Another 100,000 variable star estimates.

On the night of 2008 December 3 at 01:46UT (yes, that's quarter to two in the morning) Tony Markham from Leek, Staffordshire made his 100,000th visual variable star estimate.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

This is no trifling amount and means Tony joins the ranks of Gary Poyner and John Toone in reaching this milestone. Only one other observer from the UK has attained this total, Charles Butterworth, who made his observations in the first half of the twentieth century. There are precious few visual observers worldwide who have achieved this total and with many observers now switching to CCDs it may be that we will not see many more.

We heartily congratulate Tony on this remarkable achievement, but I must also mention another amazing fact. During the month of 2008 December alone, Tony made some 1,800 visual estimates. That's far more than the average variable star observer manages in a whole year!

Roger Pickard, President, and Director, Variable Star Section