October 2009 President's Message
By: Barbara Toy
October 10, 2009 9:10PM PDT
Views: 3033
October 2009 President’s Message By Barbara Toy Well, we're past the autumnal equinox and the start of the new school year and heading fast toward the holiday season and the winter solstice – the year does seem to have gone by fast in spite of all the problems we’ve seen in the news and in the lives of too many of our members all year. We keep hearing about signs that the economy is turning around, but there are still too many of us who are finding that times are getting tougher with any hope of improvement still far in the future. If you can give any encouragement to anyone you know in that situation, please do. And if you happen to be in that situation yourself – I hope things improve much faster for you than you fear, and that your interest in astronomy gives you some mental relief from whatever troubles you may be facing. Turning to matters within the club… OCA Election for the 2010 Board: We start taking nominations for the 2010 Board at the October general meeting, so do get ready to throw your hat in the ring for a position on the Board! We know that one of our current Trustees won’t be running next year, so there will be an empty position – why not fill that yourself? As I’ve said before, serving on the Board is a lot of fun as well as important to keeping the club healthy and running well. As of the time I write this, the list of candidates for positions on the Board is: President: Craig Bobchin Vice President: Secretary: Bob Buchheim Treasurer: Charlie Oostdyke Trustees: Gary Schones, Alan Smallbone, Shelia Cassidy, Steve Short, Kyle Coker, Barbara Toy Craig Bobchin has been doing a great job as Vice President for the last five years, which may be a club record for consecutive terms in that position. I’m looking forward to seeing what he can do as President, and it will be very nice to have a fresh but experienced face in that position! When he announced his willingness to run for Vice President, Almost every year it seems we face the sad loss of one or more valued members of the Board, and this time, after losing Sheryl Benedict to her new life in The OCA Outreach Group: We mention “outreach” and the “outreach group” a lot around the club – they’re featured in the club announcements every month, noted on the club calendar, announced on the email groups, and so on. To those of us who’ve been involved with this aspect of the club’s activities, it’s clear what is meant, but that may not be the case for all of you. So, this is my view of the our outreach program, offered in hopes that it will clear up any questions you might have about it (if I missed one, please email me and I’ll be happy to give you more information), and that it will encourage you to join in this fundamental club activity. When we talk about the outreach group, we’re generally referring to Jim Benet’s group of volunteers who do outreach events at various schools, parks and other venues. Jim schedules the events and actually makes it to most of them himself – as he has since becoming the Outreach Coordinator sometime before I joined the club in 1999 (though he’s having to scale back now because of other obligations). The group’s “meetings” are the outreach events themselves – one of the great pleasures of doing these events is the chance to visit with the other volunteers, help each other out, and check out the equipment other volunteers bring to each event (particularly anything that’s new or is being used in a new way). The greatest pleasure of these events, though, and the heart of what we mean by “outreach,” is sharing views of the night sky (and sometimes the sun, during daylight outreaches) with all kinds of people, most of whom have never had a chance to see these things for themselves before and are very grateful for the chance to look through your telescope and for any information you can give them about what they’re looking at. We all delight in seeing children’s faces light up when they connect with what they’re seeing, but it’s just as rewarding to see the pleasure and sense of discovery in faces of all ages and hear the excitement in their voices as they talk about what they’re seeing. Our winter outreaches are usually at different schools around Orange County, and are limited to students from the hosting school and their families (these are listed on our website calendar as “private” events, as the schools can’t have them open to the general public because of liability issues). Even so, there can be 200 to 300 people at these events, enough to keep five or six telescopes very busy indeed – the more volunteers we can muster for the larger events the better. Outreaches at parks, libraries, the The main part of these events is volunteers bringing their telescopes or other viewing equipment for people to look through. Sometimes there’ll be a presentation of some kind to kick things off – evenings at the Mary Muth Center start with a presentation inside the center, followed by viewing outside, for instance, and some of the other events start with Jim, Steve Short or someone else pointing out some of the naked-eye objects that are visible in the sky, talking about particular items of interest that we might be viewing, or getting people primed to spot an Iridium Flare or something like the space station passing overhead – but often the volunteers just set up and start dealing with the people who are showing up to view without any initial presentation. The best way to get involved with this group is to email Jim Benet (jimbenet@pacbell.net) and ask to be put on his mailing list, though he puts all of the information about scheduled outreaches on the OCA website calendar, as well, including directions on how to get to the different events. He sends out regular reminders about upcoming outreaches, and which ones he needs more volunteers for – choose one or more that are convenient for you and let Jim know you plan to be there, take your scope or other viewing equipment out there, set up (this is when there’s usually a lot of visiting between the volunteers) and prepare to have a busy, fun and satisfying evening. If you have any questions about particular events or the outreach program in general, Jim is the best person to contact. If you want to check out what happens at these events before bringing out any of your equipment, it’s best to show up before the event is scheduled to start so you have a chance to talk to the volunteers as they are setting up and see how they organize things – and they often can use a bit of help, if you can provide it. There should be an article in this edition of the Sirius Astronomer from Jim Benet, giving some statistics and other information on the program. Most of the schools where we have done these programs become repeat customers, so to speak – they want us back every year because their students and the students’ families all learn a lot at these events and enjoy them so much. Most of my own outreach activities now are working with the Kuhn or with the Beginners Astronomy Class, but when I was a regular with Jim’s program, I would often talk to students who were in one of the classes that hosted us at their school one year and made it a point to come back in later years so they could look through the telescopes again even though they were no longer in a related class, because they were so thrilled with their first experience. There aren’t many ways you can have that kind of positive impact on a kid in an interaction of just a few minutes, but doing outreach gives you that chance – I hope you’ll try some volunteering for the program and see for yourself what a fun and inspiring experience it can be! OCA Field Trips You may recall that I mentioned in a past President’s Message that I’d heard that there had been several club field trips in the past, but I didn’t know many details. Don Lynn has since kindly filled me in on the past club field trips he recalled. I didn’t take notes, unfortunately, but among the trips he told me about I recall trips to Stony Ridge Observatory (SRO) is a large private observatory located near If anyone is interested in arranging a club tour of any of these or other local astronomical facilities, we welcome your efforts and assistance in setting it up. Fortunately, both Mt. Wilson and Stony Ridge Observatory seem to have escaped serious damage from the Station Fire themselves, but it looks like it’ll be a long time before the roads up there will be open to the public due to fire damage to the roads (particularly to guardrails and anything else that contained wood or melted in the high heat) and the instability of the slopes above the roads from the loss of vegetation and other effects of the fire. For more information about the effects of the fire and pictures of the devastation left behind it, see the In spite of its historical importance and the fact that it remains a significant research facility, They have posted an urgent appeal for donations to help them make up for the shortfall in their budget caused by the fire and to help pay for these additional expenses. I know times are hard for all of us, but © Barbara Toy, September 2009 showed tremendous and welcome enthusiasm for that position – after seeing what he has been doing for our website as our current Webmaster and hearing his proposals for improvements and additions we could make to it since he took over that responsibility, I am really looking forward to seeing him in action as Vice President!
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