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News & Announcements   

Dear CCAS Member/Friend,                               July 23, 2022

First off, my apologies for the long delay in updating this “lead material” on our website. While the Delta and Omicron Variants have kept us from most of our in-person activities over the last year, my iPad and computer still worked well enough, and the website was ignored in favor of communications via our newsletter, First Light Lite. This got the word out to our club members about our Zoom meetings, but ignored the greater outreach that a website accomplishes. My fault… Let me remedy this some by giving a quick précis of what has gone on since last November and, perhaps more importantly, where things are going for CCAS. 

Meetings

To begin, we DID get back to in-person meetings (actually hybrid in-person and Zoom) starting in May. Though Covid is still around and contagious, vaccinations and the decrease in severity of the disease has made many people less uncomfortable with personal contact. There are advantages to seeing each other in person, as well as having talks and audiences via Zoom, and so we will be doing both in the days to come. As we post our Zoom link only a few days before the talks, via our newsletter, we would ask (for now) that you contact jlynchwhoi@gmail.com for a link to the talk. We will try to make sure in the future that a timely listing of upcoming talks and their venues (not always at DYHS, but mostly) is posted on the website, as well as abstracts. And eventually, we will post the link directly.

Star Parties

Turning to our star parties, our last one at WSO was in late October, 2021, during a small lull in Covid. And again, while Covid is still a concern, and we will continue to take appropriate precautions, in person contacts have come bak, and we are now planning our next round of star parties. These too will be posted in our newsletter and (soon) online here.

School Interactions

Our school interactions have always been a major mission of CCAS. We recently extended our contract with the DYRSD for a year to allow negotiations for a long-term contract, and are hopeful that this will happen. We have also been talking to the science teachers about specific education goals, and have a lot of exciting possibilities available.

Public Interaction

As to other interactions, with both the public and Cape schools, we always are open to suggestions. Schools, clubs, and organizations that are interested in talks or star parties should contact us, again with jlynchwhoi@gmail.com being our current POC.

Membership

Finally, if anyone is interested in club membership, our (purely voluntary) dues are $30 per year, and free for students. These dues purely support our outreach activities, such as meetings, star parties, school events, etc. (Equipment is supported separately by donations to a separate entity, the Cape Cod Astronomical Foundation). If you’d like to join and support our activities, please send a note and a check to: Dr. Ken Brink, 16 Greengate Rd, Falmouth, MA 02540.

All for now. Hoping to see you under clear skies soon!

Jim Lynch,  President, CCAS