Have You Seen the All-Sky Camera?

The HAS observatory site now has an all-sky camera in place. It works great. I was watching it last night and I could see several bright stars and the Milky Way in the image it returned. Many thanks to Mike Edstrom who got this going, and to an anonymous donor who paid for the purchase of the camera.

I’m very pleased to hear that Mike is offering his services as Observatory Director for 2015. There have been some significant improvements at the site recently, including the weather reporting system, and the private observatories. As Mike says in his Observatory Corner article, all the private observatory sites are under subscription, so the demand has exceeded the supply. Stay tuned, there may be other opportunities for private observatories.

The HAS Elections for 2015

Right on schedule, the nominating committee headed up by Rene Gedaly, our VP, is up and running. A number of the leaders of the HAS have agreed to run again for the office they currently hold. Some of the positions will become vacant, so the committee will be searching for new nominees to fill those positions.

Many thanks to those who have served the organization in 2014 as officers, board members, elected committee leaders, or as leaders of ad-hoc committees. More about this as we approach the end of the year.

Look for Rene’s article about the nominating process on page 8 in this issue of the GuideStar. I hope you’ll offer to help the HAS in 2015. There’s always more opportunity to serve the membership than there are people willing to take on the tasks. The board often hears of good ideas for new HAS initiatives, but without the volunteers to make those ideas a reality they never get off the ground.

The production of the GuideStar is something I’ve done for quite some years, and I’ve enjoyed every minute of work I’ve put into it. It’s time for someone to step up and take this on for the future. There are plenty of sources for good content in the newsletter. I love to get content comes from our HAS members, but I get content from the AAVSO, from the NASA Space Place, and now from the UT/McDonald Observatory. The job entails formatting that content for the newsletter, dropping in into the publication and adding some content where necessary.

Anyone interested in this role in 2014 can contact me by email—guidestar@astronomyhouston.org.