Rob JaworskiWith much sadness, we must report that the National Park Service advised us that the annual Yosemite star party, what we call _Stars Over Yosemite_, has been canceled for 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We would certainly look forward to next year, but due to planned construction and upgrades in the park, the management has canceled the program for 2021 as well.
Read their letter here: Link
Rob Jaworski
Gerry smiling happily with his hobby.
SJAA President and friend Gerry Joyce passed away recently. Gerald James Joyce (Gerry) was born on November 2, 1945 and passed away on May 20, 2020. He was 74 years old.
Gerry was born in Long Branch, New Jersey, the youngest of four boys and the son of Norwegian immigrants Frank and Ruth Joyce. After a three-year stint with the Navy, he married his first wife, Nancy, and began a 50-year career in computer technology. Over his lifetime, Gerry worked with both large and small companies, but had a particular “soft spot” for the challenges of startups. He was an innovator in the early days of computers; his natural curiosity, thirst for learning, and tenacity took him through many phases of his career. His entrepreneurial spirit brought him to California in the late 70’s. In 1999 he married Priscilla Dutton, and on November 6, 2019 they celebrated their 20th anniversary in Kauai, Hawaii. Gerry and Priscilla traveled extensively, including a trip to Norway to reacquaint with relatives. In 2004, he started his own company, Viking Systems, to design and install all forms of home automation. He sold Viking in 2016 and retired.
During the last four years, Gerry was able to pursue a life-long interest in astronomy and astrophotography. In early 2020 he became President of the San Jose Astronomical Association. Prior to that, he had also served as the Vice-President of SJAA from October 2019 to March 2020. His excitement was contagious – he was always on a mission to interest everyone – from grandchildren to casual acquaintances – in the wonders of the sky. SJAA enriched Gerry’s retirement years immeasurably, and he made many dear friends during his time with the club.
Gerry is survived by his wife Priscilla, sons Stephen (Briana), Eric (Lisa), and David (Teri), step son Steve Wallace (Dana), step daughter Erin Wallace, grandchildren Vendela, Karsten and Chloe, and step grandchildren Jonas, Cora, Kelsey and Adelyn.
In lieu of flowers, please donate in his name to the Humane Society of Silicon Valley or Second Harvest Food Bank of Silicon Valley. A private memorial service was held on June 6, 2020.
If you would like to share any memory or thoughts or pictures of Gerry with the rest of the SJAA community, please do so in the comments. All messages will be shared with Gerry’s family.
Gerry with a collection of SJAA folks February 2020.
Rob JaworskiIn normal years, the SJAA Swap Meet is held in the spring and again in the fall. This is a great social outlet, but unfortunately, due to all that’s happening with the pandemic this year, the SJAA leadership had to make the difficult decision to postpone it. It may reappear later in the sprint or summer, but depending on how things go, like a comet in an irregular orbit, it might not show up again until the fall. Please keep an eye on the SJAA Meetup site for up-to-date information regarding all SJAA events.
In other news, the SJAA tech team is looking for methods to preserve talks and presentations from board and general meetings. They are also in the process of finding ways to provide video conferencing to replace having meetings at Houge Park which the City of San Jose has closed. Again, keep an eye on the Meetup for the latest, and best practices indicate you should RSVP to any Meetup event so that you can get notifications (via Meetup email) when an event is changed or has updated info from the organizer.
Rob JaworskiEach February and March sees board elections and officer elections, respectively. Here are the results of the 2020 elections.
For the board of directors, four director seats were up for elections. All four incumbents ran for those seats and were re-elected: Sandy Mohan (board seat 2), Wolf Witt (seat 4), Glenn Newell (seat 8) and Rob Jaworski (seat 6). Congratulations to them all, and more importantly, a hearty Thank You to them for their service.
Things were a bit more exciting at the March officer elections. As you may know, officers are elected to one-year terms and all of them, with one exception, have no limit to the number of terms that can be served by one individual. That exception is the President role, which has a term limit of just two years.
First, let us give Swami Nigam a round of recognition for his service as President for the past two years. Though he has stayed busy with his work and family life, he somehow still made time for leading our organization. Replacing him is Gerry Joyce, who most recently served as Vice President.
Two of the remaining three officer positions also had a change: Ken Miura is now the Vice President, and Emi Nikolov took over the reigns as the organization’s Secretary. Rounding out the fourth position is incumbent Rob Jaworski, who remains the club’s Treasurer.
Another shout out to our past, current and new Directors and Officers! Now in our 66th year, we couldn’t keep on going without volunteers who step up to keep the club going and continuing its mission of bringing astronomy and science to the people!
Rob JaworskiAt the end of this year, 2019, the San Jose Astronomical Association is celebrating its sixty fifth birthday. For us mere mortals, sixty five is traditionally the age at which we retire, quit our decades -long journey of work and getting things done, and finally look forward to hopefully another couple of decades of rest and relaxation. I don’t see the same thing for the SJAA.
The mission of the SJAA is to bring astronomy and science to the public, to inspire curiosity and to provide a place to go when an interest in space or astronomy (or geology or chemistry or any kind of science) is kindled. In these short-attention-span times, it seems that NASA missions (to the moon or Mars!) or rare celestial events (the recent Great American Eclipse of 2017!) or the sight of rocket launches (except maybe for SpaceX launches) don’t have the heft to inspire the awe that they once did.
I submit that something about those events being viewed on a high definition, but really small screen, and the number of times that it’s possible to view them, causes dilution of the experience, and dilution of the awe.
The handful of volunteers who run SJAA know that the awe is still there. The awe has been instilled deep within them, and they know there are seeds of that awe hibernating in others. Those seeds want to grow, but it’s not easy for them to germinate. Too many distractions, too many choices on what to do. But despite all that, SJAA volunteers continue to give their time to provide that place, either in the lecture hall or out at a dark hilltop, so the seed can be provided what it needs to grow into a healthy interest and inquiry in the world around us and beyond.
In the sixty five years since a small group of neighbors got together to create this special interest group, a few years before Sputnik and well before Apollo 11, there have been thousands of kids and grown-ups (and kids that turned into grown-ups), who have availed themselves of what SJAA has to offer. They may have come to listen to a professional astronomer talk about her research into the origin of galaxies. Or they may have come to borrow a telescope from the long-running Telescope Loaner program. Or they simply wanted to bring their kids out into the local night sky and show them what Mars or Saturn, or even just the moon, looks like up close and personal. Most of those people had a fleeting, momentary experience with the SJAA. Some of them became members for a period of time before interests shifted and they moved on. Still others, like a few I can name off the top of my head, stuck around for decades as members (and are still around, as members). And some members took the next step and donated the most precious of assets, their time. They became volunteers because they loved what they were learning and wanted to share it with others.
Since the SJAA is entirely a volunteer -run organization, we are always on the lookout for more members to participate. Attending events as a member of the public (or a member of SJAA) is good and very much appreciated. Participating and helping out is even better! Whatever your skills or strengths, you can help make a difference. Come to an event, talk to any board member of someone “in charge”, and they can tell you more. It can be uncomfortable at first, but you’ll soon find that it’s a great experience. It’s what you make it.
Sixty five years is a long time for a non-profit organization to exist. Although the SJAA is not a very well known staple of the south bay, a staple it is and we are proud that a steady stream of newcomers discovers the club and works to keep it going. We are thankful to those who bring new energy to the club along with their excitement to share the heavens with others. We are thankful to the City of San Jose for providing a place to call our basecamp. We are thankful that the SJAA has been here since 1954, and we will work to keep it going for another 65 years!
With respect,
Rob Jaworski
Treasurer, past President and board member
Rob Jaworski
At the board of directors meeting, July 2017, the board voted to amend the bylaws. This kind of move is not done very often, and great consideration is made before such an idea is even brought to a vote by the board. However, given the history of the types of memberships with the SJAA, and also some recent moves made by the City of San Jose, the board deemed it prudent to amend the bylaws to remove the option of offering youth or student memberships, and to stipulate that only people age 18 and above are able to apply for membership.
Specifically, the board voted to remove Article 12, Section 1, Part C in its entirety. Further, Article 12, Section 2 was amended to indicate only people 18 and over can be members.
Over the past seven or eight years during which I have been on the board of the SJAA, I have served as membership chair at least twice. Also, at every board meeting each month, the membership report lists all those individuals who have applied for new or renewing membership. Plainly, there is a good amount of visibility of the member rolls. During those years, I have seen not more than a small handful of members who applied via the student/youth membership. The number has been, at most, in the single digits.
Recently, we have seen the City of San Jose put forth some requirements which could be quite burdensome to SJAA volunteers. In the recent requalification process that the City required of its reuse partners (of which, SJAA is one), it called for all volunteers or employees that has direct contact with minors to have background checks run, TB tests completed, fingerprints taken, and all the other things that typically come with interacting with children. On the face of it, everyone in the club that shows up to In Town Star Parties or Solar Sundays, or any of the myriad events that the SJAA hosts at Houge Park, could be considered a volunteer that has potential interaction with children. It would be too much to ask of SJAA volunteers to agree to such a requirement, and it could potentially put the events at Houge Park at risk.
Upon further research and investigation, the board concluded that although the contract with the City does not provide a definition of direct contact, generally, volunteers of SJAA do not have direct contact. Rather, SJAA volunteers have incidental contact with minors. Kids may show up to SJAA events with their parents or guardians, but SJAA volunteers never take custody of or supervise them, such as in an afterschool or day care environment. The conclusion was made that since no one that is associated with SJAA ever has direct contact with minors, the organization is exempt from such requirements.
To further solidify the fact that SJAA does not provide care, supervision, guidance or control of minors in any way, the board thought it prudent that minors be prohibited from becoming members in the first place.
The board does not believe that these changes to the bylaws will have any impact whatsoever to its members, now or in the future. SJAA will recognize the benefit, however, of not being potentially held to onerous requirements of its volunteers, nor will there be any question about the club’s relationship to minors. The club certainly encourages kids of all ages to learn more about astronomy and the sciences and to come to club events, and SJAA will continue to support kids’s desires to learn more, or to just look at Saturn through a telescope. But please, do bring a parent or guardian!
Image by of Flickr user Ryan Leong (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Rob JaworskiHello SJAA Members and Friends,
Just a reminder that the SJAA Swap Meet is happening this Sunday, March 20, 2016 at the Hall at San Jose’s Houge Park. Here is the announcement that went to the Announce list (which is still being used, we encourage people to join), and here is the Meetup for the event (we encourage RSVPs!).
It’s important to note that the official start time is noon. That’s when the doors will open for business. For those of us who will be selling items, the hall will be available as early as 11am for people to come and set up their wares, for instance, if you have full scopes to bring in and set up for display. We are discouraging any buying and selling to happen during that “setup” hour, just so we stay true to the official opening time of 12 noon.
If you plan to sell items, please be aware that you will be asked to read and sign a form, which have a few guidelines. I’ve included them below so you can review them ahead of time, and it’s not new to you when you arrive.
We’re expecting a fun and sociable event. See you Sunday!
Teruo UtsumiI’ve dubbed our automation effort GUS: Grand Unified SJAA. (This is a continuation from the post in May. If you’re interested in pitching in or just curious, you’re invited to join the Coders group.)
The organizers spend hundreds of man hours every year, so to streamline our various processes, we’ve started the task of automating our major operations:
We’re also looking to automate management of the various tasks associated with each of our events.
Coders is currently made up of about a dozen people. We’d like to extend our appreciation for all Coders for their participation and help. Special thanks to:
We’ll have updates as we hit future milestones. We’re just getting started, but the system might end up looking something like this:
Rob JaworskiLast Saturday night was the annual membership meeting of the SJAA. There was a potluck, awards, and the annual election for about half the seats of the board of directors. Bill O’Neil, Glenn Newell, Rob Jaworski and Dave Ittner were all up for reelection, and we are happy to report all nominees, all of which are incumbents, were reelected to another two year term by the membership. Each candidate received 24 votes in favor and zero against.
Congratulations to all the candidates! The SJAA membership and the broader amateur astronomy community appreciate your service to this important educational institution serving the south bay and beyond!
Rob Jaworski
I just got back from a holiday in northern Australia. Though it wasn’t an astronomical vacation at all (brought no scopes or astronomical meaningful binocs), I did get a chance to look up at a far more southern sky than I’m used to seeing.
The trip was a family vacation to tropical northern Queensland, specifically, Port Douglas and Cairns, so we were mostly between 16.5 and 17 degrees south latitude, definitely in the tropics, but not all that far south.
The first thing that I noticed was how high Scorpius is at that latitude. It’s practically overhead, along with the teapot, with the Milky Way running pretty much between the two. While shielding my view from the bright and numerous resort lights, the sky was still noticeably dark, which allowed the Milky Way to be so visible. What also stood out was a splotch of fuzz between the scorpion tail and the teapot spout, which is known as the open star cluster M7. It was very bright, very noticeable with the naked eye.
After I got over my fascination of how high these summer, er, winter constellations were, I turned my focus to the unknown area just below Scorpius (would that be south or Scorpius, or maybe south west?). It was entirely unfamiliar, and I knew that was a completely new area of the sky that I’ve never seen before. That was a really cool feeling, knowing that I was looking at something I’ve never seen before, something I can’t see from home because it’s over and beyond my familiar horizon.
Checking the southern hemisphere sky map (thanks for sending it, Ed!), I realized that it was mostly Centaurus that occupied that space. This constellation, according to Wikipedia, is visible only up to about 25 degrees north. Its two brightest stars, alpha (yes, *that* Alpha Centauri), and beta, which, btw, are unmistakably bright, point directly to Crux, the southern cross. Crux is recognizable as a cross, and the “fifth” star of the cross that’s depicted in Australia’s national flag, though readily apparent in the sky, isn’t all that noteworthy. I would opine that it could easily have been left out of their flag and ensigns. I have to go with New Zealand (and a few others) on this one.
The other constellations I identified were the southern crown (Corona Australis) and Triangulum Australe.
After doing a couple of brief (ten or fifteen minute) naked eye observation sessions over a few days, I wanted to see if there was anyone local that I could meet up with to get a better tour, possibly a telescopic one, of the views from sixteen degrees south. Turns out that there is an astronomy group in Cairns, but unfortunately, emails to their listed address went unanswered while I was there.
Of course I wish that I had brought some gear and prepared better for this visit to the south, but I have to remind myself that I went in knowing that this was not going to be an astronomy focused trip. The scuba diving at the Great Barrier Reef, visiting the rainforest as far north as Cape Tribulation, and avoiding the pademelons, wallabies and kangaroos on the road at dusk kept me busy. It’s a really interesting area of Australia to visit, where the rainforest meets the reef, as they say, and the lack of astronomy during this visit only gives me an excuse to go there again, perhaps further south, so that the Magellanic Clouds can also be bagged!
Dave IttnerDear SJAA Member,
The San Jose Astronomical Association (SJAA) has been in existence for 60 years now. For many of those years, the club has offered its members the benefit of subscribing to Sky & Telescope magazine when they join or renew their membership. Due to the significant growth of the club, and issues beyond our control, we have determined that the club can no longer continue this service.
We are facing a number of challenges that directly affect our ability to offer this service. For example:
– Long lead times – the process is very manual which also involves sending a letter via US Mail to the publisher on the east coast.
– Renewal offers – the publisher begins sending renewal notices soon after receiving the subscription, which can be confusing to the subscriber.
– Better offers – many times, the renewal offers are a better deal for the subscriber than the rates the SJAA can offer.
– Manual process – processing the subscriptions is a manual process, which takes quite a bit of valuable volunteer time, especially when there are hiccups in the process.
– Not a fundraiser – the SJAA usually loses a little bit of money with each subscription, which not only makes this service not a fundraiser, but a slight drain on resources.
Many of our members have reported that it is actually better to subscribe/renew directly with S&T as they receive a lower price and significantly faster service. One outside service that offers a deeper discount is via the Astronomy Society of the Pacific. You can subscribe to S&T, Astronomy Magazine, and StarDate Magazine from this page:
http://www.astrosociety.org/magazine/
Another publication that out members are finding of great interest is Astronomy Technology Today. This magazine focuses on astronomy equipment, gear and technology, more so than S&T or Astronomy magazines. ATT offers a discount to SJAA members.
https://www.astronomytechnologytoday.com/
Please email Ed Wong, the Membership Coordinator, at sjaamemberships@gmail.com for the discount code.
The many downsides listed above, along with the available alternatives, have helped us make the decision to suspend offering the S&T subscription service. For those of you who have taken advantage of this service over the years, we regret not being able to continue, but we are confident you can get a better variety, better service, and at a better price, by going with the alternatives mentioned above.
Our club relies on volunteers who generously donate their time in support of all club activities, and the board thanks all of them for the most valuable contributions they can make, which is their time.
Thank you for your understanding and continued support.
Regards,
Dave Ittner
President
SJAA
Rob Jaworski
The SJAA is in the process of automating various aspects of club operations. Examples include subscribing (and unsubscribing) to email lists, renewing memberships, maintaining event calendars, creating and adapting an auction system, and lots more. We are forming a team whose mission will be to identify these needs, prioritize them, projectize them, and tackle them. These are essentially software development, implementation and integration projects.
A kickoff meeting has been scheduled to get this started.
Event: SJAA Coders Inaugural Meeting
Place: Houge Park, Bldg 1, San Jose, Calif
Date: Sunday May 17 2015
Time: 2-4pm
We’re looking for people with various skills including:
Our annual spring auction is our biggest single fundraiser of the year, and hence it’s very important to the club. It can get intense, so we’re looking to automate the bookkeeping and item/bidder/seller tracking. During this kickoff meeting, we’ll demo a prototype of a python-based auction manager that’s in the works. We’ll throw in a wrinkle into the demo to make things interesting, so bring your laptops/tablets!
Those who want to acquire new skills are also welcome. If you’re interested please join us at our inaugural meeting and/or join the new SJAA Coders Google group.
Hope to see you there!
Ed WongThe Houge Park Hall was buzzing with activity today with several programs going on at the sametime. The SJAA Fixit Program, SJAA Library and SJAA Advanced Loaner program were all open today to serve our members and public. We had people coming for help with telescope collimation questions, eyepiece and lens cell questions. We also did collimation procedures on some scope being returned for the Advanced Loaner Program. We had people stopping by to check out scopes for the Advance Loaner Program too. Our wonderful Librarian Sukhada Palav was busy checking and cataloging books and evaluating future books for the Library.
We also had a bonus activity going on too. Question? How many astronomers does it take to setup a really big telescope? Answer: 4
Rob Jaworski, Phil Chambers, Teruo Utsumi and Vini Carter were busy assembling the 20 inch Obsession Telescope that was graciously donated to the club by our dear friend Dr. Robert Armstrong and his family. The intent was to learn how to setup the telescope so we can share some views with it with the public and club members soon. Looks like with the braintrust of the fabulous four they had it assemble and figured out in no time. Thanks for the effort guys. Can’t wait for the views to be seen. I documented the big event with photos
Enjoy,
Ed Wong
We were so very lucky to see the Sun between the clouds at the get go as were 3 public bystanders. One long stringy (35 Earth Diameters!) C-Class H-Alpha flare was seen stringing out from the solar disc from AR-2324. We Stayed until 3PM sharing views with about 60 people walking or biking the Los Gatos Creek Trail. Happy Astronomy Day, stellar cheers and enjoy the below pics.
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE
C-Class Flare Observed. This Gif was taken a day earlier so flare is just inside the solar disc.
Sunspots for Today. This Image was taken a day earlier. Today’s Sunspot count was 79 NOAA
Entire Solar Disc in H-Alpha, note Prominences and Filaments. Credit Wolf W.
Image taken today in H-Alpha courtesy of SpaceWeather.com
Susan O’Neil Teaching On Our Sun’s Atmospheres
Wolf and his Scope (Far left), Bill O’Neil, Michael Packer and his scopes (Far right)
Bill O at SJAA’s 100mm H-Alpha Scope
SJAA at 2015 Earth Day City of Cupertino.
Simply said our Sun drives life on Earth.
Bill at Club’s scope. We had several prominences all in the 2-3 earth diameters range.
Terry at her H-Alpha. Lot of girls stopped by today.
Bill’s 10-inch Dob saw more sunspots than estimated by NOAA. Terrific faculae today.
Walking around Earth Day and the art of connection.
Santa Clara Audubon’s Booth
Malika sharing info on Sunspots
Thanks to are volunteers who brought a smile and awe to all!
Member April 2015 Eclipse Shots
Members, send us one or two of you lunar eclipse photos (max size 720×1280) to
m.dot packer at yahoo dot com and we’ll post here. People shots welcome!
“look for oranges, reds, greys and turquoise“
The source of the turquoise is ozone. During a lunar eclipse, most of the light illuminating the Moon passes through the stratosphere, and is reddened (can look orange) by scattering. However, light passing through the upper stratosphere penetrates the ozone layer, which absorbs red light and actually makes the passing light ray bluer” This can be seen as a turquoise fringe around the red.
CLICK ON ANY PHOTO TO ENLARGE
Marilyn Perry, Canon T3i, f/5, 0.6 sec, ISO800, 200mm
Christopher Calubaquib San Jose Nikon D7000, 300mm
35th Annual Spring Auction
It was “good to see friends from other clubs like Tri-Valley, Mid Peninsula, etc.” – SJAA’s Bill O’Neil
2015 Auction. Credit for all photos goes to Ed Wong unless otherwise stated. Thanks Ed.
| CLICK ANY IMAGE IN BLOG TO ENLARGE |
A Little History
Computer Auction Organizer JVN over a decade ago. Credit Dan Wright.
Kevin Medlock started off the auction with a little history. The San Jose Astronomical Association’s First Auction was held 35 years ago at a Red Cross building in Los Gatos. The Red Cross is no longer there but the building still is. And there was a large crowd anticipating this first auction. But back then there was no computer or pizza to make the day go easier. In later years when SJAA did finally have an IBM computer to keep track of buys and sells for 100’s of items it was still a slow process. Jim Van Nuland recalls one seller who brought in over a 100 items(!) and then accidentally put one on the auction block at a low price. He had to buy it back by out-bidding everyone else.
Upfront Thanks
35 years later, SJAA has better computers but generations of new volunteer Board members and “better” software still can make the day a lot of work for our organizers. A special thanks to the SJAA Board, our Auctioneer Kevin Medlock and snack organizer Marianne Damon. You guys made it real, fun, made it real fun!
 Seated left to right: Dave Ittner, Rob Jaworski and Teruo Utsumi |
 Kevin Medlock |
Snacks provided by Marianne Damon
Results
This year we had 156 items for auction. SJAA sold $3,749 worth of stuff and Sellers sold $4,887. Congratulations to both Buyers and Sellers. Below are a few pics of the day.
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 Credit M. Packer |
Below Left: Lee talking to private bidder from Russia.
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Thanks to all of you for joining – see you in the field and at next auction!
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We talked about Leonard Nimoy at today’s Solar Sunday. There is no doubt that Star Trek is part of the amateur astronomy mind set. The common element of wanting to seek out and explore our universe, and of course imaging life out there is intriguing. And we amateurs get to explore and imagine with our telescopes. Just as appealing – is imagining Gene Roddenberry’s future – where there is no discrimination between a community of planets. Spock’s character brought that universe to life and Leonard Nemoy’s sensibility to the character endeared the minds of a staggering and still growing fan base that started 50 years ago. Many thanks Leonard for ensuring these ideals live long and prosper.
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 Leonard Nimoy 1931 – 2015 |
 Sanjay’s daughter, below, iphoned this pic. |
Sunday Solar had about 15 visitors today with many of them observing and talking about the sun for an hour or more. We counted 53 sunspots, 11 filaments (prominences), and limb prominences at moderately high power. Below are some of the dedicated patrons!
Terry K’s grab and go H-Alpha with new Eyepiece:
Malika
Carl R pointing out Sunspots
Below Wolf W. showing H-Alpha views with his 100mm Lunt.
2015 Golden State Star Party (GSSP)
Wednesday, July 15
To Sunday, July 19 (4 nights)
GSSP is an imagers haven
The biggest and darkest skies you’re likely to encounter are there, about 6 hours drive from the south bay. Lots of great amenities, friendly people, wonderful gracious and open locals in an interesting and little-visited part of the state.
Last year’s obsidian hunting outing, led by Bob Czerwinski, was a fun highlight for me. I’d like to do it again. Lava Beds and Mount Lassen nearby are great day trips, as are the many hot springs in the area.
I really encourage checking it out and making the effort to attend. It is MUCH easier to be there than the uninitiated think.
Early (and less expensive) registration is on through March. Check it out: http://www.goldenstatestarparty.org
Dark skies beckon!
Regards,
The Astronomy Connection (TAC) Team and SJAA
SJAA Annual Meeting and Potluck
CLICK ANY IMAGE TO ENLARGE
Elections were held, food served, and a few members were recognized for making SJAA shine. Greg Claytor did an outstanding job of noting all that our clubs does – and his son took the above picture of SJAA members in attendance. The Elected Board members for open seats in 2015 were Teruo Utsumi, Ed Wong, Lee Hoglan and Michael Packer. The Board has one seat open. If you wish to nominate yourself or another member please contact any board member.
Below are the folks who were awarded for their SJAA efforts. Each recipient also got a bonafied astronomy cup that shows the constellations when it’s heated up with coffee, tea, coco, broth… you get the idea.
Teri Rogoway given the SJAA Recognition Award by Greg Claytor for helping SJAA secure dark sky observing sites, late at night, and outside city lights. Much thanks Teri.
Gary Chock has showed up and shared the night sky at just about every dark sky event SJAA hosted last year – Wow – Thanks Gary!
Sukhada Palav has taken it upon herself to stock an Astronomy Library with books and magazines that both kids and adults can enjoy/utilize. Last year the Library really came to life! Thanks Sukhada.
Greg Claytor and Teruo Utsumi receive awards on behalf of Marianne Damon and Tom Piller (not pictured). In addition to her outreach, Marianne was the reason every SJAA meeting had coffee and snacks last year. SJAA recognized Tom Piller for his outreach last year his editorship of the SJAA Ephemeris News Letter. Thanks to you both! Below is a pic of three recipients in attendance – you might call these mug shots – seeing as they are holding their cups!
We also retroactively handed out constellation mugs to SJAA’s last year award recipients:
Left to Right: Jim Van Newland, Teri Kahl, Paul Mancuso, Bill O’Neil, Carl Reisinger
Below are a few more pics of the evening. Thanks to all of you for making SJAA a fun place to reach for the stars. And great food btw!
