Chris DePree, Head of the Astronomy Department at Agnes Scott College and Director of the. In This Issue. President's Corner.

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1 In This Issue Announcements Guests & Visitors Speakers At-a-Glance Officers of the Club Birthdays! President's Corner Speaker's Corner October 20, 2009 The Decatur Rotary Club was once again treated to a lunch that was out of this world, a speaker that has a magnetic personality, and a big bang of a time learning about our solar system and one theory of its relativity to metro Atlanta. Hope you enjoy reading about it! Brian Cayce President's Corner 'Round the Room The Four-Way Test In everything that we think, say or do: Is it the TRUTH? Is it FAIR to all concerned? Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS? Will it be BENEFICIAL to all President Bryan convened our meeting calling on Rev. James Brewer-Calvert to give another fine invocation Chris DePree, Head of the Astronomy Department at Agnes Scott College and Director of the

2 concerned? Bradley Observatory Clark Candler introduced Chris DePree, the Head of the Astronomy Department at Agnes Scott College and Director of the Bradley Observatory. Chris was born in Hong Kong, has lived in Manhattan and San Francisco and graduated from Duke with a Physics degree. Has worked in New Mexico at the Very Large Array, one of the world's premier astronomical radio observatories and where the movie Contact starring Jodie Foster was filmed. Announcements President Bryan gave a special thanks to his Program Committee for lining up so many fine speakers this year. Guests & Visitors Our Invocation was given by Rev. James Brewer-Calvert This was a least the third time that Chris has spoken to our club over the years. Each time is fascinating and always with various interesting topics is the "Year of Astronomy" as declared by the UN and is the 400th anniversary of Galileo's telescope ( and the start of his glorious work. If you Google the "The Year of Astronomy" you can find a great deal of information. Our Visiting Rotarians included: Wes Dodd of Habersham County Tom Lakin of Stone Mountain (via Virginia) Our guests included: Our Rotary Student from Agnes Scott College, Su Myat Thu. Guests of Bryan Downs and Bob Wilson included their employees Cheryl Hicks, Their is a worldwide effort to get models of the type of telescope that Galileo actually used into the hands of students. More than 100,000 have been sold to kids world wide. They are only $20 and have about 50x magnification. Galileo was the first to realize that the moon is not smooth but had jagged mountains much like our own planet, and was also the first to note an observation of the moons of

3 Linda Wheeler, and Eleana Weaver, who is a multiple Special Olympics Champion. Speakers At-a-Glance October 23, 2009: Don O'Briant Officers of the Decatur Rotary Club: President - Bryan Downs President-Elect - C.J. Becker Past President - Mark Hastings Secretary - Alan Dishman Treasurer - Jason Conn Jupiter. This observation upset the notion that all celestial bodies must revolve around the Earth. Galileo published a full description in Sidereus Nuncius in March There is an effort called From Earth to the Universe (FETTU) and this is where astronomers are trying to put a visual scale of the distances from Earth to various celestial. The local affiliate is called the Metro Atlanta Solar System. Starting from the Bradley Observatory, Mercury would be at the Agnes Scott Student Center. Venus would be at Decatur High. Earth is the Decatur Library. Mars would be Columbia Seminary. Jupiter would be Emory. Saturn would be GA Tech. Uranus would be the Atlanta Airport. Neptune would be Sweetwater State Park. Our Solar System would fit inside I-285. The nearest star to us would be two-thirds of the way to the moon! At each location there are pictures and displays that will remain after this year. The Voyager mission launched back in the 1970s would be halfway to Macon on this scale, which is the farthest thing that has ever journeyed from the Earth and requires immense energy needs. Chris was asked if he thought there was life elsewhere in the universe he answered affirmatively, but cautioned that he had no idea what form it would take. The universe is very fertile place with amino acids found in all star formations. These are the building blocks of life. As far has his take on UFOs, he figures that because of the shear distances, the time it takes to get there and the huge energy requirements make it not very likely that we have been visited by aliens. He figures that we would most likely receive some type of radio waves or "signal" in that form rather than an actual visit to our fair planet. The second Friday of every month at 8:00 pm there is a lecture and telescope viewing at Agnes Scott College's Bradley Observatory. The public is always welcome. Come take advantage of such a local treasure. Sergeant-at-Arms - Rev. Nath Briley District Governor - Roy Strickland Birthdays!

4 Oct 8, John Robinson Oct 15, Scott Stevenson Oct 19, Bill Moon Oct 28, Judy Turner Oct 29, Rick Garnitz Library Book: Complete Idiot's Guide to Astronomy, 4th Edition, by Chris DePree Report by Mark Whatley 'Round the Room... Rotarians discussing a UFO that did alight overhead recently in the Decatur area

5 Earl Tveit introduces Su Myat Thu to our Speaker The possibility of life outside our planet spawns a lot of interest from Fred Boykin and David Hughes, and sets a lot of activity astir among the rest of the Club Sincerely, The Rotary Bulletin Committee Decatur Rotary Club Directions: Old Courthouse on the Square