There will be a planned power outage for the building that the AAS Executive Office is in (AGU building) this Saturday, March 10th. The electricity will be shut off to the entire building at 7:30 am. The power may be off for up to 4 hours. We expect to be back up by about 12:00 PM ET on Saturday.

• The main AAS website (aas.org) and email will be accessible.
• The Members Only pages (members.aas.org) will not be accessible. Sorry, no meeting registrations or abstract submissions during this time.
• The Job Register will be accessible.

There was a power outage at the AAS office around 11 PM Eastern Time on Tuesday night. Some of our services are temporarily unavailiable. The Member Only pages, Job Register, and some of the division and committee pages are currently not accessible.

Many AAS members appropriately asked, "What can we do now?" following the shocking and disappointing recommendation by the U.S. House's Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies (CJS) Appropriations Subcommittee to zero out funding for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) in the FY 2012 budget. The answer is, "A lot" — using a well-conceived plan with community input and public support to counter the House's action. The AAS has been pursuing an active strategic course, but we continue to need your help and advice as we navigate the long road ahead towards reinstating funding for the JWST.

The National Academy of Sciences is currently accepting nominations for awards of interest to American Astronomical Society members:

• The J. Lawrence Smith Medal is awarded to recognize recent original and meritorious investigations of meteoric bodies. This award is presented with a gold-plated bronze medal and a $25,000 prize.
• The James Craig Watson Medal is awarded to recognize contributions to the science of astronomy. This award is presented with a gold-plated bronze medal, a $25,000 prize, plus $25,000 to support the recipient’s research.

Beginning with the 2009 edition, the AAS annual report is published separately from the Bulletin of the AAS, as directed by the Publications Board, and focuses on summarizing the activities of the Society instead of presenting a comprehensive reporting of them all. We hope this will make the report more readable and more widely read. Although the report will be printed in limited quantity, we expect most AAS members to download it here in digital format.

Adopted 7 July 2011

The proposal released on July 6 by the House Appropriations Subcommittee for Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies to terminate the James Webb Space Telescope would waste more taxpayer dollars than it saves while simultaneously undercutting the critical effort to utilize American engineering and ingenuity to expand human knowledge. Such a proposal threatens American leadership in the fields of astrophysics and advanced space technology while likely eliminating hundreds, if not thousands, of high-tech jobs. Additionally, this proposal comes before the completion of a revised construction plan and budget for a launch of JWST by 2018. The United States position as the leader in astronomy, space science, and spaceflight is directly threatened by this proposal.

From the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics:

Friends and colleagues of the late John Huchra, a longtime member of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory staff and Doyle Professor of Cosmology at Harvard, are invited to a celebration of his life in science to be held on Friday, December 3, at 3:00 pm in Room 104 of the Hilles Center (formerly Hilles Library), located at 59 Shepard Street in Cambridge. The Hilles Center is across the street from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, located at 60 Garden Street. Limited parking will be available at the Center for Astrophysics lot. For those unable to attend, a live webcast of the memorial is being arranged.

A reception will follow at 4:30 pm in Phillips Auditorium at the Center for Astrophysics. Check the CfA Weekly Calendar of Events for further information, or contact Rachel Fouche at (617) 495-1490.

It is with deep sadness that the American Astronomical Society announces the passing of AAS past-president John Peter Huchra on October 8.

John was one of those unique astronomers with friends and interests across the whole discipline. He stayed vigorous and active in our field even after suffering a heart attack a few years ago. John was passionate about astronomy and life, full of energy and ideas. He served the Society phenomenally well in his two years as president (and year as president-elect and in his current term as past president). During the same time he served the Society, he served our discipline by working actively on the Decadal Survey Committee. He was always willing to say yes to committee service and always offered sage advice. His research and his AAS and Decadal Survey visions are a legacy for us all. It was an honor and a privilege to work and laugh with him, and we will very much miss his presence at the table of past leaders of our Society. We cannot yet grasp this devastating news, except to know there's now a great void and a shared profound sadness.

A memorial legacy guestbook has been set up where colleagues and friends can post their remembrances and thoughts.

New York Times Obituary: John Huchra Dies at 61; Maps Altered Ideas on Universe