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Welcome to Issue 151 of The Deep-Sky Observer. Welcome to the Winter/Spring 2010 issue of The Deep-Sky Observer. I apologise for it appearing a little later than planned. I am writing this at what is hopefully the tail end of the coldest British winter in nearly thirty years — and also, it seems to me, one of the cloudiest. Let us hope for some better weather as spring approaches. The coming of the northern hemisphere spring heralds the main season of the year for observing galaxies, and DSO 151 is very much a galaxies issue. Ron Morales and Martin Griffiths offer observer's guides to some seasonal galaxies, while Al Lamperti introduces us to an unusual type of galaxy and Malcolm Thompson tracks down the true identity of an IC galaxy first observed in the nineteenth century. My Editorial in Issue 149, encouraging people to submit articles on CCD imaging, stimulated some comment from members, urging me to keep The Deep-Sky Observer very much a visual magazine, on the grounds that astronomy magazines generally place too much emphasis on imaging. Please rest assured that I am primarily a visual observer myself and have no plans to change the DSO from its current balance of articles. The magazine's coverage is still broad enough to welcome CCD articles, and I am particularly keen to receive more images in order to illustrate articles, but most of the content will still be for visual observers. The 2009 Annual Meeting at Cambridge on 5th December was greatly enjoyed by those present, although attendance could have been higher. Was this 'a sign of the times' — i.e. the current economic climate — or is the meeting's Cambridge location a problem for some people? Meetings organisers Stewart Moore and Owen Brazell would be very pleased to receive any comments on the venue or any other aspects of the Annual Meeting. The 2010 Annual Meeting has been booked for 4th December at the same location — the Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge. Speaking of Cambridge, I have recently relocated to the Cambridge area, so please note that my postal address on the inside back cover has changed. Appropriately, I live in a place called Hardwick, though in my case it is a village in Cambridgeshire, not the one in which the Society's namesake lived! Please note also that at the moment I do not have broadband, so please keep e-mail attachments below 1MB if you can. Larger electronic files should be sent by post on CD or memory stick. Wishing you all clear skies, Lee Macdonald Editor E-mail: lt@macdonald42.freeserve.co.uk |