October 1, 2007 - March 31, 2008

Annual (Adult): 50

Associate: 1

Sustaining: 2

Honorary: 1 (Tom Droege)

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Members from US: 34

Members from Canada: 6

Members from abroad: 14 (from 11 countries)

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Total New Members: 54

New Member Summary

In Memoriam Members, Observers, Colleagues, and Friends of the AAVSO

Tom DroegeBatavia, ILTom Droege spent 25 years as a Fermilab engineer and is best known for “Droege Supplies," orange NIM high-voltage power supplies in use all over the world. Droege built and operated several CCD-based telescopesfrom an observatory that he built onto his house. He founded The Amateur Sky Survey, an international collaboration organized to record and analyze images of the night sky using a technique he invented and incorporated into his telescopes. He received honorary lifetime membership in the AAVSO for his work on TASS.

Walter R. MoosKoniz, SwitzerlandA devoted solar observer since 1997, Walter regularly contributed his sunspot observations to the AAVSO Solar Observing Program.

William Douglas Hodgson (HWD)Chidlow, Australia A longtime observer and Sustaining member of the Association since 1988, Doug contributed ____ observations to the AAVSO. An engineer by trade, Doug was a member of the AAVSO infrared photometry group. He also donated his time as part of the comp star database working group. Doug dabbled in nova hunting, too, spending several years as a proud member of the UK Nova Patrol. Many AAVSOers had the pleasure of meeting Doug in 2002 at the 91st Spring Meeting in Hawaii.

Upcoming Meetings

• Sept/Oct 2008: AAVSO HQ

• May 2009: SAS Big Bear, CA

• Oct 2009: MMO

• April 2010: Argentina

Northwoods Resort

Northwoods pub

Northwoods meeting space

Grants

• John Menke $13K. Miscellaneous, Cohen observatory, Eggen GUI, BAA travel

• HST ~$15K remaining on two proposals

• SWRI - $25K for Mt. John refurb

• Spent rest of Validation extension

Submitted Grants

• NSF: SS Cyg analysis (Price, Henden)

• NSF: Mt. John usage (Terrell, Henden)

• NSF: IYA2009 Citizen Science

• Mt. Cuba: telescope refurbishment

• 2 more HST proposals

Report to CouncilApril 26, 2008

Arne Henden

Director, AAVSO

arne@aavso.org

Robotic Observatories

• SRO– 168 nights used out of 203 (83%)– 2 nights lost due to mechanical failures– 25235 images specifically for AAVSO

($0.02/image)– BVRI calibration of LPV, RR Lyr, cepheid, novae,

GRB and other fields– Monitoring for Bill Dillon, Bart Staels, Jim Bedient– Personal research including novae monitoring

Sonoita Research Observatory

35cm robotic telescope

Used 300 nights/year

Southern Arizona

USD$30,000+

Z UMi - a circumpolar RCB

Real value of SRO is for long-term monitoring of many fields. Note near complete BVRI coverage (dropouts due to summer monsoon) of this circumpolar object. 15:02:01.3 +83:03:49

Z UMi in multiple colors

University of Canterbury Collaboration

• Begun August 2006 (IAU/Prague)

• John Hearnshaw, Director MJUO

• Refurbish Optical Craftsman 61cm telescope

• AAVSO gets 2/3 time for 10 years

• Refurbishment under way; first visit in March 2008

Mt. John University Observatory-43d59.2m south, 170d27.9m east, 1031m elevation

Lake Tekapo

MJUO Optical

Craftsman61cm

Installed in 1970

Refurbished 1979

Computerized 1991

f/16 Classical Cass

First trip

• Jerry Foote (Scopecraft) - motor control

• Dirk Terrell (SWRI) - computers

• Arne Henden - instruments

• Nigel Frost (MJUO) mechanical

• Steve Barlow (MJUO) IT/electronics

• March 2007, basic telescope control and inspection

Schedule

• Purchase remaining components to automate dome, focus

• Install cloud camera, engineering data (labjack)

• Replace CCD camera

• Test (June?)

• Available to membership in Fall 2008

Cohen-Menke Observatory

• Lou Cohen donated his 12” LX200, ST8, Pro-Dome

• John Menke (retired owner of Technical Innovations) donated funds to refurbish system, volunteered to get system working

• Sending to Doc Clay for refurbishment• Install somewhere at HQ for support, testing,

robotic access

Lowell 24-inch

• Donated to AAVSO

• Need 40K to refurbish (submitting Mt. Cuba grant)

• Need site (negotiating with NMSU)

• Need to move it from exhibit hall soon

In Steele Visitor’s Center

Ellijay Observatory

• Tim Puckett has given us access to his 5” f/5.2 wide-field telescope

• Apogee U9000 (3kx3k) CCD camera, gives 3.2x3.2 degree FOV

• BVRI filters• Fully robotic• Will be used for all-sky calibration

Upcoming

• GUI interface for observing proposals

• Automated dispersal of images

• GUI for retrieval of FITS images

• Database of calibration photometry

Australia Trip March 2008

• Goals– Arrange for distribution of Doug Hodgson’s

telescopes and AAVSO SSP-4– Talk to amateur societies about citizen

science– Meet with observatory directors about

collaborations– Meet with AAVSO members

Distribution of Hodgson Equipment

• 12” LX200, ST4 guider, SSP3, etc. going to Deniliquin as public observatory (schools)

• 8” LX200, ETX125 going to ASWA to be given to young astronomers

• Books given to Perth Observatory library• SSP-4 at Tom Richard’s house; to be loaned

to another Australian amateur

Talks

• ASWA (Perth) Astrocamp star party

• ASV (Melbourne) monthly meeting

• Deniliquin club formation

• NACAA Workshop (Sydney)

• NACAA Plenary (Sydney)

• NACAA Roundtable VS discussion

Tom/Lyn RichardsChris Stockdale

Peter Nelson

Peter Nelson 2

Rod Stubbings

Perth 60cm

Perth/Lowell 1m

Univ. Tasmania 1-meter

Cassegrain config

Coude room

New fiber fed spectrograph

Mt. Stromlo

Siding Springs

• 16-inch, 24-inch mothballed• 40-inch soon to be mothballed• 3.9m probably mothballed ~2012• UK Schmidt being used for RAVE, no plans

after this• Skymapper 1.3m (Bessell) under construction• All funds channeled towards Gemini, GMT,

space missions

Australia Notes

• Very active amateur scene, but not many people into variable stars

• NEED DIRECTION. No southern variable-star organization.

• Australia has been discovered. More educational groups, advanced northern deep sky enthusiasts, setting up robotic scopes

• Professionals involved in PLANET, microFUN followups when Bulge up (April-Sept); pretty open to collaboration otherwise

• Very little spectroscopic capability in Oz outside of AAO

Recent HQ News

• VSP released with Tycho/UCAC for bright fields (A-scale available)

• VSD updated with 22K reliable stars with photometry

• New standardized observing formats announced for both visual and CCD. Will be required in future; no ongoing support of vendor-specific formats

• Scion Journal issue shipped• Several-session Futures meeting with staff

VSD/CompDB

• Currently proofing new photometry update - will release to community around April 25. Includes discrepant stars, new SRO calibrations, transforms from CMC14, 2MASS, UCAC and SDSS

• May 1 admin tool for ease of updating VSD

• June 1 revise photometry, some sequences, but then freeze VSD; send out chart CDs to organizations

• July 1 require use of new sequences and photometry

• VSP updates for batch download, fix bugs by June 1

Zapper

• Simplified version of internal AAVSO tool to inspect database observations

• Observers will soon be able to highlight “bad” observations for staff inspection, helping us validate

• Java based• Note: observers do *not* change actual

database

House Renovation

• Slow progress. Building permit not issued until January. NSTAR still has not connected electricity. Expected finish end of May

• Changes: separate utilities, raised ceiling 2nd floor, doubled rafters, extra insulation

• Current expenses $160K; expected total around $200K

• No showstoppers

Upcoming Campaigns

• May - HST/SDSS

• May, Dec - RS Pup

• June - eta Aur

• June - Supernova

• Special project: comparing vendor photometry

RS Pup41.4day period

6500 +/- 90 Ly

08:13:04.2 -34:34:43

Courtesy ESO/Kervella

Eps Aur27.1 year period, V=3.2

Next eclipse: 2009-2011

IYA2009 Citizen Science Target

05:01:58.1 +43:49:24

HOA2 == VSA

• Variable Star Astronomy

• HOA manual converted to PDF, slides scanned, videos digitized

• On Web within a few weeks

• Software in process of conversion to modern language (Kate)

Wait, There’s More!

• Import of last 200K RASNZ obs• Negotiations with BAAVSS for use of its

database - Aaron to UK in June• Education webpage update, speaker’s bureau• IAU unpublished archives being scanned• Olin Eggen data online this summer• Annual report released