7. Planetarium training - Dave Ross

8. List of recommended books and short reviews - aimed at beginners.
Could be on the web site, or on this Yahoo group file section - or both.
 

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