William H. Dillon

It's wonderful to have a Director again, and it's wonderful that our Director is Dr. Arne Henden, a world renown observational astronomer with many years of service to the AAVSO through his work on the AAVSO Council and his advice and mentoring of its observers. At our Spring meeting in Las Cruces, New Mexico, Arne's first as the AAVSO's new Director, I had to remind myself several times that he had only been on the job a few weeks!

I have a great sense of pride in the team that helped the AAVSO get through some stormy seas: in our interim Director Elizabeth Waagen, my fellow officers and Council members, HQ staff, in the welcome advice of Past Presidents Dan Kaiser, Lee Anne Willson, and Tom Williams, and our Search Committee members who brought us such quality candidates. Now we have a new Captain, calm seas, and steady wind to fill the sails. We can now ponder which course we'd like to set, and enjoy the voyage with new-found confidence.

One course we're starting to explore is gaining access for our members to remote telescopes. Thanks to the Internet and software and hardware advances, distance is not a factor anymore in controlling a telescope. It's no longer necessary to haul equipment long distances to image in dark skies, even the dark skies of another hemisphere. Someone else has worked the bugs out of an advanced imaging system, and is responsible for its maintenance. I think this can significantly lower the barriers to getting involved in CCD imaging and photometry.

Thanks to AAVSO Council member Barry Beaman (former President of the Astronomical League), we're in discussions with the AL on gaining part-time access to their remote ISS-AT telescope for our members. Naturally, there are many details to be worked out, and many difficulties to overcome, but I'm excited by the potential this offers us all.

I expect to have more details for you at our October meeting; hope to see you there!

Clear skies and good observing,

—Bill Dillon

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