Lassell Telescope
Society reps introduction: Those present; Chester, Manchester, Liverpool, Altrincham, Bolton, Salford and Macclesfield. Apologies for absence: Mr Michael Oates, WWW Co-ordinator, who was in the throe's of moving house.
Salford AS. Good turnout during the open evenings at the observatory despite poor weather. About 200 visitors were welcomed during the week. A lecture given by Dr Allan Chapman on the 27th was attended by the Mayor and Mayoress of Salford, Sir Francis and Lady Graham-Smith and some 125 members of the public. Kath Redford expressed her disappointment that although she had contacted the Manchester Evening News to publicise their NAW programme, they had already run some NAW publicity fed them by Sylvia Chaplin at Jodrell Bank which, although mentioning events at the Macclesfield, Salford and Manchester ASs, had resulted in the MEN not wanting to run more detailed publicity from individual societies.
Chester AS. They arranged displays in the public library during both weekends. The affect of light pollution was featured. The usual member's meeting was well attended and included a more than average attendance by members of the public.
Altrincham AS. The observatory was opened throughout the week and attracted several new visitors.
Bolton AS. Stephen Fielding reported that they had been caught unawares by NAW, not finding out about it until it was too late. Last minute local advertising had attracted several members of the public to their meetings.
Liverpool AS. They staged four main events; three open evenings at the Pex hill observatory and a 'Members Night meeting, at which were given three short talks on topical matters in the lecture room of the Liverpool Museum. The Pexhill evenings had all been well attended and the lectures meeting, although restricted to a capacity audience of 100, had been so well received that its format will be copied more often in future. The LAS are aware that publicity via the Liverpool Echo can attract very large audiences and they were rather wary. However it had been very successful during NAW.
Manchester AS. NAW started early, on the 17th, with a lecture given by Sir Arnold Wolfendale (Patron of NAW) on the subject of life in the universe. This was well attended by MAS members and visitors from the Manchester universities and other NW astronomical societies. On the 22nd, the MAS had been given use of a lecture room at the Manchester Museum of Science and Industry and had attracted an audience of about 100 visitors to informal lectures on the solar system given by Ray Brierly. Although the Godlee Observatory was open each evening during NAW and many phone-calls were received at the observatory, few visitors had come. This was put down to poor weather and inadequate publicity via local newspapers. The MAS acknowledged that they were to blame for this.
Macclesfield AS. Started NAW with the opening of their new observatory at Gradbach by Sir Francis Graham Smith. This was given excellent publicity in the Macclesfield Times both before the opening and subsequently, despite the run-off roof observatory having been irreverently referred to as a wooden shed. The opening ceremony was well attended by Macc AS members, visitors and other NW societies. Cherry Moss said that one visitor had told of his direct ancestral connections with the building of the Birr Castle 72" telescope in Ireland. He had given her copies of detailed contemporary notes on the construction dating from the 1840s. Patrick Moore, who is writing the official history of the Birr observatory, has shown great interest. Cherry was urged to communicate the notes to Dr Allan Chapman as well.
During NAW, special event evenings at Jodrell were well attended. These included a lecture about the Moon given by Kevin Kilburn on the eve of the total lunar eclipse. Initially poor weather that evening had given way to clear skies and a beautiful eclipse which had been seen by many more people than originally thought might be the case.
Ron Kelley, as NWGAS representative to the FAS, said that it was felt that NAW '96 had been poorly managed with the NAW committee rapidly passing all the actual organisation onto the FAS, local societies and Jodrell Bank who while offering to disseminate the agenda to schools and libraries nation-wide, had been inadequately funded in this task. This resulted in late notification of astronomical activities and inaccurate information being published.
In summary, the present meeting felt that the next NAW, scheduled to coincide with the total solar eclipse in August, 1999, should be put back until schools were back after the summer holidays and teachers could plan astronomical activities for the darker evenings of late autumn. The eclipse on 11th August, already the centre of attention for most astronomical societies, should be used only as a focal point, a 'conduit', to more practical activities later in the year.
The reproduction 24" Lassell telescope was unveiled on 10th October, the 150th anniversary of William Lassell's discovery of Triton with the original instrument. Gerard Gilligan was thanked for his contribution to the project and the day's events which were attended by direct descendants of William Lassell's family, the Mayor of Liverpool, Dr Allan Chapman, Dr Patrick Moore, other local dignitaries and also guests from the NWGAS.
The telescope was transported to St Michael's School, West Derby Road, in four sections and erected close to where the original stood at 'Starfields', Lassell's home in 1846. The main instrument was not used for observation owing to collimation problems after the main mirror had shifted but Gerrard described looking at Saturn through the 4" finder and commented on how pink the planet looked via the speculum metal mirror. Unfortunately, although staying on the site for only a week, the instrument was subjected to vandalism, particularly graffiti, but was otherwise unharmed. The instrument is now on display in the entrance hall of the Conservation Centre, Queens Square, near to St.George's Hall in the centre of Liverpool until Spring, 1997. John Moore's University will then decide how to update the telescope to allow modern observations, either in the north-west or relocated to the Canary Islands.
A book about the Lassell telescope and his observations will be published in 1997.
Gerard Gilligan had noted a distinct increase in the 'hits' on the Liverpool AS. after the eclipse. Ron Kelley said that the NWGAS Web sites offered a facility that no other group of societies in the FAS could match. Kevin Kilburn described how during his observation of the eclipse, a very large crater near the moon's south pole had been seen in profile, complete with walls and central mountain. His photographs, taken with a 4" refractor and on 35mm colour slide film, had been put onto a CD ROM at a local branch of Boots the Chemist and had been broadcast on the WWW in anticipation of someone being able to identify the lunar feature. He went on to say that his fifteen years' work in systematically photographing the entire northern hemisphere of the sky has also been put onto CD ROM and with some image processing on the computer would also be put onto the Manchester AS Web pages for NWGAS use. This database should be regarded as a starting point to which other, better, pictures would be added by him and others for the benefit of all. (NB: Copyright does exist but the images are free to all non-commercial users. Each picture contains a unique, readily traceable and identifiable signature - variable stars. KJK)
Kevin Kilburn said that he had been contacted by Liz Edwards of the British Museum Press after she had seen the NWGAS Web pages, to review a new book ,'Astronomy before the Telescope', published in October. A review of this fascinating book is appended to these Minutes and will be broadcast on the Web.
Special late note from Michael Oates: NWGAS World Wide Web Pages url http://www.u-net.com/ph/nwgas/ These Web pages are to advertise your Society, they need to be updated regularly if they are to be useful. Please send updated programmes of your society's and member's activities. The Web pages need to convey information about your society, what you do, where you meet, what kind of observing is undertaken, etc. A few photographs of your observatory / telescopes, or observations would be most welcome. If your society has a logo, please send this, too. All material submitted will be returned if requested.
PLEASE NOTE: Current contact names with telephone numbers or addresses can only be published on the web with the express written permission of those individuals concerned. See Ron Kelly's FAS notes below. E-mail: Home page: http://www.ph.u-net.com/
(b) The new Royal Astronomical Society representative to the FAS is Monica Grady.
(c) Please advise Ron Kelly or Dr Mike Inglis regarding any astronomy courses your society or local education authority is running. The FAS are keen to keep a file on these activities.
(d) The 1997 FAS Convention will be held at the Royal Greenwich Observatories, Cambridge, on 4th October.
(e) Allan Dowell wants new slides for the FAS collection, particularly constellation pictures. Contact him on 01264 738619.
(f) The FAS wants a new Treasurer and Secretary. If anyone from your society is interested please contact Ron Kelly.
(g) Liverpool AS will be publishing the FAS astronomical calendar for 1997. This will be reviewed in the January edition of Sky&Telescope.