Alachua Astronomy Club: FirstLight's First Ten Years

	Alachua Astronomy Club, Inc.	Member Astronomical League	Member International Dark-Sky Association
	FirstLight's First Ten Years	Member Astronomical League	Member International Dark-Sky Association
	29°39' N, 82°21' W Altitude: 50 Meters (more or less)		Updated Jan. 17, 1999
(Click logo for home page)	Founded: September 1987		(Developed with Netscape 4.x)

FirstLight is the official, monthly publication of the Alachua Astronomy Club (AAC),
Gainesville, Florida USA. Copyright © 1987-99. All rights reserved.

Introduction & Dedication

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Tenth Anniversary Edition: Introduction and Dedication

A tenth year anniversary edition containing principle articles from this period

To All Amateur Astronomers,

This compendium introduces a tenth year retrospective of the Alachua Astronomy Club newsletter, FirstLight. It presents the work of many dedicated astronomers, most of them amateurs, like you and me. These articles are re-submitted to you with the true spirit of the word "amateur," from the French word for "love." We love what we do and we love to share our enthusiasm with others.

This club and this newsletter would not have been possible without the dedication of some key players. First on the list is Dr. Armen C. Tarjan, Professor Emeritus, University of Florida, known to us simply as "Charlie." The formation of the Alachua Astronomy Club (AAC) was the result of Charlie fanning the spark of interest in observing the night sky in North Central Florida. He brought many of us together to talk and write about our observations and interests. As the first President of the club, Charlie recognized early on that AAC owed a lot to the first FirstLight newsletter editor, Chuck Broward:

"For his zeal in getting out a newsletter that continually has had interesting articles and can be reckoned as the most important club activity for maintaining our awareness of the Alachua Astronomy Club and what it's doing."

Another one of the people that President Charlie enlisted for support of the young club was George Russell. Charlie said it best when he described George, the first Vice-President of AAC as follows:

"Stability and dependability describe George Russell."

George was an endless font of knowledge about many things. Lucky for us that one of his interests was astronomy. He submitted numerous articles to FirstLight over the years, and sometimes the entire monthly issue consisted of words that George had written. He truly was an inspiration to all who knew him. This special tenth year retrospective issue of FirstLight is dedicated in memory of George Russell, who died in 1995.

George Henry Russell, Sr. Dedicated to the memory of Mr. George H. Russell,Sr.,
and those who loved him: his wife Louise, his son George Russell,Jr.,
and his daughter, Barbara Russell.

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