Not until after the Grand Opening will we know how many visitors will be in the facility at any given time. I expect that the weekends will be very busy; perhaps busy enough that it might not be possible to have any EAS lectures on the weekends. We intend to meet at Old Chabot on August 12th and, we hope, September 9th if the old building is still available. It is quite likely that any meeting at New Chabot might have to be on either Wednesday or Thursday with the most likely day being the third Thursday we now use for Board meetings. Comments are welcome, either in person or by mail or e-mail to cwroberts@earthlink.net.
At the dinner I will give a short historical note about the early History of Chabot Observatory based on research done during the last two years. We have several very nice door prizes. If you have not already signed up for the dinner, please do so right away. Contact Don Stone by telephone, e-mail, or in person, but do it now!
There were 1652 registrants at this year's Riverside Telescope Makers Conference. Here is an image of Allan Guthmiller’s 20-inch telescope at RTMC.
On Friday, 4 August we will host a star party for the Eastbay Regional Park District. It will take place at Bort Meadows in Chabot Regional Park. To reach the site from the Oakland area, take Redwood Road over the hill and go about 1.5 miles past the junction with Pinehurst. The Bort Meadows Staging Area is the wide turnout on your right. The gate should be open so one can drive down the road toward the meadow. At the fork in the road, those without telescopes should turn left to the parking area. If bringing one or more telescopes, keep to the right until you reach the turn-around in the meadow. The public is being told it will begin at 7:30 so please arrive before then. Be sure to bring a jacket. It can get cold. There will be a 31% Moon but no major planets.
EAS is grateful to Morris Jones of San Rafael for offering to host our new website. Mojo also hosts sites for the San Jose Astronomical Association and other clubs. We have registered a new domain at “www.eastbayastro.org” and although that address is valid and working, it must be considered to be “under construction” as our Webmaster Ellis Myers transfers files from our old location. The computer at chabot.cosc.org has proven to be out of service for more than 90 percent of the time over the last several months. The site at http://silcon.com/~eas will continue while the new site is in shakedown mode.