OAS Executive Committee 

President- Dave Dunn Ph. (801) 544-7705

Vice Pres- Lee Priest Ph. (801) 479-5803

Secretary- Bob Tillotson Ph. (801) 773-8106

Treasurer- Doug Say (801) 731-7324


Vol. 30 Number 5 February 2001 http://physics.weber.edu/oas/oas.html

The February Meeting

The regular meeting of the Ogden Astronomical Society will be held at 7:30 p.m. this Thursday February 8, 2001 in the Ott Planetarium on the Weber State University campus. Members will be treated to a showing of the current planetarium program entitled "The New Cosmos."

The Ott web site describes this new program as: "Our new show is "The New Cosmos" with narration by Sir Arthur C. Clarke, the author of the timeless classic "2001: A Space Odyssey." Some suggest that the past hundred years might be called the Century of Astronomy since more has been learned about space in that time than ever before. Author and futurist Sir Arthur C. Clarke unlocks the secrets of astronomy in this journey into the universe through time and space. Explore the top discoveries of the last century and see how they have changed our world view. This 35-minute program features brand new computer graphic models of the tools of astronomers and their miraculous findings.


Noted Author and Scheduled Speaker Dies From Health Complications

OAS members who have attended the past few meetings were made aware of the up coming visit and lecture of James Schefter, the noted journalist, and author of The Race. Jim was scheduled to delight OAS members and visitors at this February's meeting with his many tales from his days with NASA as a journalist for Life magazine.

My call to his home in Park City, Utah on Tuesday January 23rd, to make final arrangements, for his visit resulted in a shock when I spoke to Jim's son and was told that he had passed away on Sunday January 21st. His son's comment to me was that "his body simply gave out." I explained why I was calling and offered my, and the OAS', sincere condolences. The family is hoping to arrange for the interment of Jim's ashes at the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston, Texas.

As a young reporter in 1963, Jim Schefter was assigned by Life to cover the inside stories of the astronauts in America's race, with the Soviet Union, to the moon. Those who have read The Race know what fascinating stories these are. My previous conversations with Jim lead me to believe that the book was the tip of the iceberg. We would have heard even more behind the scenes stories had we been privileged to host his visit.

For the past few years, Jim Schefter had been working on a sequel to The Race. His new book titled Flight: My Life in Mission Control is scheduled to be released by Dutton Publishing this Spring. This new volume will be in the form of a memoir of Chris Kraft.

There are numerous web sites relating to the accomplishments of James Schefter if you run a search using his name. Two particularly interesting sites, one of which has audio conversations with him, are at:

http://www.annonline.com/interviews/990825/

http://www.pcfastnet.com/~c5/

Bob Tillotson


Minutes

Ogden Astronomical Society

January 11, 2001

The regular meeting of the Ogden Astronomical Society was called to order by club president Dave Dunn at 7:35 p.m.

Dr. Sohl offered a description of the new planetarium program, "The New Cosmos" which just began its run at the Ott Planetarium. The show is narrated by Arthur C. Clark.

Dave discussed the new schedule for club star parties and public activities set for this year. The complete schedule is posted in the January issue of The Star Diagonal.

In April, 2001, Space Week will take place where scores of students participate in science activities. Wayne Sumner is suggesting the OAS' participation by offering a star party. Interesting speakers will also take part.

Project Astro was discussed. Not much activity is being shown at this time. The Hansen Planetarium, who is now administering the program, has Project Astro basically on-hold. The planetarium itself is experiencing "political" difficulties itself. It's future location is one of the heated topics.

Deloy and Karen Pierce described their efforts with the public for Christmas morning's Solar Eclipse. They set up their equipment for people to view the sun at a Flying "J" station on Redwood Road in Salt Lake. Dave Dunn described how he used the 100 solar eye glasses for the eclipse.

The projected dates for the trip to the Lowell Observatory in Arizona were discussed.

The video "The Runaway Universe" was shown. Following the program, the assembly broke into discussion following which the meeting was adjourned at 9:15 p.m.

Bob Tillotson, Secretary