meeting night

I went to the RASC Toronto Centre meeting (lecture) at the Ontario Science Centre. Got a few things done.

• caught up with Terry
• verified Diane received from me copies of the NOVA eval form and the Centre's "benefits of membership" document
• chatted with Gilles about the incredible quantity of nichrome wire that I have (and the emergency use of 12 volt hair dryers)
• gave Ralph the cash payments, to date, for SkyTools3, as per David's instructions
• received Bob's cheque for SkyTools3 from Ralph
• procured ride to CAO for work party / open house
• received Stu's help request for his Centre email account
• received Phil's requests for forwarding recent emails from Eric (SCOPE newsletter) and Lillian (AAA report with group photo)
• chatted with Scott about CAO fire and safety equipment knowledge transfer and training
• learned that ozone levels might not be steady over long periods of time
• learned that the amount of "good" ozone in the upper atmosphere is equivalent to a layer 3 millimetres thick!
• pointed out the date mistake for the DDO members only observing session on the announcements handout
• pitched the SkyTools3 Standard Edition we now have in inventory, for sale to members
• grabbed a couple of the new Transport Canada pamphlets on green laser pointers
• said hello quickly to Sharmin
• eyeballed the Galileoscopes...
• played more with Stellarium on the iPhone (thanks, Steve!)
• caught up with Van
• talked to Van briefly about evaluating Rogers wireless internet service up north...
• had a great chicken curry dinner at the pub
• pointed Leslie to Eric and Ralph to track down our Publisher software, so to help Sue get up to speed
• was able to give John B a ride home (he had taken the tube up); which, of course, gave me an opportunity to get up to date on the loan equipment

The weirdest part of the evening was when I was told the Guy and Ralph had both forgotten to bring the announcement presentation file. Ralph was very uncomfortable, very uncomfortable, with the prospect of delivering off paper... Fortunately, I had it in my email (POP; not IMAP) inbox. I jumped online, downloaded it. But, as we suspected, it was a slightly older version, so I did some quick updates.

Good thing they have an IT guy around...