The first issue of the DSO for
2003 finds the Society in good shape with a successful AstroFest behind us.
We managed to pick up a number of new members and sales of the Webb
Colour Star Atlas by Mike Swan went well as did the new Hubble Image CD.
For the first time we also sold a CD of scanned images of classic works
by Lord Rosse, in this case all the papers by the third Earl of Rosse on
observations of the nebulae with the 72 inch telescope at Birr.
This is the start of an occasional series of such CDs.
If we can get hold of more classic books then we will try and scan them
so that a wider audience can see at first hand what these papers said.
The DSO is also doing well with
probably a two issue backlog of material so do not be disappointed if articles
you have written don’t come out immediately. This is no excuse to stop writing however, as I need to
provide a balanced magazine and most of my current material is about galaxies
and double stars. It would be
interesting to get some more material on diffuse nebulae and clusters back in
the magazine. The last issue of the
magazine was a colour issue, as most of you will have seen.
We hope to put out another colour issue in a couple of issues time.
Unfortunately with the membership numbers languishing where they are, we
cannot actually fund colour issues from the subscriptions so their extra costs
are born by our profits from sales of other items, such as the CDs.
The Society’s AGM is to be
held back at the IoA in Cambridge for those UK members wishing to come.
Alan Dowdell has put together a very interesting programme, details of
which can be found on the web site –
www.webbdeepsky.com and on
the back cover of this issue. The
move back to Cambridge is mainly due to increased costs at RAL that we felt we
could not afford.
On the observing front the weather this year in the UK again appears to have been uniformly awful, although that perception maybe due to the fact that my job has kept me out of the country for a good part of the last year. This seems to becoming a familiar litany but I am still hoping to get the new 20-inch Obsession out more than twice in six months!
Editor: Owen Brazell