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PRESIDENT'S CORNER
(From the September 2008 Observer)

Wayne Green, president of the DAS

he day of the picnic was very busy, with the telescope operator’s recertification class, the picnic in the afternoon and the evening filled with around 200 guests for the Open House. After the picnic a few of us MARS (our AL Region) people travelled to Des Moines , IA for the National
Astronomical League (AL) and Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers (ALPO) co-convention. My apologies for the late arrival of the pre-picnic Newsletter.

Estes Valley Astronomical Society has raised their hand to bring the Astronomical League 2010 Convention to Estes Park. As the MARS Chair, I was tapped to pitch Estes Valley’s proposal to the AL Executive Council. The proposal was well received. I was pleasantly surprised by people coming to me to encourage Estes Valley to host the convention once again in Colorado. They are working the details now. The League still holds the convention DAS hosted in 1998 as a gold standard! There is a lot of work in putting a convention together, but the city of Estes Park has a person dedicated to helping with these events so the burden for 2010 is not as high as with past conventions. This year’s convention was attended by roughly 160 people, many of them ALPO members. I had the privilege of meeting and spending a few moments with Walter Haas. Dr Hass founded ALPO in 1947 and is currently the emeritus director of ALPO. ALPO has indicated a willingness to join with the MARS region for 2010.

One very interesting session at the Convention this year dealt wi th the status quo of amateur astronomy clubs. DAS is one of the best clubs out there! We were the only club at the meeting that could report a modicum of growth last year. I believe growth is more about supporting our members’ various interest in amateur observing and astronomy and not about being a big club per-se. I came away with a strong belief that our DAS Ambassadors and Mentors are really helping people join and enjoy the club. If you would like to take on the unofficial role of Ambassador or volunteer to work with a new member as a DAS mentor see anyone on the executive board. If you are looking for a DAS mentor see me. The Open House on August 9th and the General Meeting on August 15th focused on our student members. Naomi Pequette coordinated the event at the Open House. We held a get-together with our students to explore how DAS can help with their plans for this next academic year. At the General Meeting we presented the Van Nattan-Hansen scholarship awards. I accepted the Jack Horkheimer award for national service for Neil Pearson at the Astronomical League Convention this year and Darrell Dodge presented this award directly to him on behalf of Mr. Horkheimer at the general meeting. We have Colorado Astronomy Day coming up. Rodney Pinkney is this year’s coordinator. We’re looking for the usual events at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science and might just consider doing a little sidewalk astronomy around town. If you know of some great spots for a few DAS’ers to set up solar scopes let Rodney know.

- Wayne Green, DAS President

 

DAS 2008 Event Calendar Card

KEY:
GM = general meetings
OH = open houses
DSW = dark sky weekends
EB = executive board meetings
* = Details of general meetings
+ = Details of open houses

For a printable high resolution PDF version of this DAS calendar wallet card, please click HERE.