May Calendar

The next SAS monthly meeting at the Library Center will be May 27th. Starting time is 7:00 PM.

Our topic will be on 'Automated Observatories'. Please make plans to attend.

If you wish to receive email updates from the Springfield Astronomical Society on upcoming events, please sign up on our email notification like. You do not need to be a member.

For more information about this months meeting or the star party, please contact Dale Flippo at dalerflippo@aol.com

Solar Observing Day photos

2005 MSRAL Information

The Mid-States convention is fast approaching.

The 2005 convention, ALConExpo 2005, will be held in Kansas City, MO. on August 12th & 13th at the Sheraton Hotel located at I-435 & Nall. Carroll Iorg is the convention chair (816) 444-4878, carroll-iorg@kc.rr.com.

The emphasis this year will be on astronomy products, and we expect to have many vendors present. Speakers will include Don Parker, Michael Bakich and Dr. Bruce Twarog from the University of Kansas. The banquet speaker, Bruce Bradley, from Linda Hall Science & Technology Library, will talk about how the library was able to amass such a world-famous collection of rare astronomy books.

Don't forget, the Mid-States Amateur of the Year award will be presented during the convention. Talk with your members soon about nominating someone from your club. Write a short note telling why you feel your nominee should receive the award and send it to me at the above address prior to the convention.

For more information regarding the convention or to register on line and reserve your room at the Sheraton, please refer to the convention website, www.alconexpo.org.

Log onto www.msral.org to stay informed of region happenings. The Astronomical League, our parent organization, can be found at www.astroleague.org and you can go to www.astronomicalleague.com to purchase observe manuals and other League materials.

The Mid-States Region has an E-Group where you can post and read text messages. It’s a good place to stay in touch with your friends, get first hand information on what is happening in the region and receive answers to any questions you might have. I encourage you and your members to join the Mid-States E-Group. I created the group to make it easy for our members to be involved in region activities. We have one of the best and most active regions in the League but most have not taken advantage of the E-Group thus far. Please advertise the E-Group to your members and encourage them to join. It’s easy and costs nothing. Just open your web browser and go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/msral/ and ask to join the group. If you have trouble logging onto the MSRAL page you can go to http://groups.yahoo.com and type “MSRAL” into the search box. Click the “Search” button and you’ll get a screen that shows only one hit. Click on “MSRAL” and you’ll be taken to the MSRAL home page. Ask to join the group. You’ll be asked to answer a couple of questions and presto you’re a member. You can now log onto the page whenever you want. Along the left side of the screen you’ll find sections for messages, files, photos, etc. In the FILES section you will find the Mid-States Constitution and minutes of meetings. If you like you can click “Edit My Membership” and have all e-mail messages from the group forwarded to your personal e-mail address. I hope many of your members will join this group to stay in constant communication with other members of the Mid-States Region.

Clear skies,

Gary Pittman
Secretary-Treasurer
Mid-States Region
Astronomical League
gary_rp@swbell.net

Astrophoto section and alerting now online

Note:
You must be a member of the SpringfieldAstronomy.org web site to ADD photos, but everyone that visits here can see them.

In addition to this, the website alerting system is up and running.
Anytime NEWS, or ASTROPHOTOS, or any other section of the site is updated, AND you have an account here on SpringfieldAstronomy.org - you will be alerted by email that something is new, along with a link to go directly to the new item posted on the site.

Please be aware that you can adjust your account at any time to receive or not to receive emails. Once logged into the site, just click MY ACCOUNT.

More updates and section to come, so stay tuned!

Richard Harris

Short lived Fame!

Got some interesting news about a club member? Email us and let us know!

rharris@elvis.com

Click here for a snapshot of the image as it appeared on TV

If you are a Springfield Astronomy Club member, and you wish to have an account there, please sign up for one.

Some of you had previously signed up for "email alerts" on the old site, but those will not be valid here.
You will have to sign up for a full-blown account in order to use this site fully.. But, with an account, here is what you will be able to do >>