Photoelectric Photometry Newsletter

Editor's Message

First on the list has been the preparation of the Proceedings of the Partners in Astronomy symposium which was held in Toronto last year. It was difficult to get the many dozen papers together but (fingers crossed) the copy will be at the printers by the time you receive this Newsletter, and the book will be out by the end of the year --- maybe the ``last book of the true millennium".

Then there has been summer travel. In addition to the two trips reported below (New Zealand and Northern Ireland), I attended the International Planetarium Society, in Montreal; the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, in Pasadena; and the International Astronomical Union, in Manchester, UK. At each of these meetings, I gave workshops or presentations on the AAVSO's Hands-On Astrophysics education project. I also gave a paper on how astronomically developing countries could get started in astronomical research through such activities as variable star observing --- visual, photoelectric, and CCD. Several carefully-selected developing countries have recently received small research-grade telescopes, thanks to the generosity of the government of Japan. The most recent one, in Paraguay, was dedicated earlier this year, and named after Professor Alexis Troche Boggino who, for the past two decades, has worked to build up the astronomical community in his country.