Ordinary Meeting, 2006 October 25

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Ordinary Meeting, 2006 October 25

held at New Hunts House, Guys Hospital, London Bridge, London SE1

Richard Miles, President

Ron Johnson, Hazel Collett and Nick James, Secretaries

The President opened the first meeting of the 117th session, and, in the absence of the Meetings Secretary, invited Dr Nick Hewitt to read the minutes of the final meeting of the previous session. These were approved by the audience and duly signed. The President announced that 118 new members were proposed for election; those 65 who had been proposed at the previous meeting were approved and declared duly elected. The President welcomed any new members in the audience to introduce themselves to him at the end of the evening.

Mr Nick James, Papers Secretary, announced that three papers had been accepted by Council for publication in the Journal:

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The President announced that the next Ordinary Meeting would be held at the present venue on November 25, when the speakers would include Dr Andrew Bell, giving an update on the analysis of data from the Huygens probe and the ongoing work of the Cassini orbiter, and Prof. Mike Barlow (UCL), on the subject of planetary nebulae. Before then, the Association would be holding the fourth in its popular Back to Basics series of workshops on October 28, to be hosted by the Cotswold Astronomical Society.

The President then introduced the meeting's first talk. Given the media excitement in recent weeks over the International Astronomical Union (IAU)'s decision to downgrade Pluto's status from that of a 'planet' to that of a 'dwarf planet', there were unlikely to be many members who had not heard the news. As Pluto fell within the remit of his section, Mr Roger Dymock, Director of the Asteroids and Remote Planets Section, was invited to give an account of the changes.