Society Information

Presidents Message

Members and friends of the LVAS,

Well, here's my first message for the newsletter as the LVAS President. Even though I'm very excited about being your President, it is with some trepidation that I accepted your vote of confidence in me at the Christmas party. This is especially true in the light of the fact I’m following some great past Presidents, like Dave Goldwater, Bob Braddy, Geary Keilman (our last President), and others, whom I didn’t know. I don’t have the experience in amateur astronomy that many of you have, but with the other outstanding officers you elected and with your support, I hope I can make up with enthusiasm what I lack in experience. I'm really looking forward to this year.

I hope you’ll join me in thanking Geary Keilman for his leadership and service over the past five years. Personally, I’ve learned a lot from him during my two years of membership in the LVAS. He always willingly answered my questions, even when maybe the answers should have been a blinding flash of the obvious. I value his experience and guidance and hope to continue to draw upon them. Part of my enthusiasm for our hobby is because of Geary and the encouragement I received from him. I hope you share my appreciation of his dedication and service to our Society. Whenever Geary was in town, he always seemed to find a way to be at the meetings, the Red Rock and Valley of Fire outings, and every Education Outreach opportunity he could make. There weren't many he missed and there were many behind the scenes hours that Geary dedicated to ensuring the success of the LVAS. From all of us, Geary: Thanks so much.

Your LVAS officers are finalizing the event calendar for 2008. We’ll try to balance public star parties with dark sky observing sessions to support the individual observing goals of our members. It is my hope to get more of our members involved in our monthly member meetings, and in both our public and private viewing sessions. We’re looking at alternatives to the Annual Grand Canyon Star Party. A possibility is Cedar Breaks National Park, which is looking for support with their Summer Astronomy Nights. Red Rock Canyon and Valley of Fire Rangers are excited about having us come and share the night sky with their park visitors again this year. Please join us for another exciting year.

I appreciate everyone that has willingly accepted these positions [2008 Officers], especially those that have volunteered again after several years of continued service. John Heller, Bunny Nua, Brett Platko, and Val Picotte have served in their respective positions since before I was a member of the LVAS. And thanks to John Boron for volunteering to be our Vice President for the second year and to David Blanchette for willingly stepping in to be our EOP Coordinator. Both men have years of experience in amateur astronomy and willingly share that experience with me and members of the Society. We all look forward to serving you in 2008.

With the recent election of LVAS officers, I’m wearing two hats; one as President and one as Newsletter Editor. I’ve really enjoyed serving as the Newsletter Editor for the past two years. I’ve learned a lot and I've gotten to know the members of the LVAS a lot better as a result of serving in this position. But, in fairness to the Society, I really don't need to hold more than one position. Others need to have an opportunity to serve and share their talents. We are, therefore, searching for a Newsletter Editor. A couple of members have expressed potential interest in helping us with this important position. If you would seriously consider being the Newsletter Editor, please contact either me or Bunny Nua before our next Officer's meeting on February 7th and we'll present your nomination to the board of Officers. We hope to identify and present our new Newsletter Editor to the general membership at our next meeting. The new Editor will need your help with articles and reviews. You'll probably notice that this issue of Look Up Las Vegas has a rather singular tone and style, since most of the articles were written by me. I'm not even that imaginative or creative, so please help our new Editor by sharing your talents and experience with the LVAS members through the Newsletter. An occasional article or review will be a tremendous help to the new Editor.

We are attempting to identify and schedule presentations for our member meetings and the public star parties at Red Rock for the remainder of the year. If you have suggestions for presentation topics or if you are interested in giving a presentation, please send me a note. The presentation theme for February will be “Saturn through the eyes of Cassini” and for March it will be “Mysteries of the Vernal Equinox”. Let us know if there's a topic that really piques your interest.

If you haven't been out to any of the LVAS activities lately, please consider joining us. We need your support and all that you bring to the Society in your experience and love of astronomy. Please help us strengthen our Society and share the night sky with others. Hope to see you soon. Wishing you clear skies.

Rob Lambert