The April 5 Members Night at Curby will be preceded by painting and final touches work detail on the new building at 2:00 PM.

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Our friend Mark Steven Williams, of StarGeezerAstronomy.com, will present the program at our LAS General Meeting Friday, April 4 at 8:00 PM in U of L Strickler Hall behind the Planetarium.

Mark has led a courageous effort to establish a lighting ordinance in Harrison County. Here is a description of his program:

LIGHT POLLUTION SOLUTIONS. Outdoor Lighting, Light Trespass, Energy Conservation and the Night Time Environment. A review of the effort to establish an ordinance regulating outdoor lighting in Harrison county, Indiana and solutions for mitigating light trespass in your community. Presented by Mark Steven Williams of StarGeezerAstronomy.com, Elizabeth, IN.

See you there, if I am able.

Ken

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Wow! What a day!

The new multi-purpose building at Curby is 97% complete. All plumbing and electricity (that’s right, electricity) is COMPLETE. Many thanks to Kenny Napper who helped early on and Darrell Collins and Randy Beachler who hung in there to completion. The electrical system at Curby is first class and gives us an infinite combination of white and red light. We now have motion sensor red and white security lighting on the outside of the building that can be turned off when we arrive. We also have an outside outlet for scopes.

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The Miami Valley Astronomical Society

And

The Astronomical League Great Lake Region

Presents

The 38th Annual Apollo Rendezvous

And

GreatCon 2008

Please visit our website

www.mvas.org

For the event registration and information

You can download the March 2008 version of the Starword here:

March 2008 Starword

Inside this edition: Upcoming Events, New Multipurpose Building, Astrophotography Section Looks to the Heavens, Board of Director Openings, LAS 12″ Lx200 Quick Start Guide, River of Stars Weekend, UAC Live, Lunar Explorer: Promontory Archerusla and Surroundings, Other Start Parties.

Myself, Wes Newton, Darrell Collins and Randy Beachler met at the new Curby multi-purpose building today at 2:00 PM.

Randy and I set about straightening up and sweeping the floor as Wes investigated rumored leaks in the plumbing. He tightened here and there and, voila! First Flush was achieved. Of course, as president, I handled the situation.

We put up the white lights in the bathrooms and installed a medicine cabinet in the women’s restroom. When Wes and I left at 5:00 PM, Darrell and Randy were still working on the electricity. They said that by the end of the day, we would have lights in the building. So, by tonight, the building will have full electricity in the bathrooms and kitchen and lights on. This past week, Darrell the Builder completed the deck outside the west door so all that remains of his work is to pour the ramp and paint the floor.

We anticipate two weeks to completion.

Great job everybody!

Ken

Come join us at the Urban Astronomy Center located in E.P. “Tom” Sawyer State Park Wednesday, February 20th. This will be the last total lunar eclipse until December of 2010. Programs start at 7:30 PM. The eclipse starts at 8:43 with totality from 10:00 - 10:52. Weather permitting telescopes will provide views of Mars, Saturn and many other wonders of the night sky. For more information about the eclipse see the Sky and Telescope website.

Hope to see you in the dark!

Last evening I finally had the opportunity to test my new eyepiece. All the literature I have found indicate that the German Supermono’s are on par with or better then the legendary Abbe Orthoscopic eyepieces for planetary / lunar detail. Well, I don’t have any $800 Abbe Ortho’s laying around so I compared them with my best Plossl.

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My wife, Jeannie, passed away this morning after a long struggle with cancer. She was a fighter. When the lung cancer was first diagnosed, they said she only had eighteen months. She ended up doubling that and kept a good attitude the whole time. Thanks to all who kept her in your thoughts.

Ted

In the few clear days we’ve had since Monday, the Cunningham Construction crews have made significant progress.

Wes Newton and I visited the site Wednesday. They were starting to put the roof on and the concrete has been poured. We took them two 20″X30″ hopper-style windows opening in

which are being placed with the top at 80″ and one foot from the door on the front and in the middle of the observing side wall west of the garage door. These are small but very hard for a thief to get through.

In front of the garage door, there will be an 8′ X 12′ ramp down to the observing field to roll scopes down to a future observing deck with electricity similar to Twin Lakes Observatory. On the west side, he is building us a small deck in front of the door with steps going down 30″ to the observing field level.

Ken