NWGAS Minutes -- 14th Sept. 1996

  Society reps introduction

Those present; Chester, Manchester, Liverpool, Altrincham and Macclesfield. Apologies for absence: Salford AS. Tony Cross (Manchester AS) and possibly other NWGAS representatives (Rosemary Naylor was also with them) were on a scouting trip to France as a rehearsal for the 1999 total solar eclipse.

  Minutes of the last NWGAS meeting at UMIST on 18th May

Minutes were accepted.

  National Astronomy Week 1996, 21st-28th, September

With NAW upon us, it was felt that the distribution of literature to schools and libraries had been a last minute affair despite Mike Oates's knowledge that the information had been on the WWWeb months earlier. Whilst most NWGAS member societies had independently organised and publicised events in their areas, as intended by the NAW committee, the free publicity newspaper originating from Jodrell Bank had been distributed far too late. Most societies received either no or too few copies and had been sent them only a month before NAW to redistribute out to schools. Schools in the throe's of starting the Autumn term in early September had been caught unawares. Lessons had to be learned from this in organising future NAWs. The next NAW was already planned to coincide with the total solar eclipse of 11th August 1999 but perhaps winter months would be better for this sort of event if schools are to benefit. There was criticism that some events in this years NAW newspaper had also been reported incorrectly, for reasons unknown.

Kevin Kilburn urged that at the next meeting of the NWGAS each society should report back regarding events in their area, and how these were perceived by the public, so that a report could be sent to the organisers to improve future NAWs: Had NAW '96 created a better awareness of astronomy?

  Society speakers

The list of speakers still has not changed in the past three years. More are needed. Send names and subject details to Kevin Kilburn who said that a recent hard disk failure on his computer had resulted in the previous list being lost.

  NWGAS exhibition meeting at Jodrell Bank

Cherry Moss said that the May Bank Holiday weekend at Jodrell had been very well attended with over 1600 visitors on Sunday and Monday. Despite poor weather on the Sunday evening, when public observing sessions had been planned and advertised in the local press and on TV, about 400 members of the public had turned up and were shown impromptu planetarium presentations, telescopes and computer presentations by Macc AS. Whilst the planetarium had been obliged to close at 10pm, people were there 'til much later. Public donations to the Macclesfield AS coffers to the tune of £100 had resulted from the excellent evening attendance.

However, Cherry was disappointed that apart from Gerard Gilligan and the CfDS, no other NWGAS member societies were there to share the Sunday evening session. She also felt aggrieved that despite detailed planning with Jodrell and NWGAS members to allocate space in the Science Centre, both Liverpool AS and Bolton AS had failed to turn up. Ron Kelley tended his apologies on behalf of Liverpool by saying that, unbeknown to him, the bad weather that weekend had caused structural damage to the dome shutter at Pex Hill observatory. Key LAS members had been obliged to make safe the building at the expense of attending Jodrell.

Ron proposed a vote of thanks to Cherry and all at Jodrell on behalf of the NWGAS for arranging the Bank Holiday meeting. This was fully endorsed. It was also suggested that with their agreement this should again be arranged for the late May Bank Holiday, 1997.

Cherry reminded the delegates that it had been proposed that Jodrell Bank Science Centre should be made an ex-officio member of the NWGAS. This was proposed again and endorsed by all in attendance. Sylvia Chaplin, as manager of the centre, will be their NWGAS representative.

  Lassell Project

Lassell Telescope

Gerard Gilligan gave an update on Liverpool's Lassell Project. The reproduction 24" telescope will be unveiled to the public on 10th October. Gerard said that two NWGAS delegates and two guests from each of the NWGAS societies had been invited. It is important to let him have names and addresses for tickets to be sent to the representatives and their guests before 1st October. This will be held at St. Michael's School, West Derby Road (A5049), opposite the junction with Boundary Lane. This stands near to the site of "Starfields", the home of William Lassell, where the original telescope was erected in the 19th century.

Although an observing evening had been planned for the big telescope, it was reported that flaws had been found in the heavily ballasted cast-iron conical polar axis. Considering that this casting takes the tremendous weight of the instrument, there was some concern that the Health and Safety Executive may restrict the telescope to being a static exhibit only until repairs are made. Patrick Moore was to unveil the telescope to the press on 9th October, there would be a private viewing to selected guests on the evening of the 10th and then the telescope would be on public display until the 13th October. After this, there are various plans to upgrade the instrument with modern light detectors and install it either in Liverpool or on Tenerife for use remotely via the WWWeb.

  Amateur Astronomy on the WWW

  BAA Campaign for Dark Skies.

The submission to the European commission is ongoing. Regarding the Church floodlighting for the millennium, Gerard said that the NWGAS objections and his repeated questioning of the committee had "rattled a lot of cages". The NWGAS had been referred to on several occasions in the national debate regarding the Church floodlighting plans. One minor effect had been that the address of the Church Floodlighting committee was no longer the same as that of the lighting engineers commissioned to put their plans into effect. It makes one wonder why they are sensitive to this.

Richard Sargent said that Chester AS had sent a representation to Chester City council regarding their plans to illuminate several historic buildings in the City. The engineers involved were the Lighting Design Partnership, represented by a Mr Phoenix. They had been responsible for lighting buildings in the vicinity of Carlton Hill Observatory, Edinburgh. Richard said that it was frustrating that no technical specifications had been available, nor was the list of buildings likely to be affected. Richard is still waiting to get a copy of the planning report. However, it was established that in the case of the City Walls, upward facing lighting was preferred on the grounds that downward lighting shone into the eyes of the pedestrians. Pity the rest of us on whom the skyglow is forced, not to mention the wasted energy beamed skywards.

Also in the Chester area, Deep Sea World at Ellesmere Port will incorporate a 1000-car carpark. The engineer is sympathetic to restricted lighting and will specify full cutoff lighting if allowed to: It must be remembered that the client is the one paying and he is the one that dictates his preferences.

Ron Kelley said that his place of work, Radbrook Hall, Knutsford, the central computing facility of Barclays Bank Plc, there appeared to be some experimentation going on re lighting of their 2000-car carpark. 'Ball-on-a-stick' lighting had recently been partially replaced by top-shielded illumineres. It was suggested that there were some sympathetic influences active within the Cheshire lighting engineers department which should be encouraged.

Gerard showed the meeting a page from the recently published 10-year plan for the City of Liverpool. There was , for the first time, a section devoted to lighting policy, probably influenced by Gerard's pressure to control lighting.. It reads as follows:

"The City Council will encourage developers to take account of the following principles in schemes where external lighting is required:

1. The lighting scheme proposed is the minimum required for security and working purposes to undertake the task.

2. Lighting spillage and potential glare is minimised particularly to:-

Residential and commercial areas.

Areas of wildlife interest.

Areas whose open landscape qualities would be affected, particularly those open areas on the urban fringe."

Ron Kelley drew attention to the proliferation of brilliantly illuminated golf driving ranges and other sporting facilities. There is a lot of new investment in sport from National Lottery money and this inevitably means provision for some form of lighting. It is an area that needs watching carefully. These facilities are often adjacent to urban housing estates and Gerard said that he had had several calls from residents near sports grounds irritated about glare. This again suggests that nuisance lighting is a factor ignored by developers and by town planners when approving new schemes, particularly those in urban or, especially, in rural areas where the affect is thought to be unimportant.

A comprehensive package of CfDS literature is available from Gerard if societies or individuals would like to contact him directly.

  Federation of Astronomical Societies

The first results of the RAS's Star Watch UK are due for publication. Sheffield's Hallam StarCentre is due to open in the first quarter '97. This is a science centre with an astronomical bias. The RAS are also interested in obtaining any information from local societies who have been approached by anyone purporting to be sellers of personalised star names. The public must be warned against wasting their money and our societies are in the best position to do this.

  Secretary's Note

As I typed these minutes on the evening of Sunday, 15th September, in the back of my mind was the thought that only fools could be taken in by the shysters selling star names. However; see the Daily Mail, Monday 16th Sept. Prime Minister, John Major is reported to have personally 'bought' a star to be named 'Star of Dunblane' in commemoration of the children shot last March. He was, however, beaten to it by another member of the public- Daily Mail, 17th Sept- who claims he tried to take credit for her idea. The Daily Telegraph, 17th September, contains a report that both the BAA and Royal Greenwich Observatory have deplored the scam, and rightly so, too.

  Next NWGAS meeting

11.00pm, 30th November, 1996. Jodrell Bank Science Centre, c/o Macclesfield AS and Jodrell Bank.

Kevin J Kilburn

Secretary NWGAS

17th September, 1996.