Ordinary Meeting, 2006 December 16

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Ordinary Meeting, 2006 December 16

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 third meeting of the 117th Session and invited Dr Nick Hewitt to read the minutes of the previous meeting, which were approved by the audience and duly signed. He announced that 26 new members were proposed for election; those 61 who had been proposed at the previous meeting were approved and declared elected. Mr Nick James, Papers Secretary, explained that he had papers from two months to announce, since he had made no announcement at the previous meeting. In total, three papers had been approved for Journal publication:

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The President gave details of a forthcoming joint venture between the Campaign for Dark Skies (CfDS) and the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) to map light pollution across the UK. On the moonless evenings of December 20-24, between 20h00 and midnight GMT, members of the public were invited to conduct naked-eye star counts in the rectangle of sky in Orion enclosed at its four corners by the feet, shoulders and head of the Hunter – i.e. by the stars Betelgeuse, Bellatrix, Rigel and Saiph. Even from the most heavily light-polluted areas, some stars would be visible, but from dark skies many more would be discernable. Observations could be submitted via the BAA website. In case these nights were clouded out, the exercise would be repeated around the time of the following New Moon, on the evenings of January 14-21.

The President went on to announce that the next Association meeting would be a Back to Basics workshop on January 20 in Ipswich, including a talk by Dr Laurence Newell marking the first appearance of the Radio Astronomy Group (RAG) in the series. The next Ordinary Meeting would take place at the present venue on January 31.

Finally, before moving onto the afternoon's talks, the President expressed his gratitude on the behalf of the Association to Jean Felles, Office Manager, and her husband, for having worked beyond the call of duty in their oversight of the Office's relocation from Burlington House to its temporary accommodation on Hallum Street. Both were presented with a token of the Association's thanks, to which members applauded.

The President then proceeded to introduce the afternoon's first speaker, Mr Doug Ellison, host of the spaceflight imaging community website unmannedspaceflight.com.