February's General Meeting was shaping up and had a larger attendance. I counted 105 members and guests with only seating of 120! Dr. Honeig discussed the turbulent centers of galactic cores controlled by massive black holes. His PowerPoint slides illustrated the presentation. A round of questions followed the lecture.

Dave Holland's presentation pointed out that March will be rich with planets. This will be our theme for our March Public Star Party at the Moorpark College's Observatory "PLANETARY BONANZA" on March 17th (see the Website listing). Our March speaker on Friday 16th will be Professor James Somers discussing the encounters of the meteoric kind. This lecture will be enjoyable for all interests with no prior background in science/astronomy! As following our agenda, we will bring both amateur and professional presentations, alternating each month to reach the entire of astronomy interest spectrum!

What surprised me was the interest in Moorpark Observatory after the meeting. Fifty members trekked up the observatory grounds and were treated to the clearest and darkest night for months. The Celestron 14 telescope in the dome, operated by member Bill Reucker, exhibited the delicate lime green hydrogen swirls of the Orion Nebula around the four stars in he Trapezium, The view was AWESOME. At the lower deck, I swung the Celestron 11 telescope to M-46 open cluster. By using a light pollution filter, the elusive planetary nebula in the cluster's view was easily detected. I pointed out the constellations with a green pointer for the beginning amateurs.

The Public Star party the next night was very close to a MIRACLE! The clouds building up during the day and the foreboding weather predictions of fog and drizzle forced me to drive to the observatory to post a sign stating "CANCELLED"! But, astoundingly, the sky was CLEAR!! Ray Netzley, Keith Salvas, Grant Mills and Bill Reucker were there from VCAS to greet the enthusiastic crowd. About 35 guests arrived so for an hour, we trained two large telescopes on Venus, Jupiter, and a few deep sky objects! I pointed out the winter sky with my green laser and we left at 8PM due to the frigid temperature. But the sky still was clear.

The interest of the night sky is coming back to VCAS! Our membership base is increasing! But don't listen to the weather predictions! See you next month....

Clear skies (of course)!

-- Hal Jandorf
President Ventura County Astronomical Society