Minutes of the last NWGAS meeting 13th Sept, 1997, at Jodrell Bank Science Centre C/o Jodrell Bank and the Macclesfield AS: Minutes were accepted. There were no matters arising that are not discussed below.
His circular was discussed in some detail. Richard Sargent (Chester AS) felt that to comply with Peter's request would involve a lot of work by individual societies which might better be expended, as seen fit in their local areas, rather than reporting to CfDS. It was clearly apparent that Peter was strongly committed to reducing light pollution but several NWGAS representatives felt that there was a very fine line between encouraging the implementation of environmentally sympathetic public lighting and coming across as 'eco-terrorists' (Ron Kelley, Liverpool AS). Any communications to local officials and especially to central government officials had to be very clearly and delicately worded, concise, to the point and above all, constructive, to put across encouraging arguments for the installation of well-designed lighting.
Mike Oates (Manchester AS) said that in the early hours of that morning, thieves had stolen his wife's car and had broken a security light to hide their activities. He was going to replace it but position the new lamp out of reach. This served to illustrate that thieves don't like security lights and he couldn't blame people for fitting them. B&Q now include instructions on how to fit these lamps without causing nuisance to neighbours. This was the sort of constructive message we had to encourage, perhaps by sending copies to other DIY outlets, so that a necessary evil (to us astronomers) could be installed to maximum effect for the community as a whole.
Kath Redford (Salford AS) thought that a very strong argument was the cost of poorly directed, wasted lighting. Poll-tax payers must have a vested interest in keeping this to a minimum. This argument especially applied to cities, such as Manchester, where lighting of buildings is fashionable. We are all in favour of making our cities attractive, and lighting is comparatively cheap, but the current trend to light buildings could be done with care to avoid excessive upwards overspill. (Even the Godlee Observatory is upward flood-lit but the MAS have an over-ride switch!)
Kevin Kilburn (Manchester AS) said that on a recent night flight back from Turkey he had the distinct impression that European towns and cities had a lower street lighting flux density compared with those in the UK. This was endorsed by Ron Kelley. Even Paris appeared less bright than London, which could be seen from a much greater distance. There also seemed to be a lot more street lighting on roads between UK towns, than in France. Why do we need so much inter-town lighting?
At the last NWGAS meeting Ron got into active discussion with Cliff Meredith (Salford AS) over the RAS Starwatch UK programme. This is an ongoing assessment of light pollution that will not be fully reported for some years, until sufficient data is accumulated. Unfortunately Ron now had to confirm that no-one at the RAS was currently assigned to analyse the data; hence the apparent inactivity re the project.
PPARC: Pam Spence was to enquire why societies were not being funded for local projects.
The FAS have taken on the Liverpool AS Sky Diary as their astro-calendar. Copies are obtainable via the FAS or LAS.
Tony Cross (Manchester AS) suggested that the FAS AGM could be held in Manchester. Ron Kelley will propose this venue at the next FAS meeting.
Site Sept Oct Nov Dec SPA 582 580 713 761 CfDS 525 823 1124 883 StarWatch UK 343 266 354 403 Manchester 1480 1243 1569 1449 NWGAS: 146 139 139 128 Altrincham 22 38 24 21 Blackpool 8 21 14 15 Bolton * 25 23 21 25 Chester 27 38 35 29 Furness 16 21 30 29 Liverpool * 8 19 17 15 Macclesfield 52 65 76 79 Manchester * 6 16 8 17 Preston * 7 15 13 13 Salford * 7 13 10 11 Southport 14 21 21 1Please send details of any events for your society to Mike Email: so he can keep the web pages up to date.
On Wednesday, 12th November at about 1.30am a rare occultation of Saturn by the moon was visible. It was intended to record the event from the Godlee Observatory and put the resultant images on the www. The 12" Newtonian was ready with its CCD TV camera piping the signal via a video recorder to a monitor in the lower room and thence to the computer where images were 'grabbed' and processed ready to be put on the web. In the event, the Manchester weather won. Clouds covered the moon with 5 minutes to go. Fortunately, Keith Griffiths (Macclesfield AS), ten miles to the south-east at Poynton, did record the occultation and sent in a superb picture taken with an 8" Celestron.
Peter Wilson (Macc AS) said that there was now a small splinter group from Macclesfield AS calling themselves the South Cheshire Astronomers. They were on the www but he had no further information regarding them.