We had most of the “hard-liners” turn out for the meeting. Dean, Keith, Hank, Harry and I were present for our 80th meeting. It was only a short 8 weeks since our previous meeting but the weather has gone from snow shovels to salt tablets for the heat and humidity. The Chicago area always provides…
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We zoomed again and this time I had some new technology, a new webcam that enabled me to host the meeting from my desktop rather than my overwhelmed laptop. Dean, Harry( by phone), Hank, and surprise participant, Keith, joined me in the discussion. We kept the meeting to 2 1/4 hours but covered a vast…
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We zoomed again. Keith helped as co-host and Beth, Chad, Dave and Harry participated. We also had a special participant, Jim Plaxco, President of the Chicago Society for Space Studies, who added his knowledge on the topics we were discussing. First topic was concern about the Space Camp organization going bankrupt. Beth is a two…
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The pandemic continues but our comfort with Zoom seems to be improving. Co-hosting by Keith improved performance and we were able to play video clips without any problems. I mentioned that July 21st was our 9th anniversary of holding meetings and tonight was our 66th get-together. It was a smaller group of meeting stalwarts with…
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We did it! The US launched 2 astronauts from Florida on a SpaceX Dragon2 capsule! Weather was iffy but it seemed like the clouds opened up and provided an opportunity at the 2:22 PM launch time. Dean, Keith, Hank, Phil and I were all “zoomed” in to share the event. The 1 minute discrepancy among…
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Keith, Hank, Harry and I checked into the Zoom meeting to share our experiences for the launch. Unfortunately, the countdown reached T-17 minutes and it was scrubbed for weather criteria. Electrical potential and cumulus clouds plus another factor were all out of bounds for a successful launch. Ironically, 25 minutes later all the weather criteria…
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Because of the limitations of Zoom we weren’t able to discuss a few miscellaneous topics, I thought I’d share my notes on them before they become too stale. NASA has been having yearly contests of short amateur films made from their archival footage. Here are some recent winners in Cinespace 2019. Particular moving is this…
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With us all locked down for the coronavirus pandemic, we tried Zoom for a digital meeting. We had good participation with, Keith, Phil, Harry (ending work at Ohare), Hank, Dave (mostly only audio), Beth & Chad, Dean (with a slight delay from technical problems) and myself. I was a little disappointed that when I shared…
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We had a good turn out after an 18 week hiatus. Dean, Beth, Chad, Harry, Dave, Keith and his friend, Hank and I. The background for my presentation had this interesting photo showing men on horseback riding up to check on the Soyuz capsule with one of the Russian helicopters in the shot. I thought…
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Silvio, Dave, Harry and I were in attendance for our 63rd meeting.It was ironic that after 8 years we are still waiting for the first manned launch of the Commercial Crew program. A person could have gone through high-school and college in that time. But I assured the group that the first manned flights are…
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I started the meeting with a cool picture from the Hubble Space Telescope. The smile is the distorted image of a galaxy behind the two eyes which has had its light bent by the gravity of the foreground galaxies. The photo was taken with the Wide Field Camera 3 which astronauts installed during the last…
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We had a good turnout with Dean, Keith, Dave, Jim A. and myself in attendance. We started our 7th anniversary meeting with some of our recent experiences. I had finished COD astronomer Joe DalSanto’s two astronomy courses each consisting of 12 well produced videos available on YouTube. The course titles are “Stars and Galaxies” and…
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Dean, Silvio, Dave, Beth, Chad and I were in attendance for the first meeting of 2018. Last minute work issues prevented Keith and Phil from attending. This meeting turned into a SpaceX Falcon Heavy and Falcon9 fest. I apologize to Dean for delaying our kickoff of the Carl Sagan Cosmos revisit. I promise to minimize my…
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Dean, Keith, Silvio, Harry, Phil and I were in attendance for our last meeting of 2017. I kicked the meeting off by describing how Carol and I had watched the ISS flyover the previous night around 5:15 PM while we were walking the Prairie Path. Just as the ISS pasted the zenith, we saw another…
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Who would of thought that we would have a new record for MASS attendance with 10 people. It was almost a “standing room only” situation. There was Dean, Silvio, Jim A., Dave, Harry, Dennis, Beth, Chad, myself and Dave’s friend Calvin. One thing I noticed is that when we have that big a group our…
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What a delightful meeting we had! Even though I was a little under the weather with a UI, everyone’s feedback on the eclipse and the attendance of Beth and her husband Chad added some great discussion to the topics. With Dean, Silvio, Phil, Jim A., Keith and I in attendance, it was a great turnout.…
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It was a long 9 weeks since the last meeting but we pressed ahead and got our get-together in before the eclipse. Dean, Silvio, Harry, Harry’s friend Denny and myself were in attendance. There was no main topic tonight but we all looked forward to Harry briefing us on his multiple-day stay at the Oshkosh…
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This was our 51st meeting! Again a long 14 weeks between get-togethers. Keith, Silvio, Harry, Dave, Phil, Jim A. and I were in attendance, so it was a great turnout. We were going to shoot for a new Guiness Record for “Number of Topics Discussed” because I had notes for 38 defined topics and 8…
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This was our 50th meeting! Boy, time sure flies when you’re having a good time! Keith, Silvio, Harry, Dave, Phil, Dean and I were in attendance. Since it had been 15 long weeks since our last meeting, we spent quite a bit of time catching up on what people had been up to. Dean made a…
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This was our 49th meeting. Dean, Harry, Dave and his friend Liz, Keith and I were in attendance. As the first order of business, we all suggested that Keith credit himself on the website. It would not exist without his support and technical expertise. There are quite a few interesting programs coming on this November.…
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This was our 48th meeting. Jim A., Keith, Phil, Silvio, Dean and I were in attendance. We suggested that Keith add a spot on the web site assigning himself credit as the designer of the site. But so far I don’t see a picture or any text related to him. 6/19/16 I went to the CSSS meeting…
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MASS Meeting Nov 6, 2015 Last meeting was 9/25/15, 6 weeks ago, attendees Dean, Phil, Harry, Dave, Sylvio & I (6); Today is our 42nd meeting, in attendance special guest Kevin (our 2nd professional astronomer), Keith, Phil, Sylvio, Ed, Jim A. and Sophia and I (9) Started Meeting with music video “Over the Horizon” produced…
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MASS Meeting Sept 25, 2015 Previous meeting was 8/14/15, in attendance Dean, Phil, Harry, Jim A. & I (5); our 41st meeting; Library with Dean “Shine on Harvest Moon” Monday 9/28/15 7-8 PM I’m taking 4 courses online: Calculus of Ohio State Univ., Geology from Univ. of Illinois, 2 astronomy courses – “The Evolving Universe” from CalTech &…
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Last Friday the meeting started a half hour early, so that we could dine with plenty of time for subsequent Pluto discussion. The evening started with crackers and a cheese ball imprinted with a heart of cheese. We could call that our version of Tombaugh Regio. Some partook in a “Pluto” beer. Actual Uranus (full…
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