Rotary Club of Marana  John Dooling presided over his first of 52 meetings, professing his lack of technological know-how. Not to be outdone by technology, however, he opened our meeting holding a traditional, albeit tiny, American flag to which we pledged our allegiance. Guests: Liz Cohn was a cheerful and welcomed guest at our meeting. As one of the District’s Zoom administrators, she introduced herself during our club’s first use of our District’s Zoom account. Announcements:
Not having a formal program today, Happy Bucks was extended with enjoyable conversations. Harold celebrated the 6-mo. birthday of his granddaughter while sheltering at home, and Liz welcomed the birth of her first great-grandson. Congratulations to you both! Carl has his whole family home together for the first time in a long time, and he is grateful. The 4th was celebrated in a wide range of ways by members. From not leaving the house or eating hotdogs, to grand fireworks on a lake, to quiet time with friends, to safeguarding the house from neighborhood celebratory gunfire. I believe all would agree that this 4th was the oddest in all of our lifetimes. Many members were invigorated this 4th weekend by the musical Hamilton, praising its extraordinary artistic power and its historical breadth and accuracy. Members were inspired to read biographies on Grant, A. Burr (the villain), Hamilton, and more after watching the musical. Peter was gracious enough to provide an impromptu program, as many members have voiced an interest in what he does and in his current project with Chinese astronomers: Peter is the founder and owner of Astronomical Consultants and Equipment, Inc. Amongst many other contracts, Peter is currently building a Spectrograph for a telescope in China. What I understood, which may be completely wrong, is that Peter has built a spectrograph that takes light from an object in space through a lens, which runs the light to a mirror, which runs the light through a cable to a lens with a prism, which refracts the light, which is bounced to a camera that takes its pictures. The refracted light contains markers of particular elements in each of its colors that will shift in time so that serial images can be compared. Things like heat and speed of objects in space can be measured using this mechanism. If I’ve represented even one element of Peter’s Spectrograph correctly, I shall feel accomplished. Peter is currently in process of developing very detailed assembly instructions in lieu of traveling to China to assemble it himself. Because communication between China and the U.S. requires permission from the central government and is granted in restrictive ways, Peter’s manual has to be verrrrry well written. Peter has other contracts that include a Korean telescope on Mt. Lemmon, a Naval Observatory in Flagstaff, and Kitt Peak. He has contracts with observatories and telescopes all around the world and, normally, travels more days than not. An extraordinary mind with extraordinary stamina. Thank you, Peter. Submitted on July 7, 2020 by Mary Straus |