2016 October 31

Showcasing your observing on the BAA website

James Dawson

In recent months, the BAA’s Website Operations Team has been looking for ways to build a greater sense of online community within the Association. After a busy summer’s work, we are excited to announce the launch of BAA Member Pages.

These are the latest addition to the Community section of this website and allow you to upload and showcase your observations. Whether you observe with the naked eye, or using equipment, this is a place where you can share your work with others.

You can put up anything that relates to your enjoyment of astronomy – from historical photographs to images of your own equipment; sketches of Mars to light curves of variable stars. You can even add a few lines of text to narrate a specific observation, or a summary of a whole observing session. All we ask is that you don’t upload other people’s work without their permission.

We want to encourage all members to feel part of the BAA community, whatever their experience level. So, whether you are just starting out, or have been observing for a life-time, please do share your work. Once you’ve uploaded your observations, you can share links to them on your own website or blog, or on Facebook or Twitter.

It is very easy to start uploading your observations: simply visit https://britastro.org/profile and click on “Upload image” or “Quick post”. You will need to be logged into the website to create and update your members page. If you are already a BAA member but do not have a BAA website account, you can register here: https://britastro.org/user/register. You will find your membership number alongside your name on the address sheet of the Journal, or otherwise please contact the BAA Office for assistance. If you have any questions about the process the Website News and Help section of our online forum is a good place to find help.

BAA Member Pages are accessible to anyone else who visits the BAA’s website, not just to BAA members. We therefore suggest that you do not reveal personal information on your profile, such as your exact location or personal contact details.

We still request members to submit observations to the relevant BAA Section Directors, to ensure that they can be properly analysed and archived. Each member will have a finite amount of space for their Member Page – currently set at 200MB – and we have also adopted a limit of 2MB per upload which mirrors that on the BAA’s Forum. Members will be permitted to upload 10 observations per day in the first instance.

The BAA’s website is still evolving and we would value your feedback on the services we provide. The Website News and Help area of our online forum is a good place to share your thoughts or to ask questions.

We look forward to seeing your observations, and to seeing and sharing the great work which is being undertaken by the BAA community.

James Dawson, on behalf of the BAA Website Operations Team