BIG Binoculars Add to AOAS' Arsenal

20 X 100 Apogee Astro-Vue binoculars with built-in Nebula Filters arrived in July and we now have them ready to use on the mounting below.

Thanks to donations from our members in attendance at the June 18th meeting, we ordered and received a wonderful pair of LARGE binoculars for use at all our outings. Upon receipt of the binoculars, I was eager to see what they looked like and took this image. I can't wait for a clear night to try out the built-in Nebula Filters with this new mount!

These binoculars were made possible by donations totaling $400 at the June 18th meeting from the following members: Roberta Parks ($100), Margaret Brogley ($100), Chuck Larson ($100), Joe Roam ($60), Cathy Goodwin ($20) and Sue Burgett ($20). Thanks to all of you for making the funds available for this purchase without dipping into our building fund.

Mounting finished 09-10-04

At our "Stars in the Parks" outing at Carol Ann Cross Park on May 21st, members Richard and Valerie McMullen from Fayetteville came armed with a pair of 20X80 binos. Several of us who attended were impressed by the image of comet Q4 NEAT as it continued it's climb northward towards the Big Dipper. As most amateurs know, the BEST way to see a comet is through binoculars. It's the only way to magnify the image and keep most, if not all, of the tail in the field-of-view.





I hope everyone of our members will come to our meeting at Coleman Observatory tomorrow night and observe with us through these big binos and our other telescopes. The public is also invited to attend. Our next outing for the public will be Friday, Sept 17th at Carol Ann Cross Park, with the next night (Sat the 18th) as a back-up night in case of cloudy or rainy conditions on the 17th.

Our next event will be a regular club meeting at Creekmore Park on Friday, October 15th, and then we will CHANGE dates for the October "Stars in the Parks" event originally scheduled for the 16th at Carol Ann Cross Park. Instead, we will hold a public night at this same location for a TOTAL LUNAR ECLIPSE on Wednesday evening, October 27th beginning at 7:00 PM. Mid-eclipse will be at 10:04 PM and we hope to have some local television coverage of this public event. Try to make any one or all of these events and have a look through our newest "BIG GUNS", or possibly a view of the "coppery-red" lunar eclipse.