In Gratitude from SXN

I thought you might like to hear from a relatively new observer my impressions of the AAVSO and its members.

Your office staff has been very professional, courteous, and helpful in answering all my questions and responding to telephone calls and e-mail. In particular, Elizabeth, Mike, and Rebecca.

The mentoring program has been a great experience for me and has without a doubt put me years ahead of where I would be without it. I now report 200-300 observations a month. Peter Guilbaut was my original mentor. He was very patient, encouraging, and answered a million questions. Our e-mail correspondence is a case study in teacher/pupil development. I looked at the file recently and it is astounding where I was and where I am now as an observer.

Eventually, as my interest became more specifically CVs, Pete introduced me to Gene Hanson. Gene is not only a very intelligent and helpful mentor, he is also one of the funniest people I’ve come across in any endeavor. I love seeing e-mail from him in my box!

Through your website I have been able to track down some other observers, most notably Gary Poyner. He is an amazing, prolific observer and I have tried to model my current observing program after his. It’s like trying to play one-on-one with Michael Jordan, but I’m hanging in.

I am amazed at the amount of information available on the website. I regularly check the quick look data to see who’s observing what and how my observations compare. Downloading charts and viewing light curves are so simple that even I can do it. The alert notices and news flashes keep me up on stars that need to be observed, and I can’t tell you how excited I was the first time my data were included in a news flash!

This has become a far more rewarding hobby for me knowing that I’m contributing to the science of astronomy and not just being a tourist in NGC country. I plan on doing presentations at our October astronomy club meetings on variable star observing to see if I can’t get a couple more observers interested.

I can’t forget to mention Charles Scovil, whose charts are beautiful and quite a legacy. He too has been very generous with his time and I look forward to corresponding with him from time to time.

The internet is an awesome tool if people are open and accessible and I’ve found that to be true of everyone I’ve contacted through the AAVSO. Just thought you’d like to know.