Our June 2nd, 2020, club meeting will feature a program written by Jerry Buxton, N0JY, and delivered by Tom Schuessler, N5HYP. Titled “AMSAT’s Future in the Microwave Bands” It will go into a little history on previous uses of microwaves on Amateur Satellites, look at what is being designed for the GOLF satellites and the design efforts to fulfill the ARISS International goal of putting Amateur Radio on the Lunar Gateway.

The contest calendar is perhaps a bit quieter than usual this weekend, but there are two interesting events going on: The Day of the YLs contest, and the Strange Antenna Challenge. Get on out there and electrify your fence, your bird feeder, or your downspouts!

In news from the world of Amateur Radio, via the ARRL:

A company interested in removing the Marconi Wireless equipment from the wreck of the RMS Titanic has won a victory in court, but more legal challenges lie ahead.

The ARRL also reports that the venerable AO-7 amateur radio satellite, launched in November of 1974, continues to enable satellite contacts at near-record distances. Two amateurs completed a 4,329-mile contact between Buenos Aires and Cape Town earlier this month.

And the VE team coordinator for the Garland ARC reports that they are resuming a very limited number of in-person license exams, as well as exams by Zoom. Prior reservations are required!

In news from the world of science:

Scientists using two telescopes in Chile, including the famous Atacama Large Millimeter Array, have produced what may be the first direct images of a new planet forming.

And ALMA has also been used to discover a very large and very surprisingly old galaxy, the Wolfe Disk, formed when the universe was only about 10% of its present age. The Wolfe Disk poses a challenge to computer simulations of galaxy formation, which chaotic galaxies in the early universe—not orderly, normal-looking ones.

Are you a bee who needs some pollen? Is it not here yet? Well, then just bite the plant that feeds you, and it will bloom up to 30-days sooner.

And we’ve had both good and bad environmental science news this week. It looks like birds are eating hundreds of pieces of plastic a day, which is bad…but also that a large consortium of landowners and businesses have reached an agreement with the US government to provide more habitat for monarch butterflies, which will, hopefully, be very good.