NEWSLETTER OF THE VANCOUVER CENTRE RASC

The One That Got Away 1

Old History 2

President�s Message 3

Uranometria 2000.0 Vol. 1 6

GA 2003 Report 7

Upcoming Events 8

Members� Gallery 11

Looking Ahead

Remember, you are alwayswelcome to attend meetings ofCouncil, held on the first Tues-day of every month at 7:30pmin the G.S.O.

Jan. 14: Ray Villard, PR Direc-tor for the Space TelescopeScience Institute.

Feb. 11: Dr. Alan Shotter, Di-rector of TRIUMF, on NuclearAstrophysics.

Mar. 11: Dr. Fred Raab, Direc-tor of Hanford's Gravity WaveObservatory, on gravity waveastronomy.

Next Issue DeadlineMaterial for the March Novashould submitted by Monday,Mar. 3, 2003. Please send sub-missions to:Gordon Farrell(gfarrell@shaw.ca)

The One That Got Awayby Bill Ronald

continued on page 8

VOLUME 2003 ISSUE 1 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2003

We have been very luckywhen we have gone hunting totalsolar eclipses. In 1998, on theNorwegian Sea in the Caribbean,Linda and I had Jay Anderson onboard to find the hole in the clouds.

In 1999, we luckily chose to viewfrom the deck of the Vistafjord inthe Black Sea, and had perfectskies, while much of Britain andEurope was clouded out. In 2001,we went with Alan Dyer to theZambezi Valley in northernZimbabwe and were again

rewarded with perfect weather.It was therefore with a fair

degree of confidence that Iplanned to view the December 4,2002 eclipse, from the deck of theOlympic Countess, in the Indian

Ocean south of Madagascar. AlanDyer had suggested that we joinhim for the �sunset eclipse� inWestern Australia, but it was only30 seconds long and I just have totake pictures, so I chose the oneminute and forty seconds in the

2

Old History

continued on page 9

by Marc VerschuerenWe observers can only see the

visible light. We do know that eventhen we look back in history. Whenwe look, this time of the year, atthe brilliant Betelgeuse or Rigel,we are seeing these magnificentstars like they were a few hundredyears ago. This sets us on the roadto the history of the universe.

I do, in general, not like anexpression such as: �This is thegreatest discovery of the century.�It is impossible to make astatement like that. Discoveriescannot be ranked like horsescrossing the finish line on thetrack, but we can certainly say thatsome discoveries are extremelyimportant. One of the deepestinsights astronomy has acquired inthe last century or so is that theuniverse had an origin. Longbefore that, people like Laplacealready realized that stars had alifetime; they were born and theydied. But that the universe as awhole had an origin and a historydates back to cosmologists likeLemaitre and Friedman and others.They got their ideas from theEinstein equations which made itpossible to think of an expandinguniverse. Space-time grows on us,so it could have had a beginning.As a concept, many will readilyaccept this�we are after all usedto the idea of evolution. But it isessential to have someexperimental justification for theconcept�some totallyindependent observations, somemeasurements�that are consistent

with the basic idea. Gamov and hiscoworkers presented, in the earlyfifties, a reasonable description ofthe evolution of the very earlyuniverse which predicted that thereshould be some electro-magneticradiation left over from these veryearly moments of the universe.And this radiation was found, in1964, by Penzias and Wilson. Nowthat was one of these greatdiscoveries. As a measurement, itwas totally independent of theEinstein equations or Gamov�sconsiderations, but it confirmedthe latter.

But there was a problem. Thisradiation, commonly known todayas the Cosmic MicrowaveBackground (or CMB for short)was absolutely the same in alldirections, and the universe is notlike that. If it were like that, itwould be a very boring night sky.No, the sky is full of stars andnebulae and galaxies�matter isnot spread out uniformly. Fromvery early on the universe musthave been non-uniform to somedegree. The non-uniformity couldthen create stars and galaxies. Butthen the CMB interacting with thisvery early matter would also benon-uniform, anisotropic. In 1992,George Smoot and a small armyof collaborators announcedexactly that. If you look indifferent directions at the universe,the cosmic background radiationis different. The differences arevery small but they are largeenough to allow for the creationof structures such as stars and

galaxies and they are large enoughto be measured.

But there always is a problem.In the last few years, people havefound more and more detail in thestructure of the CMB. The Mapsatellite, with which UBC isclosely connected, is doing workin this field. But it is alwayspossible to claim that theanisotropy of the CMB is causedby absorption by large scalestructures in the universe,absorption that happened as theradiation travelled to us today.There is a possibility to decidethis. If the anisotropy in the CMBis caused by scattering byanisotropic matter in the earlyuniverse, this radiation will bepartially polarized and will havemoved more or less freely eversince. Polarization means that theelectrical and magnetic fields ofthe radiation oscillate more insome directions than others. Thisphenomenon is actually quite wellknown. Light of the Sun reflectedby the air in the sky is partiallypolarized. Light reflected from ahighway is partially polarized. Thefunctioning of polaroid sunglassesis based on this.

We are asking for a lot now.First one has to discover the veryweak CMB; that was done. Thenwe needed a structure in thisradiation. That was done. Now weneed a polarization, and has beendone as well. In my opinion, thisis once again one of these greatdiscoveries. It was announced last

3

2003 VancouverCentre Officers

PresidentBill Ronald 604-733-7036ronaldb@shaw.caVice-PresidentNicole van den Elzen 604-501-2656nicole@deepskyobjects.caSecretaryRon Jerome 604-298-3292jerome3292@shaw.caTreasurerMarc Verschueren 604-986-1485marcver@shaw.caLibrarianWilliam Fearon 604-939-1895williamfearon147@hotmail.comNational RepresentativesPomponia Martinez 604-215-8844pomponia@telus.netBob Parry 604-215-8844robpar@telus.netMembershipDan Collier 604-732-6046Chair, CARO CommitteeBob Parry 604-215-8844Director of TelescopesPhil Morris 604-734-8708Public RelationsNorman Song 604-299-7924norman_song@telus.netSpeakersBarry Shanko 604-271-0615barry.mail@intouch.bc.caMerchandisingDoug Montgomery 604-596-7058moondoug@home.comNova EditorGordon Farrell 604-734-0326gfarrell@shaw.caWebmasterJason Rickerby 604-502-8158rickerby@dccnet.comGreeterGreg Price 604-377-5547glm-price@telus.net

TrusteesSally Baker 604-324-3309Lee Johnson 604-941-5364

About RASCThe Vancouver Centre, RASC

meets at 7:30 PM in the auditoriumof the H.R. MacMillan Space Cen-tre at 1100 Chestnut St., Vancou-ver, on the second Tuesday of everymonth. Guests are always wel-come. In addition, the Centre hasan observing site where star par-ties are regularly scheduled.

Membership is currently $51.00per year ($26.00 for persons under21 years of age) and can be ob-tained by writing to the Treasurerat the address below. Annualmembership includes the invalu-able Observer�s Handbook, six is-sues of the RASC Journal, and, ofcourse, access to all of the clubevents and projects.

For more information regardingthe Centre and its activities, pleasecontact our P.R. Director.

NOVA, the newsletter of theVancouver Centre, RASC, is pub-lished on odd numbered months.Opinions expressed herein are notnecessarily those of the VancouverCentre.

Material on any aspect of as-tronomy should be e-mailed to theeditor, mailed to the address onpage 5, or uploaded toSpaceBase� at 604-473-9358, 59.

AdvertisingNova encourages free use of itsclassified ads for members withitems for sale or swap. Notify theeditor if you wish your ad to run inmore than one issue.

CommericalRates

1/2 Page: $25.00 per issueFull Page: $40.00 per issueRates are for camera-ready, orelectronic files. Payment, bycheque, must accompany ad ma-terial. Make cheque payable to:RASC Vancouver Centre.

President�sMessage

continued on page 5

This year is going to be a busyand exciting one for the VancouverCentre. At the January Councilmeeting, we outlined the usualschedule of events for the year, andin addition we are consideringsome interesting new publicoutreach events such as a �NationalDark-Sky Week� and a �MarsWeek.� We are also looking at anew location, in the Merritt area,for the second club star party thisyear. However, the big event of theyear is that Vancouver Centre ishosting the annual GeneralAssembly of the RoyalAstronomical Society of Canada, atthe end of June. It is particularlysignificant for us because it is the100th Anniversary of RoyalRecognition of the AstronomicalSociety, and it happens in a yearwhen one of our centre�s members,Rajiv Gupta, is the NationalPresident.

I hope that this year will alsobe the �Year of the Volunteer� inour centre. It is not uncommon thatas a club�s membership grows, thepercentage of members who getinvolved tends to get smaller. I findthat at many outreach events thereare a lot of familiar faces; those ofCouncil members and a few die-hard volunteers. However, at leastonce a year, on Astronomy Day,there is a good turnout. Lots ofmembers join in, the work getsspread around, people get to knoweach other and everyone has a goodtime.

This year we are offering youmany chances to get involved and

4

Observing Sites

Dale McNabb Observatory inAldergrove Lake Park (RASC Van-couver Centre's regular viewingsite)Contact Mike Penndelton (604-888-1505) or Howard Morgan(604-856-9186)

Site of the annual star party organ-ized by the RASC Vancouver Cen-tre

Site of the annual Mt. Kobau StarParty organized by the MountKobau Astronomical Society

Site of the regular Thursday nightstar party. On the dike at the footof 72nd St.

5

ASTROCOMPUTINGSpaceBase� (604-473-9358,59).Affiliated since 1992 with RASCVancouver, our link to RASC Net,RASC Members only chat area.Future data distribution hub forCARO Project. Features includelatest HST images, current worldspace news and astronomy pro-grams. Provides a file uploadingfacility for submitting articles andimagery to Nova.

LIBRARYThe centre has a large library ofbooks, magazines and old Nova�sfor your enjoyment at the GSO.Please take advantage of this clubservice and visit often to check outthe new purchases. Suggestionsfor future library acquisitions areappreciated.

RASCVC on the Internethttp://members.shaw.ca/rascvan/or http://www.rasc.ca/vancouver

H.R. MACMILLANSPACE CENTRE

The Pacific Space Centre Societyis a non-profit organization whichoperates the H.R. MacMillan SpaceCentre and Gordon M. SouthamObservatory. Annual Membership($30 Individual, $65 Family) in-cludes a newsletter, Discounts onSpace Camps, special programsand lectures, Vancouver MuseumDiscounts, and free admission tothe Space Centre. Admission to theSpace Centre includes: Astronomyshows, Motion Simulator rides,multimedia shows in GroundStationCanada, and access to the CosmicCourtyard Exhibit Gallery. For Mem-bership information, call MahiJordao at 604-738-7827, local 237for information. You can also reachthem on the Internet at http://www.hrmacmillanspacecentre.com/

MEMBERSHIPHAS ITS

PRIVILEGES!New members, did you know?

The Vancouver Centre has 8 tel-escopes available for loan free ofcharge! We have telescopes rang-ing from 60mm to 10" diameter.For more information see Phil Mor-ris, Director of Telescopes in thelobby of the GSO after the mem-bers meeting. All telescopes areto be picked up and returned at theGSO. The loaner period is for onemonth, to be returned after the nextmeeting. Telescopes are not al-lowed to circulate outside of thesemeetings. You can now reserve 2different telescopes per year anduse what is left at the end of themeeting anytime. Phil can bereached at 604-734-8708.

Your greatest opportunity as amember of the R.A.S.C. is to takeadvantage of the company of otherenthusiasts to increase your knowl-edge, enjoyment and skill in as-tronomy.

The best thing you can do togain the most from your member-ship is to get active! Take in theclub meetings; engage other mem-bers with questions; come out to ob-serving sessions (also known as�star parties�), and, by all means,volunteer to take part in our manypublic events.

Observing takes place at theDale McNabb Observatory in theAldergrove Lake Park, located inLangley, on 8th Avenue, just eastof 272nd Street. We are there mostclear nights. Contact MikePenndelton at 604-888-1505 orHoward Morgan at 604-856-9186.

RASC1100 Chestnut Street

Vancouver, B.C.V6J 3J9

604-738-2855

to have a lot of fun doing it. Theusual events, such as AstronomyDay (May 10), Fraser RiverFestival (June 1) and SidewalkAstronomy evenings in April andOctober are easy to get to and don�ttake an excessive investment intime and effort. There is a greatdeal of satisfaction in showing offcelestial beauties, such as Saturn�srings, Moon craters and sunspotsto the public, particularly to thekids. A good recent exampleresulted in a picture and a story inthe Vancouver Sun on December28, when one member went out onthe street in front of his apartmentwith a loaner telescope�congratulations and well-doneHassan. Members who have aloaner telescope signed out shouldalso remember that they areexpected to bring it to an outreachevent if one occurs during theirloan period.

The most important event thisyear is obviously the GA2003 andto make it work, the VancouverCentre membership really needs tostep forward and help out.Attending a GA is a greatexperience and one that everyoneshould have at least once. Whatcould be better than to have it righthere, in the summer, on thebeautiful campus of the Universityof BC? Craig Breckenridge and theGA2003 Committee have beenworking very hard for a year andhave done most of the groundwork.Now is the time for you to getinvolved and help us welcome therest of Canada to really a great andmemorable GA.

� Bill Ronald !

continuted from page 3

6

Uranometria 2000.0 Volume 1Wil Tirion, BarryRappaport and WillRemaklusWillmann-Bell, 2001,336 pages.ISBN 0-943396-71-9

Review byCraig Breckenridge

Back in November ourLibrarian spent some of his budgetto purchase the newly updatedUranometria 2000.0 Volume 1.Being the kind heart that I am, Ivolunteered to do a book reviewon it and compare it to the olderone that I already have. Needlessto say, a bit of start testing wasrequired and since November andDecember did not provide anyclear skies, I wasn�t able to get outfor viewing until January.

My copy of Unranometria2000.0 was printed in 1991, so tosay that I expected some changesand corrections should not besurprising. The changes areapparent from the second you openthe two printings side by side:where the older version has theindex of the charts buried near theback of the book, the currentprinting has them on the insidefront cover and first three pages.This makes it much easier to findwhich chart you need. In addition,they have added darkened tabs atthe edge of each page with thelatitude range printed on them.Even in the dark with my red light,I was still able to find the correctpages easily. The first few pagesof the book have an additional set

of index chart that are finer indetail than the main index charts.When you are spending an eveningin one particular area these comein very handy. The arrangement ofcharts now makes more sense withthem progressing from east to westrather than jumping around as theydid in the old edition. The numberof charts was reduced from 473 to220 but each chart is now a doublepage and has a scale of 1.85 cmper degree of declination.

The introduction has beenexpanded with a greater amount ofinformation added. In addition tothe 280,035 stars shown (downfrom 332,556), 25,000 galaxiesdown to 15th Magnitude aredepicted and over 30,000 non-stellar objects are plotted. Stars arenow plotted as faint as 9.75magnitude which helps immenselywhen comparing the faint patch ofsky that is in your viewfinder tothe charts. There are 26 �close-up�charts at X2 and X3 added thatplot stars down to 11.0 magnitude.Magnitudes represented in thebook are derived from the Tycho-2 Catalogue published by ESA andderived from the Hipparcossatellite�s mapper. The Hipparcosmagnitudes and the Tycho-2magnitudes match the visualmagnitude very closely and thisresults in a more accuraterepresentation in the Uranometria.A simple side by side comparisonof the charts shows the increasednumber of objects immediately.

Another important addition toUranometria are the indexes given

at the back of the book. In the past,if you knew a star�s proper namebut did not know whichconstellation it was in, your hopesof finding it by flipping throughthe charts was very slim. Now allyou have to do is look in the rearindexes and the chart number isgiven. The Bayer stars, Commonnames for non-stellar objects,Messier, IC and NGC objects areall listed. This made it so mucheasier to find anything that I wasbeside myself. I spent severalevenings just going to things listedin the back of the book that I hadnot looked for before.

For those of us who like to useprinted charts when viewing, thisnew edition of Uranometria2000.0 is a �must-have.� !

7continued on page 10

GA 2003 ReportWith this being the first

newsletter of 2003, it is only fittingthat I remind everyone that the2003 General Assembly is under6 months away. We have a lot oforganization to do still and everyhelping hand we can get is greatlyappreciated. To this end I amcalling for volunteers to headspecific sub-committees and forpeople to start volunteering forthese committees. While it may atfirst seem like a daunting task, youwill quickly find out that we haveorganized the duties in such a wayas to make them fairly easy toaccomplish with a minimumamount of time required. There areonly a small number of us who arehaving a large amount to do.

You might be asking yourselfwhy you should volunteer andthere are several responses to that.The first is that you would behelping the Vancouver Centre puton an event that we want theSociety at large to remember formany years to come. We want theattendees to rememberVancouver�s 2003 GA as the bestone they have ever been to. Withthat in mind, we have assembledan amazing group of speakers witha definite Canadian Content; weare after all the RoyalAstronomical Society of Canada.

Our speakers are finalized andinclude Dr. Gordon Walker, whowas instrumental in developing themethods used to discover extra-solar planets. In addition to hiswork in astronomy, Dr. Walker hasbeen on many committees to

advise observatories and theirviewing programs, most notablyrepresenting Canada for theGemini Telescopes. Dr. Walkerwill be our Northcott lecturer onSunday afternoon. David Levywill speak on our dinner cruiseSaturday night and participate ina workshop on observingtechniques Friday afternoon. Wehave been fortunate enough tohave Alan Dyer present a talk fullof his images at our Banquet onSunday night. Alan will alsoparticipate in a workshop Fridayto discuss imaging processes. JackNewton will provide inspiration atthe workshops with David Levyand Alan Dyer. I think thepresentation of two differentmethods of observing and imagingin each of these workshopsrespectively will provide somenew ideas for all of us. We willhave Dr. Jaymie Matthews presenthis MOST findings hot off thepress on Saturday afternoon. Weall know Jaymie for his wit andgreat presentations and now thatNational has had a taste of him atthe Montreal GA, we are fortunateto have him right here at home. Wehope that the HR MacMillanSpace Centre�s David Dodge willhave the same effect on theaudience that he has on ourregulars. Mr. Dodge rounds outour speakers for Saturday. OnSaturday morning we have thePlenary session to officially openthe conference and we haveinvited the Honorable AdrienneClarkson to attend. We will have

Mr. Peter Broughton present ashort talk on the history of theRASC at that event. For those ofyou who don�t know him, Peter isthe historian for the Society andthe author of �Looking Up,� whichpresents the history of the Societyfrom its inception. Peter will behelping us to celebrate the 100th

anniversary of the receipt of theRoyal Charter. On Sunday we willhave the Annual Meeting itself andwill follow it with a workshop thatwill showcase two of the latestCanadian software offerings.Carol Leggat and John Nemy willpresent the latest offering fromStarry Night and Peter Cerevolowill showcase Desktop Universe.Both of these products lookabsolutely amazing and I am surewe will all want to participate inthat workshop. In addition to allthese workshops and talks we willbe having Paper Sessions, a tourof the TRIUMF facility, aplanetarium tour, a CAROp tourand as many chances to observeas we can.

The committees we have setup are as follows:1. Public Relations: Norman

Song, with assistance ofPomponia Martinez and DougMontgomery.

2. Murphy Night: Dan Collier.3. Wine and Cheese Party:

Hassan H.4. Food Committee: Doug

Montgomery and GlennMacAskill.

5. Transportation: Doug

8

Upcoming Events

continued on page 9

continuted from page 1

Indian Ocean. The cruise shipcoordinator was Ted Pedas, thefather of �eclipse-cruising,� whichhe had originated in 1972. Ifigured the odds for seeing theeclipse would be pretty good sinceTed had a perfect record up to thatpoint. Also on board aslecturers were Ed Krupp of theGriffith Observatory in LosAngeles, astronaut ScottCarpenter, eclipsephotographer George Keeneand geologist Jolyon Halse.

We sailed from Athens onNovember 8 and headed for Egyptwhere we visited the pyramids, theSphinx, the Valley of the Kings,etc., all under heavily armed guard.We then sailed through the SuezCanal down to Djibouti, where wesaw warships from France,Germany and the United States.Along the way divers inspected thehull of our ship for unwantedattachments, Egyptian troops usedbinoculars to record every

movement on the ship and we werebuzzed by a US helicopter/gunship. We slipped quietly pastYemen and then headed out intothe Indian Ocean for theSeychelles. At this point I beganto get a bit nervous, because wehad to spend extra time there to

avoid tropical storm Bourra, whichwas to the south of us. Where werethe clear skies and soft summerbreezes? By the time we got toDurban, South Africa, by way ofMauritius and Madagascar (wherehalf of the passengers learned thehard way not to eat the local food),we had gone through two majorstorms which had attempted to turnthe old ship into a corkscrew.

Astronomically, we did get tosee some of the southern sky

notables. I finally saw the Largeand Small Magellanic Clouds andToucanae 47. They are so easywhen it is the right time of year.Orion was sharp, beautiful andupside-down. So was the Moonand it does look like a rabbit ratherthan a man from that angle. Most

of these were observed throughpartly clouded skies, in thecompany of a very small groupof intrepid astronomers, on theforedeck of a bouncing old shipwith nothing to sit on, hold ontoor lean against as you held up

your binoculars.At Durban, most of the British

and European passengers left theship. They hadn�t been told aboutthe eclipse cruise, so we had justover 200 eclipse chasers and about325 crew on a ship designed tocarry over 800 passengers! Theweather appeared to calm down aswe headed for the viewing site.The day before the eclipse, EdKrupp held a �dress-rehearsal�

February22 � Young Naturalists28 � Messier Marathon 1

March2 � Messier Marathon 1 (rain date)16 � Artificial Star Party (tentativedate)28-30 � Messier Marathon 2

April11-12 � Sidewalk Astronomy 125-26 � Sidewalk Astronomy (raindate)

May10 � Astronomy Day15 � Total Lunar Eclipse

June1 � Fraser River Festival26 � 2003 General Assemblybegins

July1 � 2003 General Assembly ends25-26 � Manning Start Party &Manning Outreach26 � Mt. Kobau Star Party begins

August2 � Manning Star Party ends12 � Perseid meteor shower;observing at Aldergrove LakeTBD � Mars Week

September26-27 � Merritt Star Party

October17-18 � Sidewalk Astronomy 2

December9 � AGM

9

where we all set up our equipmentand pretended to observe the bigevent. It was so bright and sunnythat I got a sunburn.

Eclipse Day dawned cloudybut there were a few holes in theclouds. We all crossed our fingers,quickly grabbed some breakfastand set up our equipment. Theclouds seemed to be formingseveral layers, all moving indifferent directions and the holescame and went rapidly. Every timewe headed for a big one itdisappeared. We just managed todetect first contact with ourtelescopes and occasionally sawpartial phases after that. By thetime second contact arrived, it wasobvious that we weren�t going to

see the corona or prominences.The wind increased and it got verycold, even though my temperatureexperiment only showed amaximum drop of two degrees C.For the first time, I got to look allaround me during an eclipse. I sawa diffuse shadow approach on theclouds, the light all around thehorizon when it became dark, apelagic seabird coming to join usfor the �night�. It was completelyunlike any of our previousexperiences.

When totality was over, Ihung around until my temperaturemeasurements were finished, thenquietly packed up my almostunused telescope andphotographic equipment. Thetemperature rose several degrees

continuted from page 8 and it began to feel quite warmunder the heavy clouds, as weraised the �eclipse flag,� toasted itwith lots of champagne and tookpart in the dancing and singing.There was some disappointment,particularly among the �first-timers.� The strange thing was thatmy disappointment was more formy �first-timer� friends than formyself, because they didn�t realizewhat they had missed. I hadn�tseen the �neat stuff� but I had stoodagain in the shadow, bringing mytotal to almost exactly elevenminutes, and I had had a �totally�new experience. Maybe Ishouldn�t call it �the one that gotaway� but rather �the one that gavea new perspective.� !

September by a team of theUniversity of Chicago working atthe South Pole. The news gotsomewhat lost among so manyother messages about newdiscoveries. It is not somethingthat makes the headlines of the

continuted from page 2 newspapers, but it confirms thatour ideas of the early universe arebased on solid ground. The newchallenge is to find thepolarization by scattering fromgravitational waves from the earlyuniverse. For this we will have towait a while. Possibly the Planck

satellite to be launched in 2007could do this.

When we look this winter atRigel and Betelgeuse, we know alittle bit better how they are the laststages of a long, long history. !

10

continuted from page 7

Montgomery.6. Registration: Ron Jerome is

the chair, volunteers are JasonRickerby, Bob Parry,Pomponia Martinez, MarcVerscheuren, Gordon Farrelland Bill Ronald.

7. Paper Sessions: WilliamFearon.

8. Hospitality: Volunteerrequired.

9. Door Prizes: Norman Songwill keep track of them; allGA members encouraged toseek them but to becoordinated by Norman.

10. Sunday morning churchservice: Volunteer required.

11. CAROp Tour: Craig hasasked Eric Fuller.

12. Pictures: position filled.13. Program: Gordon Farrell, any

input to Gordon is muchappreciated.

14. Promotional Items: DougMontgomery.

15. Speakers: CraigBreckenridge.

16. Finance Committee: MarcVerscheuren.Any of these Committee

heads could use a great deal ofhelp so I am sure they wouldappreciate your call to assist them.If only 10% of membershipvolunteered we would have aneasy time of it. As a special dealfor volunteers, they will be entitledto register for the conference forhalf price of the full conferencefee.

We are hoping this will be thebiggest event ever staged byVancouver Centre and the onewhich puts Vancouver on the mapas far as being good hosts. Thelocation at UBC showcases thescenery that surrounds us toexcellent advantage. Theassistance of the Conference staffat the UBC Conference Centre andTourism Vancouver should ensurethat we provide a GeneralAssembly that reflects theprofessionalism that we arecapable of.

I look forward to anycomments and volunteers.

Craig Breckenridge2003 GA Committee Chair !

Outgoing President CraigBreckenridge presents theVancouver Centre�s MemberService award to LeeJohnson at the DecemberAGM. Congratulations, Lee!

11

Members� Gallery

CAROp�s CookbookCameraConstructed by Dan Collier.Insets show the camera�sCCD (bottom) and the firstlight image (top).

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