This month’s meeting will be on Friday, December 5, at 7:45PM in room 215 of Davis Hall, the Aerospace Engineering Building.  The doors to the classroom buildings automatically now lock at 8:00PM, so if you’re running late, rap on the door nearest our meeting room.  Remember that access to the parking lot is now from W. Magnolia only.

Riders from the Montgomery area are welcome to meet at the home  of Russell Whigham, 518 Seminole Dr., and carpool over to Auburn.  Plan to be ready to leave for Auburn at 6:45PM. 

Our new moon star party this month will be on Saturday, December 27, at Cliff Hill’s farm,  clouds permitting of course.   This is the Saturday of the Christmas weekend.

Early this month Horseshoe Bend NMP hosted a special stargazing event.  The visibility was excellent and I'm looking into hosting a proper star party on site.  The astronomy events here have been increasing over the years and this 
was the best yet. We counted 84 visitors and half a dozen Auburn Astronomy Society volunteers. We couldn't do it without you. The giant scopes, laser pointers and approachable volunteers were real crowd pleasers. 

I'm still receiving calls and emails about the program and people looking forward to the next. The superintendent of the park was there and she was very grateful to the volunteers as well. Special thanks to John Tatarchuk, Scott Thompson, Brent Holman, Russell Whigham, Everett 
Leonard and John Howard. 

I'll be busy with work and family this month but hope to see you all in December. 

Thanks again.

Rand 

AAS treasurer, John Zachry, has sent our discounted subscriptions.  If you asked John to include your subscription but have not paid, the price is $ 34.00 for Astronomy magazine, and $ 32.95 for Sky & Telescope.  Make checks payable to Auburn Astronomical Society.  If you are unable to attend our December meeting, mail your check to: 

Auburn Astronomical Society 
c/o John B. Zachry 
501 Summerfield Road 
West Point, GA 31833

Special thanks to John for handling this for the rest of us.

We’ll be seeing more of Ray Kunert, now that he’s managed to return to the day shift at his work.  In a similar vein, Mike Holley’s new schedule has allowed him to attend more of our Friday meetings, as well.  We’re glad to have you both back, again.

Everyone who was at our November meeting were treated to an excellent presentation by our president, Rhon Jenkins.  Rhon’s talk on the “Physics of the Impossible”.  Fortunately for those who missed it, his program was running a bit long so he didn’t get to cover all of his material.  We’re hoping we can get Rhon’s to do an encore on the topics he didn’t get to.  That wouldn’t be impossible, would it Rhon?

Several people wrote to say that they enjoyed seeing the ISS/STS passes.  Thanks to John Zachry for keeping us apprised and to Rich Thomas at WSFA-TV, in Montgomery, for getting this information out to the public.

Glynn Alexander  called to share information on a new telescope from Meade – the EXT-LS, due out next spring.

Hoping to see everyone at the meeting,

Russell