I apologise for the rather single article version of this issue but neither myself nor Don expected the main article to expand as much as it did and the nature of the article meant that it was not possible to split it over two issues.
I also apologise to Nick Martin
for the fact that the images of spectra from Maurice Gavin that were supposed to
accompany his article on spectroscopy seem to have got lost somewhere in the
ether. They will be printed as an
addendum in the next issue of the magazine.
We hope to reproduce them in colour, which would not have been possible
in the previous issue.
I am pleased to say that the magazine is a good state in terms of the backlog of material that is in the pipeline to be published but please keep the articles coming. As mentioned I hope to make the next issue a colour issue so if you have any colour images that I could use then I would be grateful to have them.
Annual Meeting
On a more disturbing note the
society recently held its Annual General Meeting and the number of attendees
dropped to less than half our normal numbers, the kind of numbers not seen since
we used to have the AGM in the Fellows Room of the Royal Astronomical Society
and the committee is obviously concerned about this.
We would be interested to know the reason so few people turned up.
Was it because of the date clashing with the English FA (soccer) Cup
Final the speaker programme, the venue, or perhaps nobody remembered:)?
Alan puts a lot of work into organising the meeting and if these numbers are repeated next year it will be difficult to persuade the vendors to come again. If those who were able to come could perhaps let us know what was different this year then we can try and incorporate any changes you might suggest next year.
Those who did not make it this year missed some excellent talks.
Membership
Membership continues to climb slowly but there was very little response to the adverts placed in Astronomy Now which was disappointing. I know that there are a lot of deep sky observers out there who are loners but if you know some one who is into deep sky astronomy and who is not a member perhaps you could persuade them to join. There are full details of subscription rates on the back cover of every issue of the Deep Sky Observer, and, of course, on our web site, which also gives a guide to the products the Society has for sale. Just check: - www.webbdeepsky.com
Editor: Owen Brazell