Tuesday, Feb 21, Society’s general meeting at the UAC. Starts at 8PM. There will be a meeting of the governing board at 6:30PM. Members in good standing are invited to attend the board meeting.

Friday, Feb 24, UAC Public Night – starts at dusk – thin crescent moon – will need scopes and volunteers

Friday, Mar 9, U of L Planetarium, after the scheduled program(s) public viewing in the court yard….

Also on Mar 9 and 10, at Curby there will be over 50 boy scouts working on their Astronomy Merit Badges. One of the troops will be from Cincinnati and the other from Fern Creek.

Saturday, Mar 17, Curby Public night, starts at dusk, no moon, will need scopes and volunteers

Tuesday, Mar 20, Society’s general meeting at the UAC. Starts at 8PM. There will be a meeting of the governing board at 6:30PM. Members in good standing are invited to attend the board meeting.

Friday, Mar 23, UAC Public Night – starts at dusk – very thin crescent moon – will need scopes and volunteers

Saturday, Mar 24, Bernheim Sky Watch and Stories in the Stars – Time 8:00 – 10:30, could use 2 or 3 telescopes

Saturday, Mar 24, Curby member night, starts whenever you get there.

If you would like to receive an e-mailed copy of the Starword when I get them out, please send an e-mail to editor@louisville-astro.org.  If you received an e-mail and you do not wish to receive them, please send me an e-mail above to let me know.  We may also use this list to send out upcoming events.

Thanks for your assistance.  As always, comments and articles are welcome.

Mark Rockstroh, Editor, Starword
editor@louisville-astro.org
markrockstroh@insightbb.com

I have tried something different.  At the last Board Meeting it was suggested I e-mail Starword directly to all members that have submitted their e-mail addresses.  Prior to this posting, I e-mailed everyone that I had addresses for.  However, some have already bounced.  If you would like to receive an e-mailed copy of the Starword when I get them out, please send an e-mail to editor@louisville-astro.org.  If you received an e-mail and you do not wish to receive them, please send me an e-mail above to let me know.  We may also use this list to send out upcoming events.

Thanks for your assistance.  As always, comments and articles are welcome.

Mark Rockstroh, Editor, Starword
editor@louisville-astro.org
markrockstroh@insightbb.com

Sorry for the delay.  Am now working on the September/October Starword.  Please submit articles, pictures with Captions to

Editor@Louisville-Astro.org.  or to mfrockstroh@yahoo.com  Thank you very much.

Contents:

In the process I migrated it to the latest version of Gallery.  Some of the pictures were missing, probably due to some corruption on the failing hard drive on the old server.  The people with missing photos are Bob Hart, Greg Miller, Kevin Clark, and Don Spain. Check your albums and restore anything that’s missing.

The usernames and passwords should be the same in the new gallery.  I’m still working on linking the web site usernames and passwords with those on the gallery. Leave a comment here about any problems you find.

As I pulled up, Mike Sellers, our LAS Scout Merit Badge Instructor for the night, called me to ask for the code to the door. I said “Mike, I’m right behind you” and parked next to the building. Mike and I set up the sound system then, as Mike prepared his presentation and fired up the computer, I did my presidential thing as I vacuumed, cleaned the bathroom and got the second classroom ready for the four Cub Scouts we were anticipating.

At seven, the scout troop from Corydon arrived followed closing by a troop from Shepherdsville. John Turack, Mark and Peggy Rockstroh and Mike Moraghan joined us to be ready to view the stars just in case we got a sucker hole in the cloud cover.

Mike and I entertained the first group as the Corydon guys made camp in the Picnic Grove, a stand of trees close to the UAC. We used Seeker, Virtual Lunar Atlas and Starry Night Pro to give them a tour of the universe and what they would see if the sky was clear. When Mike’s class with the boy scouts formally began, John and I took the cub scouts into the other classroom.

As we sat down around the board room table, I looked around at the faces of the four Cubs. Anticipation was what I saw. A glimmer in the eye. A thirst for knowledge that we would slake.

No technology here. Each scout had a 1980 edition of Astronomy magazine in front of them. In the center of the astronomy cloth-draped table, was a large plaque with the planets on it. I had next to me the Cub Scout requirements to earn the Astronomy Belt Loop and Astronomy Academic Pin. I also had UAC director John Turack at the other end of the table to supplement my knowledge and help me get the guys through their ninety minute session.

Starting with how to use a telescope, we took a whirlwind tour of the basics of astronomy. We drew the solar system, each in his own way as we developed a mnemonic to remember the planets. Along our path of new knowledge, these four young men, ages eight to ten, astounded us with how much they knew. I told tales of adventure as they listened to how Collins, Armstrong and Aldrin went to the moon and how the brave astronauts of Apollo 13 didn’t make it there but, with the help of Ground Control and duct tape, made it home alive in a life raft known as a Lunar Excursion Module.

We talked of Galileo and Newton, of heliocentrism, of gravity, of aliens, of the universality of physics. We even tried to calculate how far light would travel in a year. The expression of one young mathmetician was “Oh, man, this is going to fry my brain”. But I made him not use a calculator. Try it. Take 186,000 miles per second X 60 X 60 X 24 X 365. That’s a light year. So, how far would light travel in a year?

In ninety minutes, after a mind-blowing session in which our knowledge was taxed, I declared that they had earned both cub scout awards and we interrupted Mike and the boy scouts in the big room so these four guys could get their round of applause.

As we went outside, one of them looked up to me and said “Thanks.You guys are great. You should be professionals.”

No, thank you. When I can get together with my fellow LAS members under a cloudy sky with occasional peaks of the moon, when I can walk tiredly to my car at eleven p.m. after making sure the scouts are AOK in their camp and see that my friend Mark Rockstroh is still there loading his car, then I am thankful that I am an amateur astronomer.

I wouldn’t get paid for something I love so much. The smiles on the faces of the young men who just went on an imaginary trip to the stars is payment enough.

Ken Alderson

LAS President

Check the Scout Program link in the “Pages” section for more info on the LAS Scout Merit Badge Program

An interesting resource on their website is their Black Hole Encyclopedia.  It has been compiled by StarDate in partnership with The University of Texas’ Karl Gebhardt, one of the leading black hole researchers in the world.  It is a unique website that offers all of the latest news on black holes, as well as radio programs, feature articles, student activities and FAQ’s.  The glossary of terms and additional book and website suggestions can also serve as helpful tools for anyone looking for more information on black holes or just astronomy lovers in general.