NSAS Minutes: January 2004

The meeting was called to order at 7:11PM. The meeting was held at Witmer 116

First Night at the Dakota Science Center had around 800 people visit. Dean and Milly set up telescopes for the event and viewed Saturn and the Moon.

On Wednesday, January 14^th, President Bush is announcing Space Exploration Goals for NASA and will be showing in room Clifford 210 at 2:00PM.

Starting Friday night (16^th) and ending Sunday (18^th), Chris Milford will be setting up a table at the Ramada Inn for the North Dakota Jaycee Convention. He plans to promote the club and hopes to find how much money the club owes them from the steak dinner at the NDSP and presents a check and a thank-you.

January 20-24 DSS will be transmitting NASA TV on channel 3 in Grand Forks.

On the evening of January 24^th, the opportunity rover will be landing on Mars (around 11P.M. CST). There will be a public event held at the Atmospherium in Odegard Hall from 8-Midnight. This event will be hosted by DSS and NSAS. There will be a live NASA feed, Mike Gaffey, and other various activities.

Milly is a Solar System Ambassador (SSA). SSA is an outreach program put on by JPL and has a term of one year. After some training (ethics & policies), he gets to plan four events throughout the year and reports back to JPL. To find more about the program, click on the following link. http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/ambassador/index.html To read about Milly, click on the following http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/ambassador/profiles/Chris_Milford.htm

On February 14^th, The Girl Scouts, DSS, NDRA, and NSAS will be hosting a Girl Scouts event and will be held in Odegard Hall and will be ~3-4 hours.

Dean announced that NSAS won a week in the popcorn lottery. NSAS will be selling popcorn on the first floor of the Memorial Union on the week of April 26-30^th from roughly 10-2. Dean asks for volunteers from the club to work in two-hour shifts.

Mike announces that DSS and Paul Hardersen will be working on a fundraiser for the 1.2 meter telescope during Astronomy week (April 19-25). http://www.astroleague.org/al/astroday/astroday.html

May 21, 2004 is the kickoff for the Second Annual North Dakota Star Party. Milly is asking people to come up with a t-shirt design for the 2004 NDSP. The design should relate to North Dakota and Astronomy.

Allan Treiman, a Senior Staff Scientist at the Lunar Planetary Institute (LPI), NEAR, NASA/JSC in TX. is one of the speakers at the North Dakota Star Party. He is going to talk about the Geology on Mars. He needs a plane ticket to Minneapolis and then he is going to pick up his son from Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota and drive to ND. Milly thinks the club could pay for his gas from Minnesota to Cross Ranch State Park.

There was a VOTE on whether our club should join the Astronomical League. The vote passed and Kayla takes on the role of being the ALCO contact person. The society membership for this year is $10.00 for the club and $3.50 per individual. The benefits would be a 10% discount on Astronomy related books, a newsletter (Reflector), and insurance for events. To find more about the club go to their website at: http://www.astroleague.org/

There was another VOTE for our club to join the Night Sky Network. This network was started by NASA and the Astronomical Society of the Pacific and is sponsored by JPL. It is a national coalition of astronomy clubs that are engaged in outreach events. We will need five outreach events (i.e. NDSP), contacts are Ray Nemoseck and Paul Erickson, and three references who are: Mary Beth-Kelly, Arik Spencer, and Suezette Bieri. The Night Sky Network homepage is: http://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/

In the News: Voyager I reached the terminal shock of the heliopause and is on its way out of the solar system.

At the end of the meeting Milly used us as guinea pigs to test out a mapping activity for children. By using a stick and measuring it off at various locations in a box, the topography inside can be mapped out.

The next club meeting is on February 10, 7PM at the physics building, room 116.

The meeting was adjourned about 9 give or take ½ hour.