The meeting was called to order at 7:30 with 23 people in attendance.

The observing sessions for this month will be held on the 17^th and the 25^th.

So far, we have sold 36 hats, at $10 each.

Astronomy Day will be held on April 25. Tenny has arranged for us to use the upstairs portion of the Norwell Council of Aging. Rolf will bring a slide show and a meteor exhibit to display. Paul has a PowerPoint presentation and will bring information he has received from the Night Sky network, including a demonstration of the wobble of stars and various handouts. Louis will send advertisements to the local papers to inform the public about Astronomy Day.

We received 5 essays for the annual telescope essay contest. They represent Bridgewater, Carver, Cohasset, Rockland, and Plymouth. The telescope prize has arrived and Chuck has it.

Boston Telescope is holding a going out of business sale on Saturday April 17.

Andy generated a very nice history of the club. This information will be put on the web page, sent to local papers, and handed out at Astronomy Day.

Andy also brought general astronomy information that he printed off-line to share with us. These included the new large binocular telescope at Mt. Gram in Arizona, McNeil’s Nebula, and the Stardust satellite that is returning to earth after gathering bits of planetary dust from a comet.

A short discussion of Sedna, the newly discovered “planet” occurred. This was followed by a discussion of last week’s episode of NOVA which was about the magnetosphere of the Earth.

Volunteers are needed to help build a float for the July 4^th Parade in Plymouth. We will be using a Saturn View to pull this float.

Mark Gibson, the president of the Astronomical league of New England, invited all of us to a meeting of his club at the Carpentry Museum in Rehoboth, MA. He used to be a member of the South Shore astronomical Society. He told us about his group and about his optical company. A discussion of telescope coatings ensued.

There were only two clear nights of the eight scheduled for observing at elementary schools in Plymouth. Despite the weather, the event went well and Mal helped out.

Steve showed a demonstration of animation he made with pictures he took with his webcam. It showed the path of Io and Europa as they traveled in front of Jupiter.

The meeting was adjourned at 9:10.