Once again we returned to the Northwoods resort which is well suited for the symposium. This year was highlighted with workshops all day Wednesday. In the morning, Arne Hendon of the USNO conducted a workshop on photometry and improving your accuracy. In the afternoon, Dirk Terrell of the Southwest Research Institute gave a workshop on binary stars, different types and how to evaluate them. At the end of the day, the die hards got to try out software that Dirk brought with him.
Thursday was the general paper session. John Menke discussed his starting efforts at obtaining asteroid rotational periods while Bob Stephens and Robert Koff discussed what to do with those pesky variable stars that keep creeping into their asteroid images. We were privy to another outstanding talk by Dale Mais on the latest techniques in amateur spectroscopy. The keynote speaker was Rick Finberg, publisher of Sky & Telescope magazine, who asked the question, ‘Can Amateur Astronomers Do Good Science?’ His conclusion was, with proper training, yes they can. Finally, the funniest talk was delivered by Lee Snyder who discussed the trials and tribulations of building a multiple telescope observatory at Western Nevada Community College. None of us will ever forget Lee ‘Walking Naked’ as he lost a bet on when the project would be completed.
The Hospitality Room was open both evenings where much of the education happens. The Bisque brothers once again demonstrated their Paramount setting it up, obtaining a T-Point Model, and taking images all over the sky. In addition, they demonstrated their new TheSky Version 6 which will be available in the Fall.
Eighty-five attendees came to the fabulous Big Bear skies to enjoy the mountains and learn from the talks. The Symposium was sponsored by Apogee, HighPoint Scientific, Santa Barbara Instruments, Sky and Telescope Magazine, and Software Bisque.
The complete Proceedings are available as a PDF file (4.1 meg).
Lee Snyder: Building a New Observatory
Bob Denny: Automation Techniques for Scientific Astronomy
John Menke: Confessions of a Beginner Asteroid Light Curve Photometrist
Dale E. Mais: Mira Variable Stars: Spectroscopic and Photometric Monitoring of this broad class of Long Term Variable and Highly Evolved Stars.
Rick Finberg: Can Amateur Astronomers Do Good Science?
Robert Stephens / Robert Koff: Discovery of Variable Stars as a Byproduct of Asteroid Lightcurve Work
Peter Cervolo: A New All Spherical Optical Design For Meter Class Telescopes
Roy Tucker: The MOTESS System