Milly called the meeting to order at 7:02PM. The meeting was held at Witmer 114

This was the first meeting with the new officers:

President: Chris Milford

Vice President: Kayla LaFrance

Treasurer: Dean Smith

Secretary: Matt Golz

Milly showed us the Hot Shots from The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO). The link to the website is: http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov

Voyager 1 is out! Voyager 1 was launched in September 1977 and is now at a distance of 90 AU. In July 2002 it sensed that the solar wind was slowing – it is going out of the solar system and getting into interstellar space. It already passed the region three times where the solar wind goes from supersonic to subsonic. Its’ power source will be good until about 2020. Check it out at: http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/

The Dakota Science Center had the haunted house from October 29-31. It was voted the best in town family event for Halloween!!!

The lunar eclipse was on Saturday, November 8. It was cloudy here in Grand Forks, but clear to the North, East, and South. The next lunar eclipse visible to this area will be on the evening of October 27, 2004. Eclipse information can be found at: http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/LunarEclipse.html

Milly mentioned that the Mare Orientale will be visible again from November 14-19 during the morning hours.

The Leonid meteor shower will be on November 18-19. The information on the shower can be found at: http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2003/10oct_doubleleonids.htm . The club is meeting at Ray’s house between 10-11pm if it is clear. There will also be moon observing if people bring their telescopes. For a map to Ray’s house: http://balloons.space.edu/ndra/nemomaps.html

NASA is promoting the Mars Exploration Rovers mission by kicking off an event called “Marsapalooza”. It starts on December 2, 2003. For information on the NASA’s Mars Exploration Program, check out the website at: http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/ . The rovers will land in early January. Information on the Mars rover mission can be found at: http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mer/newsroom/pressreleases/20031104a.html

First night will be at the Dakota Science Center on the night of December 31 – January 1. They asked if we would do something for their “Moonlight Magic” theme. Milly thought rather than having an event for first night, Milly’s dream would be hosting an event for January 3-4, 2004. This would coincide with the first mars landing. There will be a “Mars Yard” set up with Milly’s rover, videos, NASA feed, Mars bars, punch, and many activities for the kids.

The Dakota Science Center will also have an event for the 2004 transit of Venus. We will have free access for the webcast. There will be more information about this event in the future.

The Galileo mission is no more. Information can be found at: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo/

Charlie brought in a video that was taped from NightLine about this mission. It was “very interesting” video with “great singing” about the mission and the crashing into Jupiter…and by the way, no one lands on Europa… No more comments about this one...

The next club meeting is on December 9, 7PM at the physics building, room 114.

The meeting was adjourned about 8:40PM.