THE SENIOR MEN'S CLUB OF NEW CANAAN
Minutes of the Regular Meeting of February 12, 2010
President George Perkins opened the meeting with 125 of 488 members present, no new members. Roger Langevin read the minutes. He also acknowledged the special work by Pete Stair, Jim Wilson, and Sven Englund on the A/V system and Nick Yanicelli on press releases on the guest speakers. Bob Moylan reported the recent death of Jack Merrell.
ANNOUNCEMENTS: For those wanting to earn some money, Federal Government is looking for census takers. AARP is again offering the defensive driving course (brought one member $200 saving on his car insurance). See SMC bulletin board for details.
ACTIVITIES: Racquetball 2-2-? with offer from Bill Patton for private instruction for those who might be interested. Paddle and bridge as usual. 2/17 1:30 PM Photo Club in Lapham computer room. 3/18 Amateur Chef's annual grilled bratwurst luncheon, $10/pp, can now handle up to 30 people! 4F's Luncheon 2/26, location TBA.
COUTH: CIA trip and lunch were a great success under direction of Don Hunsiker, Ladd Seton, and Bob Spence. Two openings for 3/10 New York Philharmonic rehearsal with lunch, $80/pp. 4/21 Ellis Island/Statue of Liberty tour, details to be announced.
HUMORIST: Mike Law recited a "red neck" poem about two stepsons who were confused about their lineage especially when told they were "no kin" to their "pappy".
SPEAKER: Vice President Paul Stein introduced Dr. Heidi Hammel, Senior Research Scientist and Co-Director of Research, Space Science Institute (Boulder, Colorado) and also an Interdisciplinary Scientist for the James Webb Space Telescope. She opened her presentation on the telescopic exploration of space describing the differences between refractive (i.e. two lenses) and reflecting telescopes (i.e. lenses expanded with mirrors). The objective was to reduce larger and larger viewing areas to the small area of a human eye. Further advances included the use of photographic plates, electronic cameras, and more recently the "in space" Hubble telescope. Recording of telescopic images took astronomy from a subjective to an objective science. Telescopes in space overcame the problems of cloud obstruction and atmospheric distortion and absorbtion. With these technologies, space viewing is billions of times better than with the human eye! She illustrated these advances with a series of actual telescopic images of various planets, including earth. She also showed pictures of a gigantic 10 meter telescope with an array of flexible mirrors (i.e. adaptive optics), which eliminates visual "wobble". Her review of various pictures of Uranus suggested that more knowledge of its atmospheric changes could provide a better understanding of changes on earth. She also noted pluses for ground telescopes (e.g. cost and convenience) and space telescopes (e.g. clarity). Over 70 "in space" telescopes have flown. Dr. Hammel then reviewed deep space viewing, presenting some spectacular shots of galaxy clusters with dust clouds as stellar nurseries. The Hubble permits deep field exploration, where there are infinite galaxies, of which 10% probably have planets. Its usefulness can continue because it is serviced and upgraded by astronauts. Dr. Hammel closed with a brief description of the plans for the James Webb (heat based) Space Telescope, the next major space telescope for NASA, scheduled for launch in 2014. In an informal Q and A after the close of the meeting, she handled an astronomical variety of questions from a galaxy of enthusiastic SMC stars.
Don Hudson, Assistant Secretary