Transcript Document

New Member Summary
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
In Memoriam
Members, Observers, Colleagues, and Friends of the AAVSO
Tom Droege
Batavia, IL
Tom 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 telescopes
from 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. Moos
Koniz, Switzerland
A 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
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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
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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 Council
April 26, 2008
Arne Henden
Director, AAVSO
[email protected]
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
Southern Arizona
Used 300 nights/year
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
Craftsman
61cm
Installed in 1970
Refurbished 1979
Computerized 1991
f/16 Classical Cass
First trip
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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, ProDome
• 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
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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
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ASWA (Perth) Astrocamp star party
ASV (Melbourne) monthly meeting
Deniliquin club formation
NACAA Workshop (Sydney)
NACAA Plenary (Sydney)
NACAA Roundtable VS discussion
Chris Stockdale
Tom/Lyn Richards
Peter Nelson
Peter Nelson 2
Rod Stubbings
Perth 60cm
Perth/Lowell 1m
Univ. Tasmania 1meter
Cassegrain config
Coude room
New fiber fed
spectrograph
Mt. Stromlo
Siding Springs
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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 variablestar 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
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May - HST/SDSS
May, Dec - RS Pup
June - eta Aur
June - Supernova
Special project: comparing vendor
photometry
RS Pup
41.4day period
6500 +/- 90 Ly
08:13:04.2 -34:34:43
Courtesy ESO/Kervella
Eps Aur
27.1 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