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The digital edtion is a PDF so you could read it on any platform that has a PDF reader, I would normally read mine on a Widnwos machine.. Owen

I think since the AAS took over S&T all the overseas prices have doubled or more. Even digital membership is now three times what it was before for international subscribers. I guess they are trying to screw people to recover the money they paid out which I suspect is going to lose them a lot of international subscribers. However the editorials are more about diversity thna expalining the magazines policies.

on your pitches

Webb Soc should also be there. Owen

LAS have posted a lot of information about the star camp at http://las-skycamp.org/index.php Owen

I believe this is restricted to members of the Swindon Stargazers group only not a open public talk. Owen

Hi Robert. Without trying to dampen your enthusiasm I doubt very much whether people will be willing to share views through telescopes this year because of Covid. I suspect that there may well be something in place about that in the guide to the star party. So if you ask and they are unwilling it will not be because they are unfriendly but because of the safety aspects. If you know somebody who is there they may be willing to let you leave your kit on their pitch however.

from the ad in the current AN they have moved to an online event in Feburary Owen

I had a discussion with one of the organizers yesterday after they had talked with Kelling and currently unless the goverment changes the guidelines it is on. The 6 person meeting will apply to pitches not the campsite (although how that would be policed I don't know) The current reading if the goverment tries to bring in a curfew is that your pitch is your temporary home so you could observe there. They are still hoping to have a vendor row with some restrictions, and probably a limited number of vendors anyway. As always it will be up to people to do the right and sensible thing in terms of contacts.

The Royal Astronomical Society I understand, but I suspect this will just be the UK arm of whatever media blitz there is.

Booking for the Autumn star party is always a challenge as if you are not actually at one then booking for the next one becomes hard. Various solutions to this issue were looked at but none were entirely satisfactory. It does mean that unless pitches become free then for someone new to get on is difficult. However as noted there maybe pitches that are free but many of these will be in less desirable locations, like under trees where there is no view of the sky so trying to late book pitches means you really need to know the campsite layout so you can see if the pitch would work for astronomy. It is likely that there will be a restricted social side to this years star party so it is unlikely that there will be sharing of telescope views etc. The lectures, raffle and telescope tour have been ancelled already.

The autumn one always is. There is more chance at the Spring one.. Sometimes picthes come up on AstroBuySell

Haw Wood in Suffolk is pretty good with SQM's in the 21.6 range on a good night we saw the Zodiacal light there twice on the last trip. Devon around Exmoor is pretty darl as well, better than Kelling.

As a trader (Webb Soc) we have not been asked to supply anything yet and I am not sure yet that anything about this has been communicated by the organisers to the traders. My understanding is there maybe further discussions on this next week. I think we would also want to know what they might expect from us. Owen