Hello Everyone;
The next Spectroscopy Special Interest Group (SSIG) meeting is this Wednesday, 14 January and I want to bring to your attention important infomation regarding this meeting. First, our AAVSO President Walt Cooney and AAVSO Secretary (and former AAVSO Executive Director) Arne Henden will be joining us to discuss an exciting new initiative that will be of great benefit to our group.
I mentioned Arne’s credentials in my opening statement, but I also need to add that Arne is the Lead for the AAVSOnet SIG. AAVSOnet is a network of geographically distributed telescopes available to AAVSO members for their research projects. While this telescope network has served the photometrists well, there has been no capability to date for high resolution spectroscopy. This may soon change and Walt and Arne will be briefing us at Wednesday’s meeting about plans to introduce a spectroscopy-dedicated telescope into AAVSOnet.
We will also be welcoming Francois Cochard as a new member of our group. As you probably already know, Francois is the founder and Managing Director/CEO of Shelyak instruments in Le Versoud, France. This is in addition to the recent memberships of Walt Cooney and Arne Hendon into our SSIG. Current AAVSO Executive Director, Brian Kloppenborg, has been a member since May 2025. So, in addition to our SSIG now having a direct connection with Shelyak through Francois, we also have support of the AAVSO Board and Executive Director.
Soon I will be standing up a small team to work on the issue of automating the AAVSOnet spectroscopic telescope for robotic operations. This is necessary if we commit down the path of a spectroscopy dedicated telescope in AAVSOnet. We will follow a standard systems engineering path where we will develop a concept of operations, then the requirements that flows from that, to system architecture design, and so on to system development. More on this later.
Finally, I want to acknowledge the continuing efforts of SSIG member Matt Boerlage in developing and managing our “Target of the Quarter” program. Others have taken notice of this program and some may be introducing similar programs in their own groups. This is testament to the value this program brings to our group members and Matt is to be commended for his efforts. Thank you Matt.
2026 is starting out to be a very exciting time for our group and amateur spectroscopy. We have a robust group of 86 members and continuing to grow as we work to increase value to our members and the scientific community.
One thing we now need to consider is possibly adjusting our monthly meeting date and time to better accomodate our friends and members in Europe. Our current meeting time in the US places it near or after midnight for those in Europe. Soon I will be sending information through our group message feed to tell you more about this and get your feedback on days and times that can work for most.
When: Wed, Jan 14 at 7:00 p.m. EDT (00:00 UTC).
Note: U.S. is on Standard Time, so 5 hour difference between EST and UTC
Join Zoom Meeting:
Meeting ID: 833 6335 7482
Passcode: 829691