The Latest News & Upcoming Events
January's Meeting
This month our speaker is Bruce Macintosh, who is an astronomer in the optics group at the Lawrence Livermore
National Laboratory. He has worked on applying LLNL's expertise in adaptive optics to scientific problems,
particularly astronomy, and was a founding member and associate director of the NSF Center for Adaptive
Optics. His primary research interest is the direct detection and characterization of extrasolar planets. In
his talk, he will describe the techniques used to image four massive planets orbiting the young star HR8799. He
will also tell us the properties of these planets and what this tells us about planet formation. These images
were obtained using the Keck II telescope. He will describe some follow-on projects such as the Gemini Planet
Imager and a specialized space telescope that could see planets like the Earth orbiting nearby stars.
Dues are due!
TVS' membership year runs from January to December, so now is the time to renew your membership. Our membership
rates remain unchanged from last year, as do the subscription rates for Astronomy and Sky & Telescope. We no
longer offer the "Regular" membership level since we do not send out printed copies of the
newsletter. Rather, at the "Basic" membership level we contact you via e-mail to let you know that a .pdf
of the newsletter is available. The renewal form can be found on the back of the
newsletter
or on our website
under the
membership
link. Please make our Treasurer’s New Year especially wonderful by sending in your renewal
today.
TVS Volunteers Still Needed
We need a volunteer to be the Program Chairman!
We also need a volunteer for
the position of Vice President, and we could use more members at large to serve
on the Board of Directors. If you wish
to help with any of these positions, please contact any officer or
board member.
Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (RASC) Handbooks and Calendars Available for Purchase
The club now has RASC Handbooks and Calendars available for purchase. According to the
website
the 2012 edition of the handbook is bundled with the Earth Centered Universe
Planetarium Software. This free software will function through March 31, 2013 and will not perform predictions
for events later than December 31, 2013. Prices are $25 for the Handbook and $17 for the Calendar. This increase
from last year is due to both the RASC raising their prices and significantly raising their freight charges. See
David Feindel for purchases, or contact him via email to arrange to pick up
Handbooks and/or Calendars if you can’t attend the meeting. Visit the RASC web site For more information on the
handbook
and
calendar.
TVS
Logo Wear
You may have seen some TVS members wearing shirts and jackets
embroidered with the TVS logo. If you are interested in obtaining an
embroidered logo item, you can do so by ordering whatever you would like
through Land's
End's Corporate Sales section and specifying TVS logo #0118948.
You will need to set up an account, which will ask for the logo number
and the TVS customer number (3452021).
TVS
has also set up shop at Cafepress
for members to buy non-embroidered TVS logo wear. You can have the TVS
logo put on t-shirts, mugs, buttons, hats, coasters, etc. You buy
through Cafepress, and Cafepress sends TVS a portion of the proceeds.
Visit the web site to see all the TVS logo possibilities.
