Hello, fellow DAS members. The President’s corner is back and there’s a lot to catch up on.

First, a big thank you to everyone who took the time to complete the recent Member Survey. We on the executive board are excited to receive your input, and are weighing how to best answer your questions and address the issues that were raised. I want to thank member Tony Gojanovic for creating the survey, as well as an analysis for the executive board.

One thing that stood out  is that the vast majority who answered were over 55 years of age. This means that we are not reaching younger members, and are not hearing very much from them. This is a concern for me. We cannot meet everyone’s needs if we don’t know what those needs are, and we need to find a way to connect with younger members and potential members as well. We are going to have to find a way to better serve everyone in the DAS, seek out new channels of engagement and identify the origins of this disparity. Please send me YOUR suggestions for resolving this dilemma.

Next, thank you to everyone who came out in person, or who joined us via the YouTube livestream, for the in-person outdoor meeting at Chamberlin Observatory with Dean Regas, our friend at the famed Cincinnati Observatory, on September 17. The evening could not have been more perfect. The temperature was decent, the sky was clear, there wasn’t a breath of wind, and the ISS made a stunning pass directly overhead in the early minutes of the meeting! Dean Regas gave a presentation that all of us in attendance enjoyed immensely. If you missed it, you can find it under “Streamed Presentations” on the DAS YouTube Channel, titled Tour of the Universe. Part of the video is missing in the beginning, but then it returns. It was our first time posting a streamed presentation and we’re still working some of the bugs out. My thanks go to Jorge Garcia, who made that livestream possible, and Joe Gafford and Joe Godwin-Austen and Katherine Bond for helping with setup and teardown.

I also want to thank members Tony Gojanovic and Mike Lucibella, without whom we would not have the new DAS website. They worked tirelessly with me for several months to create a new product with all of the important pieces of the previous website (somewhat rearranged) and many new pieces. The three of us rewrote much of the content, reviewed and critiqued each other’s contributions, scoured the internet for new items, and pored through quite a collection of photos for your enjoyment. If you meet Tony or Mike at some point, please thank them for their hard work. This was a much bigger lift than I ever could have predicted.

Speaking of photos, you probably noticed that we’re featuring an astrophoto on the landing page of the website, titled “Member Photo of the Month.” Yes – we would love to have your submissions to place on our website! Please send your astrophotos to us at memberphotos@denverastro.org, along with the name of the object(s), the date your photo was taken, and the equipment and processing you used.

This summer has seen a lot of activity at the EGK Dark Site near Deer Trail, with new members receiving orientations regularly. Next time you are there, ask for John Becker and thank him for conducting these orientations. Those will continue through the winter, provided the weather on Dark Sky weekends is good.

Another thank you for work at the Dark Site goes to Digby Kirby, who has been working to prepare a foundation for a new Tuff Shed, which will house the dark site’s riding mower. The mower suffered some damage, courtesy of rodents that live on site, which necessitated the purchase and erection of this Tuff Shed. Following Digby’s planning, he was joined on the designated workday by Corrina and Logan Cohen, Mike Hotka and Mike Guy. Thank you to every member of this team for making it possible to get this foundation laid! The maintenance of the Dark Site doesn’t happen without DAS members stepping up and pitching in. Please keep that in mind when you visit it, and do your part to keep it nice.

In other news, we finally had the first meeting of the Junior Denver Astronomers on October 24 over Zoom. This group of students, age 17 and under, will have a famous mentor: comet hunter David Levy, who rejoined the DAS several months ago. He was a Junior Astronomer with the DAS in his mid-teens while living in Denver. If you are in this age group (or have interested children), I hope you’ll join us for the next Junior meeting on Sunday November 7. Please send your name and email address to me at president@denverastro.org so I can send you the Zoom link for that meeting, as it won’t be posted in a club-wide announcement.

As always, I welcome your feedback and want to hear your opinion on what the DAS needs to do for you. We’ll be culling some of those suggestions from the survey and working on ways to implement some of them, but it’s never too late to send more our way. So don’t be a stranger!

Clear skies to all,

Dena