Astronomical Society of Eastern Missouri

The regular meeting of ASEM was held Saturday, December 9, 2006 at the Weldon Spring Interpretive Center.  The meeting began at 6:00 pm with a pot luck supper.  At 6:45 pm Jim Roe presented an abbreviated version of his presentation on holiday gift giving tips for astronomy buffs (the full presentation was scheduled for the Beginners meeting on December 5, but that meeting was canceled due to dicy conditions on the parking lot).

Jim Twellman was presented an Astronomical League award for Public Outreach.  This award recognizes members who contribute their time and energy to promoting astronomy in public meetings.  Many other of our members can earn this award easily because of their own efforts at outreach.

Stacey Thater, a physics and astronomy instructor at St. Charles Community College, presented a program on meteors.  He differntiated between asteroid derived meteors that typically hit the Earth from the day side and "Shower" meteors associated with cometary debris that typically hit the Earth from the night side.  Stacey also showed examples of different types of meteorites from his collection.

Jim T. (left) receives his Outreach Award from Jim R.	Jim T.
Jim R. introduces Stacey T.	20 Members and Guests Attended

The Digital Special Interest Group met on Saturday, November 18 2006 at the Weldon Spring Interpretive Center.  Prior to the formal meeting Kevin and Carol V. brought their new Meade ETX125 to learn how to set up and operate it. 

Jim M. showed recent images of Comet Swan that he took with his new DSLR on a simple tracking mount.    Jim explained his techniques which included creating averaged dark frames and a translucent screen adapted to slip over the camera lens to produce a flat field image.  He also showed a short video of a lecture by Adam Block on the function and use of a histogram display that is available in many image processing programs (Photoshop in this case).
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The regular monthly meeting of the Astronomical Society of Eastern Missouri was held on Saturday, November 11, 2006 at the Interpretive Center in Weldon Spring, Missouri.  There were 23 members and guests present.

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The regular meeting of the Astronomical Society of Eastern Missouri was conducted on Saturday, October 14, 2006 at the Weldon Spring Site.  There were 24 individuals who enoyed at pot luck supper before the meeting which began with a quick observing session outside to view a magnitude -2 Iridium flare at 19:03:55 that was visible in the South.

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Twenty-one members and guests attended the first meeting of the Society in the newly refurbished astronomy center.

Jim S. (r), immediate past Chairman of the Mid-States Region of the Astronomical League, presents Regional Amateur Astronomer of the Year award to Jim R.