he DAS credo is to provide members a forum for increasing and sharing their knowledge of astronomy, to promote astronomical education to the public, and to preserve Historic Chamberlin Observatory and its telescope in cooperation with the University of Denver.”

I will be including the above statement in the President’s Column to remind me and all who are part of the DAS what our mission and goals are. I think it is important to have a clear vision of what the DAS is about and why we continue to serve it.

To continue my remarks from Brooks Observatory Dedication in Sept. issue—part II:

“It has been our goal to build an observatory at our dark sky site since the first plans were laid out. And I want to recognize all those who contributed to building it. We have a plaque we will install in the observatory and as I read off the names please come up and accept our gratitude for your hard work: Joe Lupica, President of Celestron International, whose company took a badly broken C-14 OTA and refurbished it to a brand new 14-inch SCT for outreach and research at no cost to the DAS. Cathie Havens of S&S Optika who was the ‘broker’ for the donation and worked with Celestron to have it refurbished. The following are in alphabetic order on the plaque: Craig Betzina, who supplied the Exploradome Observatory and made us a deal ‘we couldn’t refuse,’ Ted Cox our construction manager and builder, Darrell Dodge who is our ‘Interim Head’ of the dark site committee and who put many hours and miles into the building construction and coordinating us workers as well as working out the bugs from the drive system, Glenn Frank, structural engineer reviewed the plans and helped in construction, Joe Gafford who worked on construction and photographed the construction, Jim Holder, who worked on the telescope pier, Stuart Hutchins, worked on construction, completed the pier and also installed the 300 lb. pier singlehanded! Wayne Kaaz was our first dark site committee chairman after Ed Kline and had the foresight to put an observatory on the official plans and fought many battles with the county in making this dark site a reality, former president Ron Mickle who led the E-board into accepting the telescope donation and committed DAS to building an observatory for it, David Steele, who was involved in the donation, and Dan Wray who worked on construction and also has greatly improved our warming hut by installing a new floor and other improvements. We could not have accomplished this goal without this team of volunteers dedicated to its construction, so please show them your gratitude.” See the photo of the Dedication Plaque in the September Observer.

Now, it’s almost the 4th quarter, football season is starting up, kids are back to school and it’s time for DAS members to get out and do the “fun stuff” of being an amateur astronomer. Instead of meetings and talks by professionals in the lecture hall, for the next three months we do a big Colorado Astronomy Day outreach event with our friends at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science (Oct. 1), and then our Annual Auction (Oct. 8th) at Chamberlin where you can buy, sell and tell tall tales about your telescope equipment that you’ve outgrown or done with or just want to pass along to some friends. We love to see and oogle your “stuff” and bidders will be waiting to see what you bring for sale. It’s a great time and a great chance to make a few bucks or save a few bucks bidding low and selling high! A minimum of 10% of the sale goes to one of our DAS funds.

Instead of a formal speaker in November, you are the stars— It’s the Annual Show and Tell Meeting Nov. 11th at Olin Hall. If you’ve been working on a scope project or observing project or imaging, bring it and tell us about it. If it’s too heavy to lug in, just take a few pix of it and put them up on the digital big screen for everyone to enjoy. If you need help or ideas on building a scope or other related equipment, this is the place to pick the brains of those who tinker and build their own “stuff.” Note that some “stuff” may either come from the Annual Auction or be in it another time! December gets us to the Annual Holiday Party with lots of great food and more tall tales or stories. Details for a possible new location this year are being worked on. But the best part of the 3rd & 4th quarter is it gets dark earlier and earlier, while in September and October at least, we usually have some of the best observing weather of the year. Cool clear nights, Jupiter rising in the east and lots of big galaxies and new deep-sky objects to view while we wait for Orion to make his evening appearance late in the 4th Quarter, as ever, chasing Taurus the Bull . Clear skies and good astronomy “stuff!”

Ron Pearson, DAS President