Penny Nile joined the RASC a little over 10 years ago, and has become a familiar face at Okanagan Centre gatherings, particularly at the Okanagan Observatory, where you could find her on almost any public night over the past several years, usually operating the Gamble 25” telescope. If you’re not familiar with the principal instrument at the OO and know only that it’s a big light bucket that can reveal faint fuzzies beyond the reach of smaller telescopes... and if you think, “well, who wouldn’t want to use a huge telescope like that?”... you don’t really understand the value of Penny’s contribution. First, the telescope is so massive (about 270 kg), it has to be rolled out of its shelter on a miniature railroad. Just unpacking and readying it for a night of observing is a task. But it’s also unorthodox – a folded Newtonian with three mirrors, on a Dobsonian mount sitting atop an equatorial platform, driven by a small electrical motor. It’s not simple, even when everything is functioning perfectly, and that’s not always the case. So as the telescope’s prime operator, Penny has been a caretaker, maintenance person, troubleshooter and repair technician... typically arriving early and staying late on those clear Friday nights to make sure all is well. All of this is quite apart from using the giant telescope to target celestial wonders for the benefit of our guests, helping them to get the most out of what they see by sharing her astronomical knowledge and the passion that has led her to explore the night sky on her own, and even take on the challenges of DSLR astrophotography. In this past year especially, we have seen Penny at observatory committee meetings, contributing to discussions and decision making... and in at least one case, saving the day by tracking down the family of a donor who had since passed away. (This ultimately resolved an issue that might have left the observatory thousands of dollars short for an anticipated obligation.) Penny has done and continues to do all this with such readiness and calm efficiency that we might not have noticed. But people have! In fact, her nomination for this award came from multiple sources, and we are delighted to announce her tonight as the recipient of the RASC-OC’s Member of the Year Award for 2023.