by Rex Parker, PhD director@princetonastronomers.org

Reasons to Look Up.  As the year 2023 winds down and the holiday spirit ascends, we can  share some pride in our organization and its accomplishments. The membership roster has exceeded 200 for a couple of years now and we are in good shape financially with a fully functioning and maintained observatory.  We’ve become adept at presenting hybrid meetings live from Princeton’s Peyton Hall with simultaneous remote Zoom.  Attendance at the monthly meetings has been split about 50/50 live/Zoom.  The hybrid meeting technical challenge has been met by members Dave Skitt and Ira Polans, who figured out the video/PC hardware and software, and worked through the technical kinks of running hybrid meetings. The presentations from these meetings have been preserved on the AAAP You Tube channel, thanks to video editing by Victor Davis.  A new members-only AAAP Astroimagers group has been formed by those with experience or desire to learn photography and astrovideo, thanks to Michael DiMario’s leadership.  The skills brought by Social Media Coordinator Debbie Mayes has reinvented our connections to the public and helped draw in new members.  The Astro outreach program managed by Bill Murray culminated this fall in multiple external telescope sessions including the Institute for Advanced Study with Bob Vanderbei. I want to convey my deep appreciation for the efforts of our Officers, observatory Keyholders, our ST Editors, and the members of AAAP who are the lifeblood of our organization.

Now I’m happy to be back home again in the Princeton area after some recent travel across the globe.  I look forward to seeing you at the meeting at Peyton Hall on December 12 . Please check out Victor’s article below for information about the guest speaker.

Tribute to John Miller.  Long-time member and friend John C. Miller passed on to the great beyond Nov 11, after a long but well-fought battle with multiple myeloma.  Many AAAP members and the public who ventured out to the Observatory got to know John through his dedicated efforts to connect with others about astronomy.  John Miller deeply appreciated the AAAP and Princeton history, and these drove his commitment to astronomy and connections to others through the years.  He first became a member as a teenager (1970-1976), then renewed his affiliation again later in 1998.  His AAAP involvement, as I recall it, goes back to around 1998 when in my first stint as director I took him up on the offer to develop the AAAP’s first internet website.  This directly evolved into the website you see today.  He came up with the rotating orrery design which persisted many years on our website, drawn from Princeton’s famed Rittenhouse Orrery (circa 1770) displayed in the Peyton Hall foyer (see image below;  it can still be found on the club website if you search).

John went on to be our webmaster, a role he eventually shared with others including Surabhi,  web and ST editor today.  John could be said to have unusual hobbies.  He kept praying mantises and raised them in a terrarium, even bringing one over to release in our gardens at home because he thought his pet deserved a better environment than he could provide.  John was a fixture at Jersey Starquest weekend events in the early 2000’s, and at the Observatory where he was often seen engaging the public in astro outreach.  He not only represented AAAP to the faculty at of Astrophysical Sciences, he became a student of astronomy and astrophysics, auditing Princeton courses where he frequented Peyton Hall at all hours.  He was deeply involved in the Optical SETI project with Prof. David Wilkinson at the Fitzrandolph Observatory on the Princeton campus in the early 2000s.  He was a champion of visual telescopic observing even as we moved towards astrovideo and astrophotography, and particularly loved views through Newtonian reflector telescopes.  He took on key roles in AAAP through the years, including assistant director (~2004-06), (~2014-20), and Director (~2007-09).  He had a sharp wit and seldom hesitated to use it when he thought it could drive a discussion in the direction needed. 

We have some special links to John’s thoughts that members can share.  In May 2020 Sidereal Times, the editors posted a reminisce by John “When How and Why I became Interested in Astronomy”.  That article is a must-read for all who knew John!  Also in 2020 a video of John describing his insights into Princeton physics and astronomy was produced by member Rich Sherman, available on AAAP’s You Tube channel (this too is a must-see!).

John Miller, you are missed by all of us in AAAP.  Thank you for what you did, what you stood for, what mattered to you, and for being a great friend of AAAP throughout the years.