Ordinary Meeting and Exhibition Meeting, 2002 September 21

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Ordinary Meeting and Exhibition Meeting, 2002 September 21

held at the Cavendish Laboratory, Madingley Road, Cambridge

Guy Hurst, President

Ron Johnson, Nick Hewitt and Nick James, Secretaries

The President opened the eighth meeting of the 112th session, welcoming members to the Cavendish Laboratory, and asking for feedback as to whether this venue should be considered for future meetings. The time of year of the meeting was a further break with tradition. He also commented that there had been short talks and tours of the Cavendish museum during the exhibition, and invited comments on these. Mr Hurst regretted to announce that Leslie White, an active Association member who had held many Council positions including President 1978-1980, had died earlier in the month. He invited members to join him in a minute's silence.

The minutes of the May meeting were read by Dr Hewitt, and approved. The President reported the apologies of Mr Johnson, and announced on his behalf that no presents had been received. The proposal of 32 new members was announced, and the members present elected the 9 members proposed at the previous meeting. Mr Hurst expressed his pleasure at having met a number of new members during the exhibition, and having heard of their work. He invited other new members to introduce themselves after the meeting. Mr James reported that three papers had been accepted at the previous Council meeting:

The aurora 2001 by Ron Livesey

Photometry of the semi-regular variable and spectroscopic binary RR Umi by John Howarth and Kevin West

The bicoloured aspect of Saturn's A ring: Shedding new light on an old mystery by Tom Dobbins, Alan Heath and Valeri Dikarev

The President expressed his gratitude to those Association members who had assisted with organising the exhibition, in particular Nick Hewitt and Jonathan Shanklin, who were assisted by Tom Boles, Peter Hudson, Bob Marriot, Richard Flux, Geoffrey Johnson and Pat Barber. He also thanked the Cavendish team for their work, especially Alan Chapman, Harry Druiff and Bill Badcock.

The next meeting would be the Annual General Meeting, to be held at Savile Row on October 30. This would feature the presidential address 25 Years of the Nova/Supernova Patrol. Finally, the President urged members to watch the BBC Tomorrow's World awards on September 25, when a well-known BAA figure would be honoured. Mr. Hurst then proceeded to award the Association's medals: