The Board is pleasantly surprised to see how busy the Star Parties have been and to see our membership grow. We are very excited to announce that we’re one member away to having 70 people! In other words, we have 69 members. It’s the most members the Society has ever had.
It was very apparent to me at our May 31 Star Party. I tried to arrive earlier than usual (which means before sunset) and was surprised to see people were already lined up at Kevin Simpson’s and Ed Ching’s telescopes to view the moon. Even though the sun hadn’t set yet, it was plainly visible. I was torn between setting up and taking pictures. Since Ed Ching was there with his other Astroscan, I opted for taking pictures and then setting up. After I set up the Astroscan Ed lent to me and the telescope given to me by Frank Graham, Ed and I took turns on focusing on different but close objects. Then later on, when I saw an extremely long line for one of Kevin’s telescopes, I had to go take pictures.
After taking pictures, I was amazed to see that the entire sidewalk from end-to-end was completely full of telescopes. It hit me that I had never seen so many telescopes, so out of curiosity, I decided to count them. I was shocked and impressed to tell the other Board members that I counted 16 telescopes! Granted, a couple might have been astrophotography set ups, but they still count, right?
When I shared the news with former Society President, Mike Ryan, he asked if anyone had counted the people. It made my mind swirl. Besides it being the most number of telescopes, it was the also the most people I had seen. How could we count people when they are wandering? And in the dark? Perhaps we just need to remember to take pictures and remember to get all of the telescopes. In one of the pics, I counted 30 adults and children around Kevin!
Again, we’re so excited to see the Society to continue to grow and ask that everyone keep on encouraging membership. With the membership fees, we’re able to get our remarkable presenters for our monthly meetings along with our pizza parties.
The Board is always open to suggestions and welcome any feedback about what you would like to see the Society do. It’s definitely a group effort!
Thank you for your continued support.
It’s good to see the Society outreach attracting new interested participants, and to see the membership grow. However, 70 is not our largest member count ever. We had 94 back in 1978, reached well over 100 in the 1990s, and briefly peaked at 140 in 2002 and 2003, the year when Mars was so close and bright that it resembled a red Venus in the night sky.