Event Horizon

March 2003

This abbreviated newsletter is presented by the ssastros webmaster.

1. At the start of the meeting Treasure Chuck McCarthy told all about a recent lecture he attended at BU. Prof. John Clark gave an interesting talk to the Alumni Association of Johns Hopkins University on the Hubble Space Telescope.

2. Tenney opened up a discussion on Astronomy Day. Astronomy Day will take place on May 10^th. This year it will be held at both the Council on Aging and Centennial Field. During this year’s celebration we will award our second telescope to the winner of the middle school essay. In addition there will be a slide show, astronomy software demonstrated, telescopes on view (in the event of poor weather) and telescopes set up on the field (if the viewing is good). This event will take place rain or shine.

3. April 3^rd will be a telescope night at Plymouth Community Intermediate School, hosted be Bill Luzader. Bill asks all interested members to bring their scopes to set up for viewing. Should there be bad weather Bill would like scopes set up inside so visitors could see different types of scopes.

4. March 29^th will be our annual Messier Marathon. This year the event will take place at Centennial Field.

5. Louis made it official. The South Shore Astronomical Society is now a member of the Astronomical League. All members are now eligible to participate in all of the awards programs sponsored by the League. All SSAS members should also soon start receiving quarterly publications from the League.

6. Chuck discussed the status of our liability insurance.

7. Bill talked about the planetarium and the STEP Foundation that has been formed to keep the planetarium open and build an observatory on the property of Plymouth South Middle School. Bill discussed the possibility of a SSAS member joining the STEP Board to explore the common goals of both groups. After a lengthy discussion by members it was decided that the Board would meet in May to explore our involvement in this project.