I learned last week that one of the attendees of the Barcroft Star Party, Andrew Bell, passed away. If you look at the previous posts, you'll see a picture of Andrew's fine 24 inch scope. And there's also a picture of him at night looking through his scope. It was through his scope that I was able to see Einstein's Cross for the first time. He also was working on a very useful observing system that allowed you maximize your efficiency when viewing deep space objects in a given part of the sky. I hope that work gets published. Though I knew he was fighting a serious illness, I didn't know he had less than 3 months. He was planning a trip down to observe through Jimi Lowrey's 48 inch scope in October.
Rest in Peace, Andrew.
