August Meeting

Introduction to Webcam Astrophotography: A basic primer on how to do planetary imaging with webcams

Ed will cover the basics of webcam astrophotography, including theory, hardware, and software.  Learn why this the easiest (and most fun!) of the branches of astrophotography. Sample images, both from our local club, and from "Master" imagers, will be shown.

Members' pot-luck dinner - 5:30pm

Summer Meetings will include a ‘pot luck’ dinner and I have volunteered to coordinate these. It is important to RSVP to me by email (kathys5@cox.net) if you plan to attend and to indicate what you will be bringing. That way, we can try to avoid too much duplication.  We need some appetizers, ‘main’-type dishes, salads and desserts. We will provide coffee and cold drinks and we will have some ice and a cooler.

Double Star Challenge

For our August meeting, members are encouraged to bring their telescopes to Seagrave for a "Double Star Challenge", and we can have some fun testing the optical limits of various telescopes, whether commercially or home-made. Many of us believe that our 8" Clark telescope to have some of the finest optics to be found. Let's see how well the Clark performs compared to other telescopes. Perhaps someone's telescope has even better optics? Check out the September Sky & Telescope for a great article on double star observing.

The "Double Star Challenge" will begin after the evening program, around 9pm.