Upcoming main items to look forward to at our monthly meetings will be June 22: David Moriarty “Searching for exoplanets” and July 20: Peter Anderson “The life of Patrick Moore”.

The May 12 Deep Sky Observing (DSO) was scheduled for the Hazeldean site. AAQ will be there at the invitation of BAS and SEQAS who have a regular booking each month. This location has overnight accommodation and toilets and showers (making a late nights observing that much more comfortable) and a per person charge of $15. The June and July DSOs will also be at Hazeldean. Having these DSO’s at Hazeldean will give members the opportunity to assess the suitability of the facility.  The Technical Secretary, Alison Beck, is the coordinator for the events and any notice of cancellation due weather will be put on the AAQ website and the AAQ Facebook page.

On May 10 several AAQ members observed the annular solar eclipse (the smaller Moon being caused by the Moon being only 3 days from apogee). I was located on the Great Northern Highway south of the mining community of Newman in Western Australia. The Sun rose as two spectacular “horns” and I watched as the horns joined to form an annulus two minutes after sunrise, the sight being made all the more dramatic by layers of horizon cloud. Congratulations to AAQ members who travelled to Western Australia (south of Newman) and Northern Territory (north of Tennant Creek) who all appeared to have successfully observed the eclipse.

Special congratulations to Joe Cali who went to considerable lengths to record a spectacular eclipse sequence at the southern edge (see Joe’s web site). There should be a collection of images on show at the next Ordinary General Meeting (OGM).

There were problem experienced with the AAQ website near the end of April. The website was subject to a malicious attack and much of the data on the website was deleted. Thanks to Des Janke for maintaining backups and to David O’Driscoll for using the backups to restore the website to proper operation.

The process to have the AAQ library available in the UQ Parnell Building is proceeding. This will mean that members can peruse the libraries contents after OGM’s. It will also mean that Graeme Jenkinson as librarian will not have to bring books into meetings. Those unable to attend meetings will continue to be able to have books sent to them. As in previous years Graeme is purchasing new books to keep the library up to date.

We have been advised by NACAA Inc that DVD’s of the presentations made and photos taken at NACAA 2012 in Brisbane last year are now being sent out to attendees. The DVD is available for purchase to those who did not attend. A DVD of the video taken of presentations is also available for purchase.

As advised last month, a survey has been sent out to all members to gauge the interest of members for video recording of meetings. If you have not completed the survey a response would be appreciated prior to the next OGM. Please contact John Salini if you need another copy of the survey.

Terry Cuttle