Happy New Year, Everyone! The latest newsletter from the Society for Astronomical Sciences is now available on our web site http://www.SocAstroSci.org Featured are some details about this year's Symposium on Telescope Science, which will be a joint meeting with the AAVSO, so we're expecting a bigger crowd and lots of interesting papers and off-line discussions. Now that the holidays are over and, I hope, things are settling down, I thought I'd add another item to your New Year's resolutions: to start thinking about a paper for the Symposium, to be held May 19-21 in Big Bear, CA. The deadline for abstracts is March 13, 2009. I know, two months away but with the hectic lives we lead, those eight weeks will be come and gone before you know it. Final papers MUST be in by May 3. Please review the newsletter regarding submissions. Things have changed this year. If you have _any_ questions, please let us know at the email given below. Remember that your paper doesn't have to be about some startling new discovery. It can be about work in progress that you're doing in just about any field of interest related to doing astronomy science with your telescope. If you have some results, preliminary or final, we'd be interested to hear about them. Talks about techniques, getting the most out of equipment and/or software, are just as welcome, providing they are of general interest and don't get "too commercial." You'll find an MS Word sample document that has formatting styles and guidelines. If at all possible, please follow this for your final paper so that editing the final proceedings can go smoothly. N.B. The style guide has not been updated yet to follow this year's submission "rules." For one, it talks about how to embed figures into the document. Figures should be sent as separate files, GIF or PNG are preferred for generic plots and figures and JPG for photos. JPG can make line art fuzzy" due to its compression algorithm. If you have any questions, please let us know - sooner than later. You can send an email to the program committee at program_at_socastrosci_dot_org (anti-spam mangled) All abstracts and papers should be sent to that email address to assure that at least one person on the committee receives it. Sending it to a personal email may send it into the black hole of cyberspace. We look forward to seeing you in May and to a great meeting. Jerry Foote ScopeCraft, Inc. 4175 E. Red Cliffs Dr. Kanab, UT 84741 435-899-1255 jfoote@scopecraft.com