The San Juan Stargazers’ monthly meeting on Thursday, March 7, was postponed to Thursday, March 14, due to a scheduling conflict.
Since the meeting room was available on March 14, changing the date was the easiest solution.
We meet at the Community United Methodist Church at 434 Lewis St. You can use the parking lot and enter at the side door right off the parking area. We leave the front doors locked.
We have new members at almost every meeting, and if you tried to come last week, we sincerely apologize. We hope the messages on the doors helped. Please try again since this has never happened in our 11 years as a club.
There will be a social hour starting at 6 p.m. with coffee/tea and treats. We have copies of the Sky & Telescope issue called “Showtime: North America’s Grand Eclipse” with much good information.
We have two different topics for the educational part of the meeting, the first one being the important eclipse this year on April 8. It will cross North America, passing over Mexico, the U.S. and Canada. In the U.S., it will be visible from Texas to Maine. The next total solar eclipse that will be visible over North America will not happen until 2045.
The eclipse will be visible in Pagosa as an approximate 64 percent partial eclipse starting at 11:21 a.m., with maximum partial eclipse at 12:30 p.m. and ending around 1:30 p.m. It should still be worth watching and will require special glasses for your safety. Eclipse glasses will be free, due to a special grant, starting April 1 at the Ruby Sisson Library.
Club members who are remaining in Pagosa will gather for the eclipse with community members who want to join them in Centennial Park at the Geothermal Greenhouse Partnership amphitheater on the Riverwalk. Look for our members to answer your questions and we will have eclipse glasses, while they last. Please feel welcome to join in this rare event of the moon passing between the sun and the earth.
Of course, you can view it anywhere by yourself using special solar glasses,but we will be at the park to share this unusual astronomical event with our community. There will not be a regular meeting in April.
If anyone, from the community or any club members, has questions about the eclipse, be at our meeting at 7 p.m. and we will take time to find your answers.
The second topic for the night will be “Mars, Exploring from Space & the Ground” from a Great Courses lesson. We will have a summary to read and discuss written by Ann Marie Kemp and then have a video presentation by our favorite lady astronomer, Dr. Sabine Stanley. It should be fascinating. She always does a great job.
Last month we all were in shock over the unbelievable information we learned about Mercury that we hadn’t heard before.
We are starting to gear up for a summer of great astronomy activity. We will have “members-only star parties,” eight to 10 night sky programs at Chimney Rock and some public events, plus regular meetings.
If you want to learn how to use your telescope or one of our club telescopes, it is time to get started at the beginning of the season.
If you would like to join the San Juan Stargazers, you will also receive Reflector Magazine — the publication of the National Astronomical League of which you automatically become a member. To join both groups and get an excellent astronomy magazine, annual membership is only $25 per family. You can join the club at any of our events or you can join using PayPal on our website, sanjuanstargazers.org. Check out our continuously changing website with new information and fabulous photos.
