John Salini
10July 2010
Combined Societies Meeting
The Combined Societies Meeting was successfully held with almost 50 people in attendance. Two Discovery Awards were presented; Brendan Downs' (BAS) for his second supernova discovery and Peter Marples for his third supernova discovery. The Achievement Award was presented to Colin Drescher for his involvement with some of these recent discoveries and his long-term contribution to astronomy. The presentations were preceded by brief talks from each society; the AAQ provided the most entertaining talk by Alison Beck.
The July DSO will be held at the OATS site, Harrisville (see website for directions) on Saturday night, 10th July; call Jonathan Bradshaw or Allan Cooney if the weather is doubtful.
OGM & BFN, 17th July 2010
The July OGM will be held in Room 222 in the Parnell Building, St Lucia campus, UQ. The Main Item will be a talk by Peter Anderson on Time and Longitude. The recent partial lunar eclipse (26th June) provided a photo opportunity for our members and some of these images will be shown during the meeting.
The BFN observing session will be held after the meeting, weather permitting; a variety of telescopes will be available for viewing. If the sky is clear and there is a good chance of observing, I shall ensure the OGM is completed in time to allow for an orderly setup of equipment at the observing site. Do not hesitate to bring a portable telescope or binoculars if you have them; the plan is to set up telescopes in a park (BCC lists it as Munro St Park) bordered by Coleridge St and Carmody Rd adjacent to the campus. During the meeting, Tony Dutton will provide a summary of observing targets; experienced and inexperienced members & guests will be catered for. The June BFN again proved very popular with 16 people gathered at the observing site in Munro St Park. This is an encouraging turnout for two consecutive months now, and we hope sky conditions are equally friendly this month.
Members who want the AAQ logo stitched on their favourite clothing, please remember to bring their shirts, vests, etc, to the April OGM and arrangements will be made for application of the new AAQ logo.
After the OGM (and before the BFN observing session), there is free tea, coffee and biscuits in the tea room behind Lecture Room 222; the library will be available at the same time.
Parking is free on Saturday afternoon/evening, but please avoid using specific sites that require a permit; see the campus map on the website for suggested parking sites
Astrofest 2010
Please remember that the annual astrofest camp starts on 6th August and ends on 15th August. Peter Bester is our representative on the astrofest committee, but Diane Hughes has kindly offered to provide information for anybody needing help in making bookings for the event. She will present a short powerpoint slide show on behalf of Peter Bester, who will be overseas at the time. You can find most of the information you need online at http://www.qldastrofest.org.au/
Membership
Thank you to those members who have recently renewed their membership. Geoff Biggs will provide more details at the OGM, and will introduce any new members.
New members are particularly welcome at the BFNs after the meetings as it is a good opportunity to learn about the features on the moon and to be able to look through a variety of telescopes.
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