Fort Bend Astronomy Club |
|
Minutes of the October 17, 2003 FBAC Meeting By Cynthia Gustava, Vice President … for Joe Dellinger, Secretary President Derek Newton formally opened the meeting, welcomed the visitors and thanked Wes Whiddon for his year-long reign as President this past year. He then turned the floor over to our first speaker, Dennis Borgman. Dennis gave a 15 minute talk about the famous “lost” asteroid that after 65 years has been found again. The asteroid, called “Hermes” (officially 1937 UB), is a large asteroid of about 800 yards in diameter. It skimmed by the Earth in 1937 and had not been seen again until it was re-spotted by Brian Skiff of the Lowell Observatory on October 15, 2003. Hermes created quite a stir back in 1937 when it flew by the Earth at a distance of 650,000 miles, just 60 percent further than the distance of the Earth to the Moon. Hermes takes a little more than two years to go around the Sun. Club business was next on the agenda. The FBAC Christmas Party will take the place of our December meeting and will be on the 14th at the First Colony Conference Center, our usual meeting place. More about the party will be announced in the coming weeks. Terry Hiserodt, Treasurer, reported that we have $577.58 in checking and petty cash is at $305.40. He reminded everyone that 2003-2004 dues are up for renewal if you have not done it already. The Astronomy on Wheels program will continue under the leadership of Leonard Pattillo, but the decision has been made to accept only donations at the star party events. We will not charge per head as we have done in the past. Bill Dillon reported that the A-Team is now at 231 asteroid discoveries. Cynthia Gustava, VP, introduced our main speaker for the evening, Jack “Triple” Nickel, of the Johnson Space Center Astronomical Society. His talk was on neutrinos and his tour of an underground neutrino detector in Sudbury, Canada. He described what a neutrino is, how it is important, how the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) was built, and how SNO detects all three neutrino “flavors”. He followed up his talk with a 26-minute video of the SNO tour he recently went on. Next month’s presentations -- Novice Program: Joe Dellinger and Bill Dillon on asteroid tracking and gamma ray burst events. Guest Speaker: We will travel back 4.5 billion years with Pete Nolan to explore astronomical, terrestrial, ecological, biological and other influences that may have caused the series of events that resulted in the five major mysterious mass extinctions on our planet. Pete has recently given this presentation to HAS and NHAC, and by all reports, this is one you don’t want to miss! Bill Molinare won the door prize of two tickets (and a free parking pass) to the stage show “Grease” currently running at The Hobby Center in downtown Houston. Calvin Embry donated the tickets for this evening’s drawing. President Derek Newton adjourned the meeting promptly at 10:00 p.m. |