Waltham, MA October 29-30, 2004

The First of a New Generation

Having my first AAVSO meeting be the Memorial Meeting for the venerable Dr. Janet Mattei turned out to be a much more personal experience than I had expected. Never before had a scientific meeting been so moving, so varied, and so full.

I had arranged to attend the meeting a month or so beforehand, when the AAVSO first announced it. HQ staff member Aaron Price graciously offered to let me stay with him and his wife if in return I brought a video camera to film the meeting as I had during the Mira Symposium during the Spring.

My co-workers were both shocked and amused by my plans to attend the meeting. You'll doubtless remember at the time the Boston Red Sox were playing for the championship - something they had not won in over 80 years. "You're going to Boston for an astronomical conference?" they would say, aghast. Truth is I wouldn't go for baseball alone. ( The only recognized sport I follow to any degree is English football.)

I arrived in Boston on Thursday afternoon. Boston might be called the "Vatican City" of Unitarian-Universalism, and I wanted to take the opportunity to visit some of the related sites in Boston. Someone was on my side when I found on-street parking not more than a kilometer east of Beacon Hill. I got to visit the UUA Headquarters, see the Robert Shaw Memorial, and walk on the Boston Common (those Boston Common Squirrels are brave!). As I walked around the city, I was struck by all the huge banners that were hung all over celebrating the Red Sox victory. One such banner nearly covered the entire front of the State House! For a team that hadn't won a championship in over 80 years, it seemed these banners must have been made up beforehand. Now that's faith!

I stayed in Boston until 5:30pm, stupidly thinking that I could let the rush hour pass. I couldn't, but I was able to get out of Boston and onto the highway with only two taxi cabs trying to kill me. I figured that was an accomplishment of sorts. After an hours travel, I finally arrived at Aaron's flat.

Aaron and I had been graduate students together at Swinburne. This was the first time I'd meet his wonderful wife Erma, as well as their cats. Erma, the cats, and the flat turned out to be as charming as I'd imagined. Aaron, being the computer technologist he is, as well as an astronomer, had a WiFi connection in the flat that allowed the both of us to troll the internet while spending the next few hours discussing minute details of the closely upcoming US Presidential election, something both of us were rather passionate about.

The following day, Friday, featured the Memorial service and symposium on Variable Stars in Education in honor of Janet Mattei. This was the second memorial I had attended in the past year. My foster Mom had died in February and we'd had her memorial in April. Half of Rome, NY, turned out. More people came to the memorial than had come to any of my foster sisters' weddings. My foster Mom had taught so many kids in Rome over the years. I had similar feeling as I sat at Janet's memorial service. People had come from all over to honor and remember someone who had the ability to change people's lives simply due to her day-to-day interactions.

I don't need to list and go on about Janet's honors here. I am ill-equipped to even begin to relate what she meant to people who'd known and worked with her for years. But as an "outsider" seeing the Memorial I got the strong impression that the world would be a far, far better place if there were more Janet Matteis in it. No one is perfect, but as I heard things related through the next two hours I knew that Janet was the type of co-worker, mentor, and boss I wish I could have.

During the get together at AAVSO Headquarters that evening I told both Elizabeth and Aaron that I thought they and the current AAVSO staff and Council had an awesome responsibility. The world, starting with new members like me, would get to know Janet through them. That was something to think about. Everyone has things they regret in their life. Honestly, one of mine will be that I never got to meet Janet, based on everything I've heard about her. But I'm grateful that I'm able to do the next best thing: get to know her through her best representatives - her staff and fellow astronomers.

Right after the memorial, the symposium, was held. Aaron kept telling me over and over again that this was a "small" meeting and I kept looking at a whole afternoon of papers and not believing him. All of the presentations had some aspect of Janet involved in them, either as a research subject she was interested in or had participated in, or as a program she'd helped foster. Stories abounded about how Janet would rope colleagues into various projects. What might have been just a stray comment made one evening would, a month later, lead to Janet on the phone saying, "I found funding! Let's start!" If it had something to do with education and public outreach or pro-am efforts, it was never an idle comment to Janet!

Saturday was a "free day" for most of us, although it was a marathon session for the AAVSO Council. While they debated through the morning and afternoon, Aaron, Erma, and Pamela Gay, who I would find a rather interesting connection to that night, decided to brave the vast crowds and potential riot control and tear gas and see the Red Sox victory parade.

Erma had gone ahead and Aaron and Pamela were going to drop me off at the hotel to meet AAVSO Post-Doc Matt Templeton. As we were driving, Aaron's cell phone rang. He answered it: "Hi Erma... We're on our way... You can't get across the street? OK, don't worry about it. We'll find you." Aaron hung up.

"What's up?" I asked.
"Erma can't get across the street. She's on the south side of the parade route. We're on the north side."
"I didn't know you guys had another car."
"We don't," responded Aaron. "She's on foot."
"Wait a second. They won't let her cross the street?"
"No, Doc. You don't understand. There are so many people there she simply can't cross the street."
It boggled my mind.
Aaron and Pam let me off at the hotel, picked up a couple of other people, and drove off. "Have fun at the tear gassing," I said with a grin as I waved them away.

Matt arrived and even though it was drizzling we decided to do a tour of Lexington and Concord. This was great for me since I'd spent my childhood at the Revolutionary War fortification Ft. Stanwix in Rome, NY. We spent the afternoon tromping over battlefields, looking at displays, and seeing historical short films. Most folks not in New England think of the entire eastern seaboard of the country as built up. Matt was able to bring me through areas of near total wilderness as far as I'm concerned, certainly nothing that I expected anywhere near Boston.

The AAVSO membership meeting convened in the early evening. It was a short (perhaps too short given all the things the AAVSO does!) meeting that still had its areas of humor. Chuck Pullen, one of the AAVSO Council members, did a good job of teasing our organizers as the meeting began.

"We'll be meeting in the lobby after the meeting to go out for pizza," Rebecca announced.
"Which lobby?" Chuck asked.
"The one at the front of the hotel."
"Which corner of the lobby?" Chuck persisted in trying to nail down the precise details.
"I'm not talking to you anymore," Rebecca said with a smile.
After the meeting and some wonderful presentations to members of the AAVSO staff who'd been serving the membership for several years, it was off for a late dutch treat dinner. Ours turned out to be a sort of Swinburne University class reunion since Chuck Pullen, Aaron Price, and I were members of the same class a couple of years ago. Also with us was Pamela Gay who was an instructor at the University.

As we ate and talked I kept looking at Pamela's nametag and listening to her talk of her various experiences. I remembered her from someplace. But, she talked of working at Yale, and I knew I didn't have anyone at Swinburne who worked at Yale. Then, as the conversation went on she mentioned that she'd gotten her Ph.D. just a year or so ago from Texas. That finally stopped me in my tracks.

While I'd been at Swinburne I'd done a project to do age analysis via photometry on the M92 Globular Star cluster. It was quite a challenging project for me, a real learning experience and everything that I'd hoped grad school would be. I particularly remembered how great my advisor had been in trying to help out with computer software issues vis-a-vis the analysis software I'd wanted to use. I'd told anyone who would listen about this project because it meant so much to me. And suddenly it hit me.

"Pam," I asked. "Wait a minute. You just got your Ph.D a year or so ago?"
"Yeah."
"From Texas?"
"Yeah."
"Were you teaching at Swinburne when you were working on your Ph.D thesis?"
"Uh huh."

"Oh my God! Pam! It's me! It's Doc Kinne, the kid who wanted to do the M92 photometry analysis by hooking up an X-Windows session to your computer in TX from Ithaca, NY! You finally convinced me to forget about it since I'd spend more time on the computer issues than the photometry!"
"Oh my God!" she replied. "I've been looking at your nametag all night wondering where I knew you from!"
"Aaron!" I yelled down the table. "This is Pam, my M92 Globular Cluster advisor!" I was acting as though I had just been reunited with a long lost sister! Meeting Pamela made my night.

Janet was fond of saying that each variable star observation had a person behind it, and she liked to imagine each person's excitement and pride each time they made an estimation. While I never got the chance to meet her, at that moment I like to imagine Janet looking down at our little dinner gathering that night and saying, as she hung out around the orbit of Mira, "Yep, he gets it. MyAAVSO'ers are doing a great job."

And I think we are.

Richard C.S. "Doc" Kinne (KQR)
Ithaca, NY

Las Cruces, NM March 20-26, 2005

High Energy in New Mexico

Where could one go in late winter to enjoy nice weather, and the company of astronomers from all over the world? Where could one learn cutting edge information about the NASA Swift and GLAST missions, blazars, GRB's, AGN's, magnetars, and black holes? Where could one sit in on CCD photometry workshops, enjoy a poster paper session about outreach activities, and take a tour of the VLA? This past March the place to be for all this and more was the AAVSO HEA 3 Workshop held at the University of New Mexico campus in Las Cruces, NM. Rarely does one attend a meeting that is so well organized; Aaron, Rebecca, and Elizabeth really did a wonderful job!

The days and evenings were filled with sessions packed with highly detailed information about members of the high-energy astrophysics zoo, given by professional astronomers who were more than happy to answer questions and continue to discuss their topics after hours. I am now anxious to learn the future chapters in the stories of magnetars, AGN's, GRB's, and blazars! Tuesday night was highlighted by Phil Plait, who educated and entertained us all with his, "Seven Ways a Black Hole Can Kill You." If you have never heard Phil speak, you have certainly missed out! His presentation, filled with both verbal and visual jokes, (and sometimes obscure facts), culminating with a cartoon of Ren and Stimpy going into a black hole was superb! Phil's information on black holes has kept me from figuratively falling into one when asked about black holes at public events. Unfortunately, the star party scheduled to follow was affected by the bane of all visual observers: clouds and lights from the baseball field!

This meeting was my first contact with the AAVSO. I had no idea what to expect when I arrived, but very soon I was highly impressed by the professionalism, infectious enthusiasm, and willingness of the members to make me welcome and to educate me about variable star observing. Professional astronomers, new observers, and those who have made tens of thousands of observations took the time to talk to me about their work and to share their love of variable stars. In spite of the full schedule, there was plenty of time to share jokes, talk about telescope equipment, and make new friends. Star maps and personal observing logs were shared with me. My neophyte questions were answered with patience, humor, and enthusiasm. I was truly overwhelmed by the response to my poster paper presentation, which dealt with my outreach activities in northeastern Oklahoma. I was given materials, ideas, and lots of moral support for my outreach efforts. But for me, the best part of the meeting was the opportunity to talk with other astronomers, both professional and amateur, and the willingness of all to share their knowledge and ideas. It is not everyday that one can mingle with astronomers from the US, UK, Finland, Canada, and South America! I am happy to say that HEA 3 inspired me greatly, and as a result, I have joined the AAVSO and plan to begin learning to make observations soon.

I have one question; Aaron, Rebecca, and Elizabeth, when and where are you going to do another great workshop like this? You can sign me up for it now!

Neta Apple
Chouteau, OK

Fun (in the New Mexico) Sun

On Thursday March 24th the AAVSO officially kicked of it's 94th Spring on the heels of the very enjoyable and successful 3rd HEA Workshop for Amateur Astronomers. Attendees boarded buses and headed up to the plains of San Agustin, some fifty miles west of Socorro, New Mexico and nearly 7,000 feet above sea level, to visit one of the world's premier astronomical radio observatories, the Very Large Array or VLA.

The VLA consists of 27 radio antennas in a Y shaped configuration. Each antenna is 25 meters (82 feet) in diameter. The data from the antennas are combined electronically to give the resolution of an antenna 36km (22 miles) across, with the sensitivity of a dish 130 meters (422 feet) in diameter. The visit consisted of a video and a talk given by a VLA staff member in the visitor center theater followed by a walking tour of the site, including the control building and control room. Attendees braved the wind and ventured out to gaze at the antennas up close, a truly impressive sight!

The first scientific paper session held on Friday March 24th and as usual were filled with some great papers and poster papers on topics ranging from Gamma Ray Bursts and X-ray transients to Period changes in delta SCuti stars. A complete list of abstracts presented at the meeting is available on the AAVSO website.

Friday evening featured a talk given by Dr. Reta Beebe, a professor at New Mexico State University. Dr. Beebe manages the Atmospheres Discipline Node, a part o NASA's Planetary Data System and she spoke about her research involving NASA's Planetary Exploration program. Following the on-campus talk, attendees were invited to join members of the Astronomical Society of Las Cruces (ASLC) for some observing. Saturday began with the AAVSO membership meeting which included reports the Secretary, Treasurer, Committee Chairs, and also featured the Director's Welcome from new AAVSO Director, Dr. Arne Henden. The second second paper session took place that afternoon.

The Banquet was held at the Hilton Las Cruces on Saturday evening. After dinner the AAVSO awards presentations got underway. For a complete list of awards that were announced see the awards page of this newsletter. Following the awards, AAVSO's own Elizabeth Waagen described her recent trip to New Zealand to represent the AAVSO at the celebrations honoring Dr. Frank Bateson on his retirement as the founding and sole Director of the Variable Star Section of the Royal Astronomical Society of New Zealand, the section he founded in 1927.

The meeting was well attended and New Mexico proved to be a perfect backdrop for a full and exciting Spring Meeting!

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