Amherst Area Amateur Astronomers Association

MEETING MINUTES

Meeting Date:

I. Call To Order:

Meeting called to order at 8:00 p.m. by President Tom Whitney at the Amherst College observatory.

II. Old Business:

MARILYN WHITNEY MEMORIAL FUND- Woody Papparazzo announced that $865 collected thus far for the Marilyn Whitney Memorial Fund.  A check was sent to the school and the club received a very nice thank you note from the principal.

II. Minutes of Last Meeting:

Tom Petray gave the secretary's report that the minutes of the previous meeting were online at the 5As website.  Click on 'Meeting Minutes.'

IV. New Business:

Tom Whitney asked if there was any new business.  
UPCOMING CLUB EVENTS and INFORMATION – Tom Whitney mentioned several upcoming events coming from the club’s online calendar.  Tom announced the Mt. Greylock Star Party set for July 10, member observing at Janice Kachavos Xenophon Farm on July 12, Venus-crescent moon apparition for July 14-16, the Stars at Tanglewood set for August 3, Stellafane taking place on August 5-8, Perseids peaking August 10-12, and the Club meeting with Peter Scherff presenting on meteorites on August 13.  Other events included Moon Day on August 14 at A2Z Science, another Mt. Greylock Star Party the evening of August 14, and Conjunction to be held on August 20-21.  Tom Whitney reminded members that Bruce Blanchard hosts the club on July 23.

PRESENTATION – “Project ASTRO” presented by Steve Herzberg, 5As club member
     Project ASTRO was started by the Astronomical Society of the pacific intended to help the public have access to professional and amateur astronomers.  There are lessons set up in the project for teachers to use with the assistance of an astronomer.  The lessons are designed to be hands-on learning activities.  Lessons run from grades 3-11.  You learn from Project ASTRO how to work with teachers and how to integrate project activities with what the teacher is already doing in the classroom.  Steve had good experiences with one teacher, but another experience with a teacher was “trying.”  He gave examples of solar observation of shadows with kids, including a solar ring toss activity and the graphing of sun shadows as they change during the course of a year- the shadow was the longest when sun was lower in the sky.  Steve asked six volunteers to participate in a hands-on experiment.  Volunteers faced a lighted bulb and Steve asked them to use a Styrofoam ball with a pencil stuck in it.  He gave directions such as “Point your nose toward noon…, midnight…, and dawn on Mt. “nose.”  He had the volunteers notice the crescent phase on the Styrofoam ball.  How do you explain that the same spot on the moon always faces the earth, but the moon also rotates every 29.5 days?  Steve reviewed another activity called The Thousand-Yard Solar System or the Earth as a Peppercorn, which demonstrates relative distances of planets.  He shared the Venus Box, which uses a shoebox to demonstrate remote sensing with the use of straws.  The last messy activity was a Crater Box, which used cheap flour to observe impact craters.  Rocks were dropped into a 5-lb. bag of flour in a box with cocoa as surface strata from various heights and angles of impact.  Cool!
     The meeting ended at 8:57 p.m. and those attending visited and enjoyed refreshments.  Thirteen members and guests were present. 
Respectfully submitted,
Tom Petray, Secretary

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Tom Whitney, President (413)-256-6234 / Kevin Collins, Vice-President (413)-586-2395	Updated: 8/1/2010, c. Kevin Collins 2010