From: "messier" <messier
Date: Thu, 16 Mar 2006 19:03:14 -0700
Organization: Mollynet Communications
Importance: Normal



> Geoff Gaherty
> Sent: Thursday, March 16, 2006 5:57 PM
> 
> 
> messier wrote:
> 
> > It just seems to me that the high cost of trying to recruit such 
> > people would result in a marginal or nil benefit (as you actually 
> > discovered). Yes, there are a few amateurs with the potential to 
> > become useful VSO'ers who will require an effort from others to get 
> > them going and then once they're in, they're golden.
> 
> > In some ways, it could be argued that the more obscure and 
> difficult 
> > the organization and the activity, the more likely you may be to 
> > recruit people who have the best chance of staying with it.
> 
> This is EXACTLY the sort of attitude that drove me away from 
> variable star 
> observing in 1963 and kept me away from it for nearly 40 years!


Yeah, but I'm a very new recruit that no one had to recruit. Too much "guidance" would very likely have discouraged me and I speak
"attitude" (not consciously anyway). I was merely tying to point out where I think the highest probability for successful
recruitment lies.

Frank



> 
> On the other hand, I wonder how many people here know that 
> the original Messier 
> Club was created in the 1940s by Isabel Williamson of the 
> RASC Montreal Centre? 
>   She conceived it originally as a training program for 
> variable star observers, 
> where they would learn how to starhop in a fun competitive 
> environment. 
> Remember, back in the 1940s hardly _anyone_ observed deep sky 
> objects.  It was 
> all solar system and double stars, with a handful of serious 
> AAVSO'ers observing 
> variables.  When I joined the Montreal Centre in 1957, it had 
> one of the most 
> active and varied observational programs of any astronomy 
> club in the world. 
> The Messier Club, supposed training ground for variable star 
> observers, had been 
> in existence for 15 years and was one of the most popular 
> activities in the 
> club.  And how many variable star observers were there in the 
> Montreal Centre as 
> a result of this "training"?  Exactly ONE: Frank Morgan.  
> There were lots of 
> Montrealers active in the AAVSO at the time, at least two 
> serving as president, 
> but they were into solar observing, lunar occultation timing 
> (then part of 
> AAVSO), and nova search.  Isabel tried a more focused 
> variable star training 
> program in 1963, which got me involved for about a month, but 
> then I hit the 
> vacuum in Headquarters of the day, which was like a black 
> hole where you 
> submitted observations but never got any feedback whatsoever. 
>  I don't think any 
> serious observers came out of that program.  It was only when 
> young David Levy 
> came along that the Montreal Centre got their second serious 
> variable star 
> observer, and I suspect he largely did that on his own (by 
> then I'd gone off to 
> grad school in Toronto and lost touch).
> 
> Geoff
> 
> Geoff Gaherty  GHT
> Foxmead Observatory
> Coldwater, Ontario, Canada
> http://www.gaherty.ca _______________________________________________
>