The October monthly meeting of the San Juan Stargazers will be on Thursday, Oct. 3, at the regular time of 6 p.m. for the social hour and 7 p.m. program time.
We will meet at our regular location — the Community United Methodist Church on Lewis Street. Please use the convenient parking lot and side door that leads into the kitchen and fellowship hall. (We keep the front doors locked.)
We will have a member-speaker, Tom Hanchett, who worked at Houston Mission Control for the Apollo missions. This past summer many people who worked on the Apollo program gathered in Houston for the 50th anniversary. NASA made a film of the highlights.
Hanchett was a special panel speaker. He will be sharing the film and many personal stories with us. This should be interesting, historical and, like anything that Hanchett does, of quality and a lot of fun.
A reminder that Oct. 21 will be the last major lunar standstill event of this year.
The standstill will continue into 2025, and some special events are in the planning stage for next year. On Monday night, the gate at Chimney Rock National Monument will open at 7 p.m., the program will begin at 8:30 p.m. and moonrise will be at 9:38 p.m.
The moon is providing much better timing for this event. Thank you, moon.
Club activities
Our November monthly meeting will be on Nov. 7 at the regular times. Our speaker, our very own professional astronomer, Dr. Andy Green, will be sharing his area of specialty: how galaxies are formed.
Our December monthly meeting will be on Dec. 5 at the regular times, with the program being a summary of the James Webb Space Telescope discoveries of 2024. At this time the discoveries are exciting, but, by December, they could be beyond our wildest dreams.
In January, February and March of 2025, we will be doing something new and fun at our monthly meetings. As a club, we like to encourage our membership in the areas of personal growth, increased participation and to expand our knowledge of the universe. We will do all three in the new year, and you do not want to miss this great opportunity.
Space mysteries
calendars available
We are selling the calendars for $15. That is not to order them, but to have them in your hands to take home. They are here. Half of them have been already sold.
If the calendar is being given as a gift to a child, there is a special $3 discount.
About
If you would like to join the San Juan Stargazers, you will also receive Reflector Magazine, which is the publication of the National Astronomical League of which you automatically become a member. To join both groups and get an excellent astronomy magazine, annual membership is only $25 per family.
You can join the club at any of our events or you can join using PayPal on our website, sanjuanstargazers.org.
Check out our continuously changing website with new information and spectacular photos. We can be your connection to our extraordinary universe.
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