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Hi Tony,
The point of the consultation is to ask member opinions before a final decision is made.
While the BAA has good reserves, the annual expenditure is a bit over twice the income received in subscription revenue. The shortfall is made up from legacies and taking money out of the BAA’s investments and bank accounts. The value of the investments and bank reserves fell by just under 10% from 2022 to 2023, a little over the amount that was removed to cover the shortfall in operating costs.
To reach a target revenue from the membership subscriptions, the non-Honorary members have to pay a higher membership price. Around 10% of the membership are Honorary members.
The idea is to send members a certificate to commemorate the achievement of reaching 50 years of membership. Any existing Honorary members will remain as Honorary.
Best wishes,
AndyWe have received another query about how to purchase the calendar on the website. It is available in the BAA online shop:
Publications -> Buy
You can get to it directly from this link:
https://britishastro.square.site/product/baa-2024-astronomical-calendar/23
Andy
Hi Phil,
You are very welcome to them.
I have not used them in several years and that is a waste. I am happy for them to go to anyone who can make use of them.
I will try sending you a personal message via the website.
AndyHi Roy,
Pauline is talking about the physical calendar for sale in the BAA shop, not the online calendar.
https://britishastro.square.site/product/baa-2024-astronomical-calendar/23
I have noted your comment about the online calendar for the website developer to investigate.
AndyHi Ayesha,
As per my above post, anyone with a missing Journal should contact the BAA Office at:
https://britastro.org/home/about-us/contact-us
Best wishes,
AndyHi Maxim,
You should contact the BAA Office.
https://britastro.org/home/about-us/contact-us
I would add that there are ongoing investigations to ensure we fully understand what has gone wrong so that it can be avoided in future.
Best wishes,
AndyHi Kevin,
Another couple of other free options are:
MuniPack – https://c-munipack.sourceforge.net/
MetroPSF – https://github.com/blackhaz/MetroPSFThe advantage of these is they can produce output files of the photometry ready for uploading to the BAA Photometry Database. If you ultimately wish to submit to the BAA database then that is a distinct advantage. You can also do this with AstroImageJ and AIP4Win, though you have to use these in combination with the BAA Photometry Spreadsheet and that requires an Excel license.
Cheers,
AndyI believe there are differing opinions on the entire purpose of the ballot. While ideally there would be multiple candidates for each position, the vote could be considered an affirmation of the candidates to their positions by the membership, even when there are no other candidates.
There are also issues with the BAA being a charity where the Trustees take ultimate responsibility for the governance. There needs to be a formal process for appointing Trustees. A ballot is an excellent and transparent way to accomplish this.
There is the separate question of whether to hold a postal ballot or just digital. The postal ballot accounts for around half the cost but only around 2% of eligible members vote this way.
On a side topic. While the turn out is low, I am not convinced it is shockingly low for a membership organisation. A little over 22% of eligible members voted this year. This compares to 67% in the 2019 UK general election and 36% in the 2021 English local elections.
I have now added the link to Ian Sharp’s talk (PCEB Variables and a Medley of Software Tools). He kindly made a fresh recording of his talk after it did not work on the day.
https://britastro.org/event/variable-star-section-meeting-2
Andy
Hi Patrick,
We don’t have a way to offer gift subscriptions via the online form. However, if you contact the BAA Office at the below link they can probably help you with this.
The problem is the membership is linked to the email address used to join. That means we cannot easily do this as a future dated surprise. As soon as the Office create the membership, the person will receive the welcome email. That is also why they cannot be easily done online, as you create a membership associated with the email address you use to create the account when you join.
https://britastro.org/home/about-us/contact-us
Best wishes,
AndyI am pleased to report that we were able to record most of the presentations. We did not announce this in advance as we were trying something new and we were not sure it would work. There are problems with at least a couple of the recordings but it appears to have worked for the majority.
I will be uploading them to the BAA YouTube channel, but due to other commitments I won’t be able to complete the editing and make them live until the last week in September.
AndyI am travelling to the meeting by coach. National Express have a drop off point in the town centre.
Best wishes,
AndyPublishing interim lists of nominees is an interesting idea. I have my doubts it would encourage many additional people to stand, but you never know.
As pointed out by James, the cost of the election is likely to be the same whether there is one or many more candidates than positions to be filled. If we find ourselves in a position where the number of nominees matches the number of positions for each role, then it would be sensible to consider whether an election should be held.
Looking back over recent ballots, only one person has stood for each of the key Officer roles. However, until the last couple of years there have been more members standing than there were positions to fill for both the Trustees and Council. In 2021 there were 6 members standing for the 5 Trustee positions. Going back to 2018 there were 10 candidates for the 5 Trustee positions and 14 for the 5 Council positions.
Combined with a lack of a volunteer to stand as the Meetings Secretary, this is a concerning decline in members standing for Council, Trustee and Officer positions. I wonder if this could be related to the lack of opportunities for informal chats at events during the pandemic, or if this is due to other factors that will continue the trend.
A final thought. It would be great to include any suggestions and concerns in the latest BAA survey. I have already used it to give some anonymous suggestions.
https://britastro.org/2023/help-shape-the-future-of-our-association
Andy
Thanks for the heads up Bill.
My plan is to travel up the day before. Fingers crossed there will be still be some trains running on Friday.
Andy
Hi Kevin,
A field flattener should work fine for photometry. There is a chance it might improve your photometry if it reduces any distortions in stars towards the edge of your field of view. Though the effect is probably going to be negligible.
If it is the one on the FLO website, then it also acts as a x0.8 focal reducer, so your focal length goes from 540mm (f/6) to 432mm (f/4.8). It would be a good idea to check the sky pixel size of this setup, though in all probability this will be about whether or not you bin the pixels.
Cheers,
AndyHi Kevin,
You are right to be wary of using a light pollution filter for photometry. These filters are designed to help imaging nebula.
Looking at the specification it has high transmission in the nebula emission lines and blocks common narrow band light pollution. In photometry, the magnitude you measure depends on which part of the spectrum you observe. So the magnitude measured through a filter like this could not be compared with other observers.
If you are just measuring the period of a variable target or looking for outbursts then this might be usable, but it may introduce problems.
Another point to consider, these filters are designed to boost contrast of targets that predominantly emit light in the nebula lines. This is unlikely to be much use for stars or asteroids as they tend to emit across the visible spectrum.
Best wishes,
AndyHi Paul,
Thanks for letting us know. I will contact Hazel to see if we will email everyone who has booked a ticket.
The BAA Meetings Secretary, Hazel Collett, found out all of the accommodation had been booked in June. Unfortunately they did not reserve it for our meeting, so it had been quickly booked up by other people.
We updated the meeting page with a suggestion of nearby accommodation. https://britastro.org/event/autumn-2023
Best wishes,
AndyIt is difficult to choose an ideal telescope as it depends on so many factors. I think you may be considering Deep Sky imaging, which has similar requirements to variable star photometry and comet imaging. While planetary imaging has different needs.
I would say good quality optics of a variety of designs can produce excellent deep sky images. If you want top quality results, then put quality before aperture within your budget.
A key point is ensuring you have a good quality mount that can robustly support the telescope and track well, or receive guider commands to correct for tracking errors. With smaller telescopes, such as small short focus refractors, you can get away with a much smaller and cheaper mount. As you go to larger telescopes and longer focal lengths, the cost of the mount will go up dramatically.
It is also important to have a focuser that can support the camera, as well as any filters or an off-axis guide camera if used.
For starting out with imaging I would recomend a short focus refractor. However, something like an 8-inch SCT on a sturdy mount is a great all round telescope. With available accessories that can be used for both deep sky and planetary imaging.Hi Ken,
This is a bug with the website. I have just reported this to the website developer and I will let you know when it has been fixed.
Best wishes,
AndyHi Michael,
You can see the prices for the different types of membership at this link:
https://britastro.org/join
The rate that would apply to you would be Ordinary Digital, £32.50.
To alter your membership type you can call (0207 734 4145 10am-4pm Mon-Fri) or email (office@britastro.org) the Office. They can update your renewal membership type, or you can renew to the new type over the phone. If they update your renewal membership type, then when you press the renew button in Sheep you will see your new membership type and price.
Best wishes,
Andy
