G'day to all

As most of you are aware our monthly meeting was changed to  
Thursday the 24th April so as to avoid a clash with the long weekend,  
Friday being the Anzac Day.

I was very please to see a good roll up of members to the monthly  
meeting.  The constant rain did not deter, to quote Paul Keating "The  
True Believers".   It was wonderful to see many of you.

As many of you will recall April meeting was an eventful affair in  
more ways than one.  As we finished enjoying a great presentation on  
DVD and pictures of the South Pacific Star Party (SPSP) at Wiruna,  
Mudgee.

A fire alarm suddenly came on as I was in the process of organising a  
astronomy DVD show.  As our club's safety officer I left the  
meeting to investigate to see what the problem was.   I could not see  
any obvious fire or smoke coming from anywhere.
In a situation like this the best option is to vacate the building.

I was pleased to see that there was no panic and everyone calmly left  
the building.  By that time there was a security person at the bottom  
of the stairs who asked me to make sure everyone was out of the  
building.

After 20 minutes of waiting whilst the fire people checked out the  
source of the alarm we were let back in.  As it was fairly late, I  
asked everyone to enjoy a cup of tea/coffee and have a chat.

Addressing the hot issue of green laser pointer use in astronomy,  
there was a general agreement that most of the amateur astronomy clubs  
will have to apply for some sort of license on behalf of their  
members..  It now appears that the club needs to organise a ID card  
with member and club executive persons signatures.  More on that at  
the May meeting.

Many thanks to Chris Bond on DVD preparation and presentation of the  
star party report.
I hope to employ Chris' talents in the movie making area on other  
occasions.  Fortunately, for us  he is a very obliging soul. Thanks  
also go to Dennis Zambelis and Richard Crisp for taking all the photos.

I wish to express my sincere thanks to Patrick Barry on hosting mid  
months viewing night at his home.  See you on 30th May.  It promises  
to be a very interesting meeting.


Take care and keep well

Kind regards
Ghul Hussain
President NAS.