CAPE COD ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY

Minutes of July 9, 2009 Meeting

ATTENDANCE: Total: 23 Members: 17 Guests: 12

President Gary Derman opened the meeting at &:30pm at the DY High School Library

Gary introduced Tom Leach, Program Chairman who introduced Hugh Blair-Smith, our speaker for evening.

PRESENTATION:

Hugh Blair-Smith gave us a wonderfully informative and entertaining overview of his remarkable career in “machine language” level software building with the center point of his career and his presentation being the coding for the inertial guidance system for the Apollo spacecraft which landed the world’s first man on the moon. Hugh gave us a most informative overview of his work on the Apollo adventure; for “…contribution to computer design and programming for the Apollo Primary Guidance, Navigation and Control System” he was awarded a Certificate of Commendation from MIT. Hugh provided us a nice mix of stories about machine-level programming challenges in terms we all could follow. He spiced and nicely framed his own contributions with extremely interesting comments, including those from astronaut Harrison, “Jack” Schmidt, “Dr. Rock,” LEM pilot and geologist, on the worth of the Apollo venture and the clear uplift it brought to America’s view of itself in the world of the 60’s and 70’s. Following his contributions to Apollo, Hugh moved on to programming support for the Space Shuttle and related programs and we had the promise of him telling us something about his work at home, “in retirement” in support of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter task with NASA/Goddard. Unfortunately, Hugh’s talk was cut short by a computer glitch. We hope Hugh will consider returning at some future date to tell us “the rest of the story” and have promised him, “No computer glitches, next time.” Hugh was able to conclude his presentation time with a “small screen” showing of his movie simulating the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter path from launch to a stable orbit around the moon enabling the most complete mapping yet of that body.

BUSINESS MEETING:

The June 2009 meeting minutes were approved without comment.

Gary Derman commented on the June 16^th meeting of the Executive Board reviewing plans for the transition from old to new Leadership teams. Members of the team thanked each other for good work in the last year.

Gary introduced Mike Hunter who overviewed the nominees for the election of Officers: Tom Leach, for President, Paul Cezanne for VP, Peter Kurtz for Secretary, no nominee for Treasurer. This slate was voted into office by voice vote.

Note: The next day, the new Leadership team agreed by telephone that the position of Treasurer cannot remain unfilled and that Peter Kurtz would take on that role as we continue to look for someone to step up to fill the unfilled role of Secretary. If need be, the membership can ratify this decision at our next meeting. Members, please consider volunteering for this position!

The new officers thanked the membership for their support. All thanked the outgoing officers for good service. Special thanks to Kel and Anne Parkinson for many faithful years of service in the role of Treasurer. Gary Derman presented Tom Leach with the President’s gavel.

New Business:

Trips: Paul Cezanne and his family visited the Galileo Exhibit in Philadelphia..

Peter reviewed the availability of electronic copies of Bill Boyd’s book and presentation made last April, “The Birth of an Observatory”; Bill’s archive book and slides have been scanned into a computer. CD’s were presented to Bill and Werner Schmidt and two copies are available for loan. Thanks were extended again to Bill for putting together such a complete package for archiving. Anne Parkinson gave Peter a collection of photos she and Kel had with some new views of the observatory building progress. Peter agreed to scan highlight photos not yet in hand and add them to the collection for any future CD burns.

The meeting adjourned about 9:30pm. Several members and guests reconvened at The Schmidt for some stargazing under (for a change!) nicely clear skies.