Fellow comet chasers and star gazers;

In its June 2005 general meeting the North Houston Astronomy Club celebrated the centennial of that marvelous year: 1905, the Annus Mirabili, when several revolutionary scientific papers were published by a patent office clerk named Albert Einstein. Although the implications in our everyday experience and technology of the principles of relativity introduced in those papers have slowly began to be elucidated more clearly in this past century, most scientists realize that the next century may be even more revealing of Einstein’s genius. The club joined the celebration with a program featuring multiple speakers for the first time. Henry Norton, Dave Clark, Bill Leach, Chris Friedersdorf, Katherine Keilty, Bill Christian, Aaron Clevenson and I took turns with short well researched presentations that were introduced with great enthusiasm. The result was one of the most entertaining evenings we have had. The meeting ended with door prizes which included large framed posters of Einstein. As usual with our club, the hand of Bill Leach was behind this celebration and his efforts came to a great fruition.

For the July 22, 2005 meeting Cynthia Gustava from the Fort Bend Astronomy Club will talk about “The International Space Station: A Jigsaw Puzzle.” The novice program will be led by Aaron Clevenson and his talk will be about “Becoming A Certified Lunar Observer.” Bill Leach will be in the physics lab to discuss in the advanced program a very popular topic: “Image Processing II-For True Beginners.”

Two dates of great importance are coming up: July 31 when the membership yearly cycle ends and September 10th, when the NHAC Community Star Party will take place. Both efforts are related by the same objective which is to increase membership and thus to increase our financial stability. I want to encourage all the club’s members to bring your checkbooks to our next meeting so you may renew your 2005-2006 membership. There is a grace period until September 30th, at which time the membership is elapsed. Our club has been successful because every one of its members has supported the club in one way or another. Paying membership dues is a great way to support NHAC! Please, do not leave home without remembering this fact.

There is another way you may help the club: buy tickets for the telescope raffle. http://www.astronomyclub.org You may want to buy them for you or as a gift to friends or relatives who you think may want to join our club. A 6 inch Orion Dobsonian may not be the telescope you need or want, but it may be ideal to someone you know. They have to be present at the September 10th Community Star party at Kingwood College in order to win the telescope. If they come to the party we have a chance of making them members! Henry Norton has done such a great job organizing this event. He deserves our support. Tickets are two dollars for a single and five dollars for three tickets.

Several of us met in early July to begin to coordinate the Astronomy Day of 2005. Our club was well represented by Bill, Geraldina, Lorrie and I. Bill Leach is again chairing the committee. The dates are firm: On the evening of Friday October 21st the Regional Meeting will take place at the Auditorium of the Houston Community College administration building. (http://www.hccs.edu/new/mappg.html ) Conveniently located next to the light-rail line, the building is at the intersection of Main and Elgin, a few blocks from where Westheimer street changes into Elgin, and just south of the central business district. Parking will be available at the 3100 Main parking garage for free, all night. Parking here is plentiful and safe. You must cross the sky bridge to arrive to the auditorium. You may consider planning an evening downtown, leave your car in the garage and take the light-rail line from either the McGowen or the Ensemble/HCC Central stations. Astronomy Day will take place as usual at the Brazos Bend State Park hosted by the George Observatory. Several volunteers are being already recruited. Please send an email to any officer of the club if you are interested in volunteering for any activity. Lorrie Patel will coordinate the food, while Geraldina and I will host the Indoor Speakers series.

The skies turned into fireworks by American ingenuity by sending a probe into the core of the comet Tempel 1, (http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap050718.html ) to celebrate Independence Day. However, lately our view of the universe has been hampered by great amounts of rain and even greater humidity. We must endure and hope that by August 6th the skies will clear and we can again enjoy a BBQ at the Neal’s Site. Other members may be heading to northwest Austin to the Central Texas Star Party http://www.austinastro.org/ctsp.html ). The Austin Astronomical Society hosts this event and they do a great job. I hope to see you soon under dark skies.

Juan Carlos Reina
President
North Houston Astronomy Club