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

THE MARCH MEETING

The regular monthly meeting of the Ogden Astronomical Society will be held this coming Thursday March 14, 2002 at 7:30 p.m. in the Ott Planetarium on the Weber State University campus.

This meeting will be a real treat. The program will be a talk by Dr. John Sohl entitled "A Critical Analysis of Astrology."

Who among us has not had his or her heart sink and chest deflate when some well meaning person walks up and says, "I hear you're into astrology." The reply though gritted teeth comes back as, "you mean astronomy."

How many of us know how astrology works? (Easy answer: it doesn't.) Let's try that again, how many of us know how astrology CLAIMS to work? In this talk John will spend about an hour describing how horoscopes are made and what the various parts of the horoscope are purported to mean. For those people that gave him their birth data, John will prepare a detailed horoscope prediction for them. If you were not at the last OAS meeting you can e-mail John (jsohl@weber.edu) with your birth date, time of day, and location. The more accurate your data the more "accurate" the horoscope. (Ooo, that's hard to write...)

The second hour will be devoted to problems with astrology and why it can't work. We will build up a list of "defenses" against astrology that you can use in discussions with believers. All in all it will be a very full evening with lots of interesting information and results. 

MESSIER MARATHON AND STAR PARTY SET FOR SOUTHERN UTAH

We are holding a Star Party/Messier Marathon at Dead Horse Point State Park on nights of March 15 & 16, 2002. We have reserved the group campsite so you can stay there or you may get your own campsite. This is an area that has a nice dark sky so that if it is clear we should get some great observing.

A Messier Marathon is an all night Star Party where you can try to look at all the Messier objects that are up on the night that you are observing. Between March 15 and April 1 the Sun is in an area of the sky that doesn't

have any Messier objects so it should be possible to view them all.

You don't have to participate in the Messier Marathon in order to attend the Star Party. I would like to see this be a fun weekend of observing similar to our summer camp outs. I plan to go on the trip even if the weather is not good for the star party. There are several National Parks and Monuments in the area that we can visit.

We will discuss details at this month's meeting or feel free to contact me if you have questions.

Dave Dunn

ARCHEO-ASTRONOMY FIELD TRIP

SET FOR APRIL 2002

An Archeo-Astronomy field trip and star party will be held Friday - Sunday April 5, 6, 7, at Parowan Gap which is located about 10 miles west of Parowan, Utah (Exit 78 I-15) or 15 miles north of Cedar City (Exit 75 I-15). The moon phase will be 3rd quarter.

Astronomers from Utah and Nevada are being invited to attend. The "Gap" is known for its intricate solar and lunar calendar petroglyph panels. Other area sites will also be visited.

Archeo-astronomical researcher Nowell (Nal) Morris will be the field trip leader. He has studied this site for many years and is very knowledgeable on these solar and lunar calendar found at the site. Check out his web site at: http://www.parowangap.com/

Primitive camping is available near the site. Motels are available is Parowan and Cedar City. For more information about the field trip, contact Deloy and Karen Pierce who is organizing this trip at their email address:

starpartiesrus@utah-inter.net