membership meeting

February 10 Membership Meeting: “Lucy in the Sky with Asteroids”

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An artist’s concept of the Lucy Mission. Credit: SwRI

On Monday, February 10, at 7:30 p.m. the Cuyahoga Astronomical Association (CAA) will conduct its monthly club meeting. The meeting will feature a talk by CAA member Kai Getrost, a member of the special NASA teams that performed occultation studies in support of NASA’s New Horizon’s space probe to “Ultima Thule.” He is currently working in support of NASA’s Lucy Mission to explore Jupiter’s Trojan Asteroids. The Lucy spacecraft will launch in October 2021 and, with boosts from Earth’s gravity, will complete a 12-year journey to seven different asteroids.

As part of the NASA science teams in support of the New Horizons and Lucy Missions, Getrost has traveled to South America and to Australia to help gather occultation data used to help guide the spacecraft.

The CAA’s monthly meetings are held on the second Monday of every month except December at 7:30 p.m. in the Cleveland Metroparks’ Rocky River Nature Center; 24000 Valley Parkway; North Olmsted, Ohio. Meeting programs are open to the public. Following the presentation and a brief social break, the club will conduct its membership business meeting.

First meeting of the new decade: January 13, 2020

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Photo: After sunset scopes pointed skyward and offered views of planets Jupiter, Mars, and Saturn. Photo by James Guilford.
After sunset scopes pointed skyward and offered views of planets Jupiter, Mars, and Saturn.

The first Membership Meeting of the Cuyahoga Astronomical Association (CAA) for 2020 will take place Monday, January 13. The meeting will feature a presentation by member Trevor Braun entitled, “Equipment for Amateur Astronomy 101.” Are you looking to buy a new, or perhaps upgrade/enhance your existing, telescope? Learn about the critical factors needed to make a decision, as well as some of the equipment and accessories you may want to consider as you begin to get ready for the 2020 observing season.

The CAA’s monthly meetings are held on the second Monday of every month except December at 7:30 p.m. in the Rocky River Nature Center; 24000 Valley Parkway; North Olmsted, Ohio, in the Cleveland Metroparks. Meeting programs are open to the public. Following the presentation and a brief social break, the club will conduct its membership business meeting.

November 11 Membership Meeting: “Catching the Sun…”

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In its prime, the McMath-Hulbert Observatory shone in the sun, circa 1941. Credit: University of Michigan and McMath-Hulbert Observatory

The final Membership Meeting of the Cuyahoga Astronomical Association (CAA) for 2019 will take place Monday, November 11. The meeting will feature a presentation by member Steve Gallant entitled, “Catching the Sun: Robert McMath and the McMath-Hulbert Solar Observatory.”

Located north of Pontiac, Michigan and opened in 1929, after the initial attempts to study the moon, the main preoccupation of the observatory was the sun. McMath-Hulbert was once the second largest solar observatory in the world. Spears will fill us in on the observatory’s history and the current efforts to preserve and promote its continued use!

The CAA’s monthly meetings are held on the second Monday of every month except December at 7:30 p.m. in the Rocky River Nature Center; 24000 Valley Parkway; North Olmsted, Ohio, in the Cleveland Metroparks. Meeting programs are open to the public. Following the presentation and a brief social break, the club will conduct its membership business meeting.

October 21 Membership Meeting: “Apollo 11: Fifty Years Later” (rescheduled)

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Jay Reynolds

Our monthly meeting originally scheduled for October 14 at the Rocky River Nature Center was canceled. The nature center parking lot was being resurfaced. The meeting was rescheduled for 7:30 p.m., October 21.

The October 2019 meeting of the Cuyahoga Astronomical Association (CAA) will feature a presentation by club member and Cleveland State University Research Astronomer Jay Reynolds. The historic 1969 Apollo 11 moon landing will be the focus of the talk which will progress into NASA’s next steps in crewed space exploration following the end of the shuttle program.

The CAA’s monthly meetings are held on the second Monday of every month except December at 7:30 p.m. in the Rocky River Nature Center; 24000 Valley Parkway; North Olmsted, Ohio, in the Cleveland Metroparks. Meeting programs are open to the public. Following the presentation and a brief social break, the club will conduct its membership business meeting.