Past Award Recipients
2017
Regional Coordinators for Asteroidal Occultations
John Talbot, Steve Kerr, Eric Frappa,
2016
2015
2014
2013
Graham Blow
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008
2007
Graham Blow - 2013 Award Recipient
The 2013 Homer F. DaBoll award recipient is Graham Blow from New Zealand "for his dedicated leadership,
the establishment of TTSO, and the Editorship and promotion associated with Occultations, Grazes, and Eclipses.
Graham has been President of the Royal Astronomical Society of New Zealand for over 20 years.
He runs the RASNZ occultation website, compiles the Newsletter (OccSec Circular),
and developed the Trans-Tasman Symposium on Occultations (TTSO),
now planning for their 8th symposium in Melbourne in 2014.
In his acceptance email, Graham states:
I would like to express my appreciation to
IOTA for presenting me with the Homer F. DaBoll award for 2013.
Since the early 1970s I have been
passionately interested in occultations, most especially as events which
demonstrate that the
universe changes not only on timescales of years, months and days, but
also on timescales of a fraction of a second. It was this immediacy that
first piqued my interest, and when soon after I came into contact with
David Dunham, David's infectious enthusiasm for occultations cemented my
own interest even further.
In October 1977 - some 36 years ago - I formed the Occultation Section
of the Royal Astronomical Society of New Zealand. I did so because I
wanted to enthuse others about occultations in the same way I had myself
been enthused. Consequently, over the intervening decades, the Section
has come to act as a coordinating body for the many observers scattered
throughout both New Zealand and Australia.
Today the Occultation Section remains as committed as ever to
maintaining communication amongst observers. We’ve done this through our
hard-copy publications since 1978, our website (www.occultations.org.nz),
and more recently through the annual
Trans-Tasman Symposia on Occultations (TTSO). We also regard it as a
privilege to represent and promote the interests of IOTA in the
Australasian region.
Once again I would like to express my appreciation to IOTA for this
award, which I will value greatly.
Graham Blow