The portion of the meeting devoted to reports on natural history observations included sighting of the varied thrush, a northwestern US species, recently seen by several Club members at Quabbin.
 

The evening’s main event was the self-proclaimed horse and pony show presented by Dave Gallup and Jack Megas who titled their program “Wonders of the Night Sky” and dedicated it to the memory of long-time Club member Brian Charbonneau.  After some introductory comments by Jack, an interesting and informative half-hour video on the aurora, produced by the University of Alaska, was shown.  What is known about this phenomenon and what is not were both covered in the presentation.  An example of the former is that the aurora’s shapes and patterns are influenced by the earth’s magnetic field; an observation not yet explained is why the most auroras are seen in September or March.  The remainder of the program included a brief tour of the winter sky, presented by Dave, which included the Cassiopeia lesson in vanity; check her position in the winter sky to see why vanity does not pay.  Fifty-three members and guests attended this program, one of whom summed up the presentation given by the horse and pony by saying “they dance well together”.