The Webb Deep-Sky Society
Editorial - Quarterly Journal 125 Summer 2001
Another issue comes out! Although we are still running about a quarter behind at least the magazine is still running and we are doing our best to catch up. As mentioned in the last issue we held a very successful AGM and the report of that should appear in the next issue. There are several very concerning things that have come out of that and the reorganising of the membership side and that is that our membership is now considerably less than we thought it was. This means that we need to radically consider ways of boosting the membership again. Most national societies have suffered some downturn due to the rise of the Internet but we need a certain level to keep going. Although suggestions like advertising in the US magazines have been considered they are horrendously expensive and it is not clear that the returns would justify the costs. We are also looking for some more small publications. The last three, The Visual Atlas of Double Stars, The Visual Atlas of the Magellanic Clouds and the Atlas of Galaxy Trios have proved quite popular and although they do not bring large amounts of money they help raise the society’s profile so if any members out there have something they might like to publish then we would be interested to consider it.
As usual I would like to repeat my plea for more material to come in. Although we should be OK for the next issue I have very little in the locker for following issues and to maintain balance of articles in each issue it is good to have a variation in stock.
Watching the Internet I find it interesting that the new generation of contributors tend to have lost what went before. This is always sad when material gets repeated. Sky & Telescope in their deep sky columns also repeat material that has appeared in Deep Sky and in this publication.
We appear to be reinventing the wheel for each new generation. I think this will be a major problem with electronic based information unless the sites are documented. It may be of interest if we decide to do another CD to put more of these sites on it if we can get permission from the owners so that some record is kept.
Other topics that come up on the newsgroups are the observation of PPNe (PrePlanetary Nebulae). This appears to be an amusing thread as, although there may be a handful that show detail, most of these objects are either starlike IRAS objects or so small as to require the HST to show structure.
The discovery of a new supernova remnant in Cygnus has been outlined both on the amastro newsgroup and on Jim Shields excellent web page. The object Sharpless 2-91 has been known as an HII region for some time but only recently it appears to have registered as a supernova remnant. The brightest part is at RA 19 39.7 Dec. +29 57, just south of Phi Cyg. Steve Gottleib and Jim Shields have observed it with 17.5-inch telescopes and an [OIII] filter. Other observations reported by Ronald Stoyan and Dave Riddle with 20-inch scopes suggest that it is in range, although difficult, for amateur telescopes. It appears that Sh 2-94 may also be part of the same complex. Below shows the bright segment next to Phi Cyg taken from Guide 7. The nebulosity is shown in Guide but not in most of the other popular star charting programs.
Editor: Owen Brazell