Today I wrote a very simple utility to obtain statistics on the AID, and one of the functions I added was a check to see who has an observing anniversary today. Given that I've been wrapping up a CHOICE course for the AAVSO, I found it both gratifying and fun that the earliest observations currently in the AID from Carolyn Hurless, HR, are dated April 16, 1959. She observed R Leo, T UMa, R Vir, RS UMa, S UMa, and S CrB for the first time (on record) 54 years ago today. I also noted that Paul Temple, TPV, also had an AAVSO anniversary today. He started his AAVSO observing career with an observation of Z UMa on April 16, 1996.
As I write this is technically the 17th, and rerunning my utility now shows me a new set of names. One current observer has their twentieth observing anniversary today -- Adolfo Darriba Martinez' (DAM) first observation in our archives was of supernova 1993J, and is dated April 17, 1993. And there's another famous name from the past as well: Joseph Ashbrook's (AS) earliest observations in the AID are dated April 17, 1936, and are of alpha Her and kappa Oph.
Happy anniversary to everyone, and many thanks as well!
This would make a very cool Drupal block for the AAVSO website! (Perhaps right below the Who's Online block.)
I will send my greetings to Adolfo