The meeting was called to order at 7:05PM. The meeting was held at Witmer 116.
Dr. Young started the meeting with information on the new key holder policy - Dr. Paul Hardersen sent out a letter to the current key holders stating that the locks at the observatory will be changed by May 31st. By doing this, it will heighten security at the observatory and will provide a record of who is out there and when. If club members want to use the observatory after this date, then they will have to ask Paul to check out a key.
Milly suggested that we should refocus our effort on our observatory rather than Space Studies observatory. The Jaycees support this idea since we have outreach, education, and star parties.
The Geography department in 1974 had an observatory with a 16-inch telescope. The telescope rusted leaving only the mirrors and was disbanded in 1984. Then professor Chuck Wood sent three students to the Space Studies department to see if they want the mirrors to this telescope. Space Studies couldn't use the mirrors because they didn't have a mount or a body for them. Then Chuck Wood decided to donate the mirrors to the club for outreach projects. First, we need to get the mirror from storage and then we need to find a site, tube, and mount. This would be a great club project and when we are finished we can have a club observatory.
The Venus transit is June 8, 2004. The last one occurred on December 6th, 1882 - no one alive today has seen one. Dr. Young, Vishnu Kanupuru, Dr. Ronald Marsh, and Dr. Tim Lawlor are going to New Delhi India for the 2004 Venus transit (V2K4). They are going to collect and transmit data in various phases. PHASE I: Collect data, multimedia, live webcast from India's GSFC webpage, and a live link to UND. They're also going to collect data for SOHO where people could print out information and figure out parallax. Time and position will need to be recorded accurately during this phase. PHASE II: Use super-resolution to determine the methods of observing extra-solar planets and the Venetian atmosphere. PHASE III: Disseminate data – real data lab for students, develop UND archive, and become part of the virtual observatory.
Their equipment: ToUcam - best for astronomy, 8" telescope, 5 research telescopes, 2 backup telescopes, luminosity masks - for extra-solar planet techniques (get radius, density, ect….).
Outreach will include: data archive, Chica project, TOAST, V2K4 data stream, super resolution, H-alpha movies, virtual observatory for our images. It will start June 7th between 10 and 11 PM and will be on the NASA website: http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/sunearthday/2004/index/vthome.htm Also check out: http://www.exporatorium.edu/webcasts
Sky And Telescope had an article entitled, "1882: Transit of Venus Revisited" - in the U.S. Naval observatory's archive, they discovered photographic plates of the last transit that occurred on December 6, 1882.
Vishnu discussed Research v.s. Recreational Astronomy.
The Fargo Astronomy club invited us to the MSU Moorhead planetarium after their meeting on May 11th. The meeting starts at 7:30PM and if it's clear after the meeting, a group of people will be going to the Moorhead telescope at the observatory at Buffalo State Park to observe. If you're interested in going the carpool will meet at 5:45PM.
NORTH DAKOTA STAR PARTY and OTHER RELATED NEWS: -The North Dakota Star Party Website is finished. It is: http://www.und.edu/org/nsas/ndsp04/index.html -The Moorhead club donated $100 again -Dean purchased a club laser pointer from ebay for $71 -food purchasing – the club will pay for food and then each member will reimburse the club fund by dividing up the total cost. We need to buy food for ~25 people.
Dean brought up the need for solar glasses- It was voted on and we would order 100 at 75 cents/piece from Rainbow Symphony
Charlie showed us images of comet Bradfield. It has a 10 degree tail and it can be seen from about 4:15 to 5 am.
Memorial day weekend we are invited to Casselton, ND (near Fargo) for a star party
The meeting was adjourned at 9:33 pm.