NWGAS Minutes -- 7th June, 1997

  Societies present

Minutes of the last NWGAS meeting at the Godlee Observatory, 22nd February, c/o Manchester AS: Minutes were accepted. There were no matters arising that are not discussed below.

  NWGAS exhibition meeting at Jodrell Bank, 25-26th May, 1997

Cherry Moss (Macc AS) said that Bolton AS had decided not to attend Jodrell because of the risk of equipment being damaged. This had happened before. In the discussion that followed it was recommended that at least three people should supervise each telescope and that ' Don't Touch' notices be fixed to deter fiddling. Otherwise, vigilance was needed if equipment was on display. (Do remember that the JB Science Centre encourages hands-on experimentation, particularly from youngsters. Sec.)

The NWGAS information board is now on permanent display in the Jodrell Bank Science Centre and societies need to ensure that a good supply of their handouts are available. These should be sent to Cherry Moss. The board itself is in need of 'tarting up' in the short term and Kevin Kilburn and Ron Kelley said they would see to this. However, Kevin suggested that he and Mike Oates redesign the board using commercially available leaflet holders and Perspex sheet to accept standard-pattern folded A4 information leaflets. These can also be distributed via libraries who employ similar systems for holding a wide variety of information leaflets. Most societies have access to a computer and such leaflets are easily designed and printed on a desk-top publishing or word processing programme and then photocopied. £50 was allocated from the NWGAS funds to facilitate the new board. This will be adorned with the NWGAS logo and other logos of the individual NWGAS societies to give a colourful, eye-catching NWGAS presentation. Please send your society logos to Kevin Kilburn on floppy disk or as letter headings. Notice Board at Jodrell Science Centre. Let Cherry Moss have any information regarding your society for inclusion on the Jodrell Notice Board. KJK will print NWGAS society logos if they can be sent to him on floppy disk.

  Campaign for Dark Skies

Gerard did send in a comprehensive CfDS report, the main points of which were read out by Ron Kelley of which a few are noted below..... Details are obtainable directly from Gerard.

• New Minister of state for Environmental Protection is Mr Michael Meacher, M.P. for Oldham West & Royton.

• Light pollution is included in the Report of the Labour Party Policy Commission on the environment. Conference 94, 'In Trust for Tomorrow'. However it is one environmental issue that is not likely to be addressed in detail in the immediate future. There is pressure for the new administration to publish the findings and recommendations resulting from the Light Pollution seminar held in London last November.

• Stonehaven (nr Aberdeen) Angling association won their case against obtrusive lighting on nearby tennis courts. The local Sheriff ruled that there was light nuisance and ordered the lights to be turned off until suitably modified to minimise spillage. Discrepancies between English and Scottish law still allows "reasonable precedent" from across the border and you may quote, Stonehaven & District Angling Association vs. Stonehaven Recreation Ground Trustees and Stonehaven Tennis Club, case ref. No.A189/95 at Stonehaven Sheriff Court as a test case.

• The Highways Agency will not be lighting the new four-lane M6 motorway between J16-J19 but junctions will be lit by flat glass full-cutoff lighting.

Gerard queried how much it cost to floodlight the Lovell Telescope at Jodrell Bank. Are the maintenance costs of the lighting added to the budget of the Science Centre or that of the University? This also begged the question as to why Jodrell is somewhat cavalier re light pollution from carpark and telescope floodlighting whilst seeking to minimise spillage of electromagnetic radiation into their own working radio-spectrum bands.

Robert Fletcher, CfDS Manchester rep, sent in apologies for absence but reported that he was still pursuing the lighting policies for the Stockport area of Gr. Manchester.

Richard Sargent (Chester AS) suggested a novel way of demonstrating the effects of light pollution to local MPs and lighting engineers by using the facilities of the planetarium at Jodrell Bank. His ideas caused considerable discussion but general agreement and approval from the meeting. Richard will further explore the technicalities of the idea.

  Federation of Astronomical Societies

• SILTINT, a company in Manchester, offer anti-reflection lens-coating facilities and optical interference filters for research optics and lasers. They are considering the introduction of light pollution rejection (LPR) filters for astronomical use. (NB: Since this NWGAS meeting the Manchester AS have met with Dr Ashley Knowles to discuss the potential for SILTINT to make LPR filters available to the astronomical community. Initial work suggests that they could be commercially viable and cheaper than similar imported American products but Dr Knowles is still collecting information for the project before any commitment is given. So, to avoid too many time-consuming phonecalls directly to SILTINT, the MAS have offered to publish details of these filters via the Internet and to accept and pass on response from interested parties.... Sec.)

• The BBC requires contact names at local astronomical societies.

• There are now 130 FAS member societies and 9 individual members. It was estimated that 30-40 non-FAS societies remained but these were very small local organisations.

• The FAS Handbook will include the telephone number of member society's Hon Sec's., if permission is given.

• Alan Dowdell wants new slides for the FAS collection, particularly constellation pictures.

• Nick Quinn wants society info for inclusion on the FAS WWW pages.

• Ron Kelley reported that at the FAS AGM on Saturday, 19th April, in Nottingham, Kevin Kilburn's comments regarding the NWGAS's report on National Astronomy Week 96 and our suggestions for NAW'99 had been taken very much to heart. There had been no reply to KJK's report to John Mason. Pam Spence, as FAS representative on the NAW organising committee, having been sent a copy of the report by KJK on 23rd April, had written to all members of the committee on behalf of the FAS member societies. There had been no reply from any of the committee as of 17th May. (The report referred to is as minuted at the November '96 meeting of the NWGAS in which the suggestion that the eclipse of August 199 should not be the centrepiece of a NAW but that NAW be put back to the darker evenings of late autumn that year.....Sec.) There will be reference to this matter in a forthcoming FAS newsletter.

  NWGAS on the WWW

Mike's E-mail: Home page: http://www.ph.u-net.com

During the months that Hale-Bopp was visible the Web pages have been accessed about 200% more than usual. The figures for the past three months (not including NAW96 or RAS web sites) are....

                                   March       April        May
Total access for all pages 'hit'   19791       16769        15083
Number of users                    4652        3746         3309
Data transfer (Mb)                 128         118          107

NWGAS Home page                    196         200          150
  Altrincham & District AS         24          27           29
  Blackpool & District AS          15          16           25
  *Bolton AS                       29          23           27
  Chester AS                       28          25           43
  Furness AS                       29          22           34
  Macclesfield AS                  66          63           61
  *Manchester AS                   14          12           12
  *Liverpool AS                    18          15           14
  *Salford AS                      10          5            14
  Southport AS                     13          18           26
Manchester AS Home Page            1971        1789         1552
CfDS                               1161        991          813
Soc. Practical Astronomy           1416        909          744
StarWatch UK                       661         442          358

NB: Preston & District AS is now available on url http://www.btinternet.com./~roy.jackson

IMPORTANT, PLEASE NOTE: Contact names with telephone numbers or addresses can only be published on the Internet with written permission from those individuals concerned.

  Any Other Business:

1. Thomas Bopp, co-discoverer of Comet Hale-Bopp, was in the UK and would give a talk (title not yet announced...! ) in Jodrell Bank planetarium on Tuesday, 10th June.

2. Liverpool AS have applied for £31000 from National Lottery funds for a new dome and additional teaching facilities at Pex Hill Observatory. The paperwork involved for the application was very considerable, taking hundreds of man-hours to complete and will have to be re-done if this present application is unsuccessful.

3. Salford AS have considered applying for charity status. LAS is a registered charity and Ron Kelley said that it did help when applying for grants or community assistance although there were certain obligations to fulfil. The FAS do have guidance notes for those astronomical societies considering becoming charities.

4. Final note re Hale-Bopp. Thanks to the BAA, Liverpool AS were contacted by BBC TV to give a breakfast-time interview about the comet. The BBC wanted this to be broadcast from Jodrell Bank and so at the crack of dawn on perihelion day, 1st April, Ron Kelley, Gerard Gilligan and others faced the cameras live from the roof of the main control building. (See point 3 from FAS notes.)

5. Liverpool AS will host a BAA Meteor Section meeting in the lecture theatre, Merseyside Museum, New Brown Street, on Saturday 18th October. Speakers will include Dr Colin Steele, Neil Bone and Dr David Hughes, of Sheffield University. Always a good day out in Liverpool, don't miss it.

  STOP PRESS:

To maintain and strengthen communications with the BAA, Minutes of the NWGAS meetings will be sent to Mike from now on. Reciprocally, communication from the BAA, re provincial activity, will certainly be welcomed from him for inclusion in NWGAS discussion. An invitation to attend our quarterly meetings is also warmly extended.

  Next NWGAS meeting

11.00pm, 13th September, 1997. C/o The Science Centre, Jodrell Bank.

Kevin J Kilburn

Secretary NWGAS / Regional representative of the NWGAS to the BAA

66 Henshall Road

Bollington

Cheshire SK10 5DN

Tel: 01625 572453, after 7.00pm Mon-Fri, please.

21st August,1997.