NWGAS Minutes -- Saturday, 10th October, 1998

The meeting was held at the Pex Hill Observatory, Cronton, C/o Liverpool AS. Apologies for absence were received from Cherry Moss (Macclesfield AS) and, unfortunately, the meeting was poorly attended.

  Minutes of the last NWGAS meeting

Held at the Godlee Observatory, UMIST,C/o Manchester AS

Minutes were accepted but a letter from Peter Wilson (CfDS), referring to the CfDS section of the Minutes was read out. He raised several issues but in Peter's absence it was not possible to discuss them in detail.

  May Bank Holiday at Jodrell

This matter was discussed briefly. This NWGAS event, arranged by Cherry Moss (Macclesfield AS) was cancelled owing to a lack of support. Richard Sargent (Chester AS) said that he was unaware that a marquee had been considered to house the NWGAS. He did suggest, and this was with the general agreement of others at the meeting, that Bank Holidays were very difficult to cater to NWGAS stands at Jodrell. Those people likely to attend usually had other family commitments. Perhaps other weekends would be more suitable.

  Campaign for Dark Skies

Peter Wilson was not present

  Federation of Astronomy Societies

Ron Kelley, NWGAS FAS representative, attending the last FAS council meeting, recorded the following bullet points. Details can be obtained from him if required.

1. At the last FAS meeting , on 6th June, there was concern that FAS subscription only covered 40% of their running costs. A proposal is that subs. will have to increase.

2. The FAS newsletter is being sorted out and will be an 8-page A4. This will give more opportunity for member societies (all 142 of 'em) to send in more info. to Pam Spence.

3. The subject of the apparently neglected Star Watch UK came up at the last NWGAS meeting, in particular the fact that the web site is very out-of-date. Ron Kelley raised the matter at the recent FAS council meeting as requested. Pam Spence said she would be raising this with the RAS and would publish an announcement ASAP, possibly via Astronomy Now.

4. The 1998 FAS Convention was held on 3rd Oct, at Cambridge.

5. There are still vacancies on the FAS Council...but beware, this is for active participation only, not just a talking shop. Interested parties please apply.

6. Next FAS AGM, 8th May, 1999, in Sidmouth, Devon.

7. Societies wanting money from PPARC should apply without delay. The more applications, the more chance of being taken seriously and the better the opportunity of being granted funds. This was the opinion of Prof. Ian Halliday, PPARC chairman speaking at the 1998 FAS AGM, in Newbury, on 9th May.

8. Manchester ASs proposal to host an FAS AGM, is to be discussed in the near future.

  NWGAS on the WWW

Star Watch UK
The FAS has now posted a statement on their web site concerning Star Watch UK

WWW Access Statistics
The latest web statistics are quite interesting. All the figures are much higher than normal, the MAS increase can be put down to a link from a NASA site, as part of a Picture of the Day page. September's good figures are probably due to two national press articles (The Times and Daily Mail) that had url's to the SPA site, again this seemed to help the other sites as well. 

  Society		July		August		September	Oct (5days)

  NWGAS			 216		  224		  242		 37
  Altrincham & Dist AS	  30		   37		   46		  2
  Blackpool & Dist AS	  17		   24		   38		  3
  Bolton*		  28		   28		   35		  6
  Chester AS		  89		   76		   52		 10
  Furness AS		  38		   36		   36		  4
  Gwynedd AA		   -		    -		    -		  0
  Liverpool AS*		  37		   38		   39		  4
  Macclesfield AS*	  65		   64		   83		 18
  Manchester AS* 	  25		   25		   26		  4
  Preston & Dist AS*	  14		   23		   13	          1
  Salford AS*		  13		   15		   23		  0
  Southport AS		  24		   30		   21		  3

StarWatch UK		 463		  504		  684		 84
CFDS			 985		  899		 1089		151
SPA			1035		 1128		 1816		235
Manchester AS		2122		 1956		 1856		260
* Societies that also have their own web site.

Gwynedd Astronomical Association
Davyth Fear has taken over from Ernie Greenwood as Secretary. His address is:

Brwynog, Ffordd yr Orsaf, Llanrug, Gwynedd LL55 4AG Tel. (01286) 672882
E-mail fear@enterprise.net

Meetings are held on the first Thursday of every month in the University of Bangor, Electrical Engineering Building, in Dean Street at 7.30 pm.

As I now have a little more information for the Gwynedd, I have put the Gwynedd page at...
http://www.u-net.com/ph/nwgas/gwynedd/

Macclesfield Astronomical Society
The Macclesfield AS have changed the url of their web site to...
http://www.g0-evp.demon.co.uk

Uranographia Britannica
The CD-ROM version of the Bevis Atlas found at the Manchester AS last November can now be ordered online. The current November issue of Sky & Telescope carries a four page article on the discovery. Information about the atlas can be found on http://www.u-net.com/ph/mas/bevis/

Updating the web pages
These web pages are for your benefit, to advertise your Society. Please keep them up to date by sending information about your Society, members' projects, observations etc. In particular include any notices of events or public meetings that you have scheduled. Are you organising any trips to see the August 1999 Total Eclipse? How about a NWGAS 'Best Eclipse Photograph' competition, via the web pages ?

I would also welcome any Society Logos or images of your observatory / meeting place etc. I can scan prints and will return any material that you send me, if required to do so.

Michael Oates
Email:
Homepage: http://www.ph.u-net.com

  NWGAS Convention

Tony Cross reported that the first NWGAS convention, held in Manchester the previous week, 3rd October, had been a great success. About 100 delegates from NWGAS societies and others in the north of England had attended. Several NWGAS societies had had stands. Trade stands had done roaring business.

A profit of over £300 had been secured by the organisers, Manchester AS, and K.Kilburn encouraged other NWGAS member societies to consider organising similar events under the NWGAS banner. Ron Kelley said that Liverpool AS would certainly discuss the idea but Richard Sargent felt that there was no immediate interest in Chester AS holding one.

  Any Other Business

1. Richard Sargent invited interested parties in the NWGAS membership, willing to come up with questions for inter-society quizzes, to contact him. He said that it was always a problem getting enough fresh questions together and perhaps this task could be shared to the mutual benefit of NWGAS members who do hold quizzes from time to time. A shared pool of questions would be very useful.

2. Kevin Kilburn said that he was investigating the archeo-astronomy of the double solstitial sunset seen from the pre-Norman church of St.Edward the Confessor at Leek, in the Staffordshire moorlands. This was first described in 1686 by Dr. Robert Plot, Keeper of the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford. Recent work had shown a possible link between the Leek sunset in prehistoric times and the deliberate orientation of Arbor Low, a Neolithic henge monument 15 miles away, in Derbyshire. There was also new evidence suggesting that another late Neolithic, or early Bronze Age tumulus at Leek may have been connected via a solstitial alignment with the oldest prehistoric monument in Cheshire, the Bridestones, ca 2900BC, near Congleton. It was hoped that a paper would be published in due course.

  Next NWGAS meeting

11am, Saturday, 16th January, 1999, in room 542 at the Maxwell Building of Salford University, C/o Salford AS. Please see attached map. Directions from the M602... leave M602 at the Eccles intersection, follow Eccles Old Road which leads on to the A6, then straight on.

.

K J Kilburn. (Hon. Secretary) September, 1998.
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