general meetings

[Rob Jaworski]

Hello SJAA Members and Friends,
I'd like to acknowledge what happened with last weekend's general meeting where things didn't go as well as they normally do.  We hit a bit of a rough patch with our speaker becoming unavailable, then the turbulence continued as our regular communication channels were unavailable and the backup lines got crossed.

Such confusion is quite rare, and if you were planning to go to the general meeting, then discovered at the last minute it was canceled, then soon learned it was still on, I understand the confusion it could cause and I'm sorry about that.  The board and all other SJAA volunteers have learned from that experience and we now know to have a solid Plan B in place.

Looking forward, we are working to double confirm the availability of our next guest speaker, Timothy Ferris, who is scheduled for our May 25 general meeting.  Ferris is the author of a dozen books, among them Seeing in the Dark, The Whole Shebang, and Coming of Age in the Milky Way. Check out his website for more on his background; it should be a great talk.
http://www.timothyferris.com/

And we just got word today that in August, we'll host Dr. Christopher P. McKay of NASA/Ames who will talk about the search for life on other planets, with an update from the Mars Curiosity Rover.  McKay is becoming a bit of an astro celebrity, I would almost say!

Thanks for your support, and I hope you have plans to get some good observing time in with this great weather we're having.

See you in the dark!

Rob Jaworski
San Jose Astronomical Association
http://www.sjaa.net/
http://sanjoseastronomy.blogspot.com/
twitter: sj_astronomy
https://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/club-view.cfm?Club_ID=49
event hotline: 408-559-1221
http://www.meetup.com/A-A-N-C/