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Welcome to Issue 149 of The Deep-Sky Observer. Summer twilight is now upon us at mid-northern latitudes, so deep-sky observing is restricted – though by no means curtailed entirely, at least as far as observers in southern England are concerned. In the past, I have had an excellent view of the globular cluster M5 in Serpens on the night before midsummer's day. I would say that light pollution is often a greater problem than summer twilight nowadays. We have received a comment that recent issues of The Deep-Sky Observer have been heavily dominated by articles on visual observing, and that there is very little for the CCD imager. Unfortunately, the distribution of articles in the magazine only reflects what the Editor receives, and it seems that visual observers are much more active writers than CCD imagers. I would like to emphasise that articles on CCD imaging are every bit as welcome as visual material. If you are a CCD imager and you feel that the DSO does not do enough in this field, why not write an article? I would be particularly interested in seeing articles on the 'nuts and bolts' of imaging techniques, or on image processing, or perhaps comparing your experiences with different cameras that are on the market. Oh, and please keep sending me those images – they are always needed to help illustrate articles. The current issue is very much a visual one, although I am delighted to showcase some of Andrea Tasselli's superb images. Andrea does amazing work with surprisingly small telescopes. His techniques are described in Bob Argyle's report of the 2008 Annual Meeting. A sad event for all astronomers this year has been the passing of Neil Bone, who died of cancer on 23 April, aged just forty-nine. Neil was best known as an observer of meteors and the aurora (he was Director of the British Astronomical Association's Meteor Section), but he did great service to deep-sky observers by writing the Philip's Deep Sky Observer's Guide (published by Philip's in 2004 and reviewed in DSO 138 (2005)). In my own opinion, this book is one of the best beginner's guides to deep-sky observing ever produced. Don't forget the 2009 Annual Meeting, to be held at the Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge on 5 December. Speakers booked so far include Janet Drew of the University of Hertfordshire, Dave Green from Cambridge, CCD imager Ian King, and our own Wolfgang Steinicke. More details appear elsewhere in this issue, and updates will appear on www.webbdeepsky.com as they become available. Clear skies, Lee Macdonald Editor E-mail: lt@macdonald42.freeserve.co.uk |