By Arne Henden

SAS Meeting at Northwoods Resort, Big Bear, CA

The Society for Astronomical Sciences (SAS) annual meeting was held in Big Bear, CA from May 22 through May 24, 2007. SAS is an outgrowth of the International Amateur-Professional Photoelectric Photometry (IAPPP) organization that pioneered collaborative activities in the 1980's and 1990's. I have been a member or advisor of SAS since its formation, and thoroughly enjoy going to the mountains of southern California to meet with this neat group of people.

The first day of the meeting is traditionally reserved for workshops. I gave one on CCD photometry a couple of years ago. This year, workshops were given on spectroscopy (Dale Mais, Gary Cole and Oliver Thizy) and on AIP4WIN photometry (Richard Berry). Unfortunately, I had a meeting at Victor Valley College on my way to Big Bear, and so was not able to attend the workshops. I hear that they had high participation and were excellent in quality.

LEFT: Dale Mais looking at the Sun with the LHIRES spectrograph; CENTER: Solar spectrum through LHIRES; RIGHT: Oliver Thizy, Gary Cole and Dail Mais with LHIRES

I gave the "kickoff" talk on Wednesday morning, discussing the Olin Eggen index card scanning project, followed by highlights of recent stellar activity such as the new novae, the eclipsing Cepheid, transiting exoplanets and the like. The talk was well-received, with lots of questions, so I think it was a good start to the scientific paper sessions. About 100 people were in attendance, a nice-sized audience that has steadily grown over the years.

One of the main reasons that I wanted to go to SAS this year was because my photometry book coauthor, Ron Kaitchuck (Ball State), was the banquet speaker. In addition, our publisher, Perry Remaklus at Willmann-Bell, was in the audience. We met and planned out our attack to get the CCD book finished. The organizing committee twisted arms and had Ron and I autograph copies of our Astronomical Photometry textbook.

LEFT: Ron Kaitchuck autographing book for LeRoy Snyder; RIGHT: Arne gives the 'kick-off' talk

Some of the highlights for me were: seeing the Var Cas 06 lightcurve that included the ASAS-north measures, clearly demonstrating that this was a microlensing event; looking at Oliver Thizy's LHIRES spectrograph and seeing the solar absorption lines at noontime; trying to pick up the Meade MaxMount and realizing that a crane would be necessary to move this beast.

I highly recommend attending next year's conference - this is fun stuff! Keep an eye on their website for details: http://www.socastrosci.org

Riverside Telescope Makers Conference Astronomy Expo

Over Memorial Day weekend, the traveling AAVSO meeting display paid a visit to the Riverside Telescope Makers Convention at YMCA Camp Oakes near Big Bear, California, accompanied by observers Kate Hutton (HTN), Pam Gonzales (GPJ), and PJ Goldfinger (GPU). RTMC is the major gathering of amateur astronomers in California, with attendance normally in the thousands of people, from long, long-time regulars to young Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts. This year's turnout was slightly lower than usual, possibly due to the rather gibbous Moon and the high price of gasoline. Those who did attend (according to the organizers 1524 +/- 10), however, were the enthusiasts.

Kate Hutton in front of the AAVSO Display at the RTMC in California

During the day, RTMC features workshops, on any subject from mirror grinding to deep sky imaging, as well as numerous large and small vendors of telescopes, accessories, old junk, clothing, jewelry, meteorites and geodes. Many local astronomy clubs are also represented. The keynote speaker on Saturday evening was Alexei Filipenko, expounding on the subject of supernovae and cosmology. After Filipenko's talk (and on the other evenings as well), the serious observing got underway.

To save ourselves a lot of work, and to enhance the Association's image, we splurged and rented a pre-prepared booth, complete with astro turf. Thus we shared the "telescope field" area with the likes of Meade, Celestron, Vixen, etc. Although the smallest size available, our booth was very spacious. We set up the table, with the beautiful display on it, in the back. We hung the AAVSO banner out front. In between, in the very inviting shade (summer is beginning already in southern California), we put as many chairs as we could scrounge. I brought along my personal collection of books on variable stars, the brochures sent by HQ, and a whole bunch of charts that I had copied to hand out (V Boo, R CrB, SS Cyg, chi Cyg, etc.). Olivier Thizy, a Frenchman with a solar spectroscope, set up his instrument right in front of our booth, thus helping to attract visitors.

LEFT: AAVSO Observer Mike Linnolt visits Kate Hutton at the AAVSO Booth CENTER: Keynote Speaker, Alexei Filipenko talks about supernovae and cosmology RIGHT: Mike Linnolt with David Boyd (BAA, AAVSO)

I am sorry to say that, although we have only a small handful of brochures left over, not too much new blood was recruited. Most of our visitors were current or lapsed AAVSO members, or attendees of the Society for Astronomical Sciences (SAS) conference on the previous two days. In other words, the already converted. The positive side of this is that I got to meet a number of long-time VS observers, including Bill Goff (GFB) and Billie Chandler (CBI). Brian Warner even dropped in and signed my copy of his book! In fact, I felt like rather an upstart to be running the booth. All of us had a good time, however, and we'd like to do it again next year, if the display can fit us into its itinerary. Many people, including RTMC committee members, personally told us they were glad we were there representing the AAVSO.

The display has departed already, for the next leg of its journey to the AAVSO meeting in Canada.