Astronomy Clubs

[centroid]

With the upsurge of interest on the forum in 'Local Meets', I'd be interested to see how many members belong to a local Astronomy Club/Society.

For the purpose of this Poll, exclude organisations like the SPA, BAA and RAS.

In my case, yes I am a member of my local Astro Society, but very rarely attend meetings, as I prefer practical astronomy, as opposed to the 'armchair' variety.

Dave

[daz]

I'm Programme Coordinator for mine.

However, Dave, you are right in your assessment of the 'traditional' member! There are a (growing, to be fair) few of us that do do the practical side of things, but it takes time and new blood to turn the tide!!

[Ant]

I used to belong to the CPAC - Castle Point Astronomy Club - in Rayleigh, but to be hinest never found them to be particually welcoming.

They were quite clicky, little groups scattered about...

So I never bothered going back!

Ant

[jgs001]

I know there is one locally. I haven't contacted them as yet.

[GingerNut]

I belong to Hampshire Astronomical Group (HAG) who meet at The Clanfield Observatory (north of Portsmouth).

website

They are very welcoming and do loads of practical astronomy, they run training nights as well as observing nights, monthly lectures, and proper courses if you want to pay to get a qualification.

They have a superb range of scopes (look on the website) and once trained any member can use any of them.

I first joined with my eight year old daughter in 1989 and we were made so welcome I have been a member ever since.

I highly recommend them to anyone who lives in the area

Yours Roy

[russ]

I've always been a member of a local club since not long after getting my first scope. Joined Hampshire in 1986, was a founding member of Nelson (breakaway club made up of ex-Hampshire members) and then a member of Solent (current club).

I can understand why people are a bit apprehensive about clubs. I found Hampshire to be very 'clicky' when i first joined. Only 16 at the time and it was a bit off putting. But i settled in and had a great time for 3-4 years.

Current club is a real mixture of old (some are very old) school armchair astronomers and some more practical astronomers. But there's good talks and a nice chat in the bar afterwards. I can't be active like i was in the 80's. Now have a family, so i probably come across as one of the boring members who doesn't actively observe.

I know Astronomy is lone affair mainly. But i get a real buzz from observing with lots of people. Can't beat a meteor watch or big event with lots of other similar minded people.

I get far more out of an evening if i can bounce off other people. If i observe by myself i'll be done in 15mins. Quick look at the planets, maybe M42 or M31 and pack away. However, whether it's meeting up with Rob or the club, i just seem to get all fired up and can't stay out long enough.

That's my main drive for joining a club. Oh and because they can afford kit i can't.

Russ

[AstroTiger]

i have been a member but not got round to renewing my membership.

To be honest now i am very busy with other things after work, plus often the offer of overtime is tough to turn down,

I also however favour more practicle meets, hence y i am trying to setup a star party thingy in northants

[centroid]

Time to 'bump' this one up I think.

Over 1800 members, over 200 logging on each day, and 128 'hits', yet only 27 voters. :?

You don't have to 'post' a reply, just a vote would be good. Its completely anonymous.

Thanks

Dave

[lunator]

I joined Ewell & RKAS.

I have not renewed my membership of Ewell as time contraints limit when I can get there.

I am actively involved with RKAS and I am slowly changing the club from an 'armchair' group to a more active group.

Cheers

Ian

[Pauln]

Being new to the hobby I have thought about it, but the nearest one to me is Worcester and I don't know much about it, it is probably about 10 miles or so away, which I guess is not that far, but all adds up after a night observing. I would love it if there were people nearer to where I lived.

[Tinkerbell]

I'm a member of two clubs the SAS (Sunderland Astronomical Society) and KOAS (Kielder Observatory Astronomical Society) . The first one has a mix of regular members and very active members who are willing to do a 60 mile round trip for decent dark skies. The second one has a membership spread throughout England and is quite new so up to now it is only the Northeast members that get up there when weather and time permits, and for most it is a 130 mile round trip.

[The Warthog]

I would like to join two clubs, the Hamilton one, 50 km away, and the RASC in Niagara Falls, 20 km away. The problem is most meetings are in the evening, when I am not allowed to drive, so I can only go if I can get someone to drive me. My wife isn't about to volunteer for the job.

[Whippy]

I'd like to join one or two of the local groups but as my wife works nights and they all meet on weekday evenings, there isn't much point in me joining any of them. Shame really.

Tony..

[spacemonkey]

I've been with NAS since 1994 (or '95, around then anyway)

http://www.norwich.astronomicalsociety.org.uk/

I've recently heard similar gripes to those above about our club as well - "too clicky", "not enough observing", "more like a social club/engineering club"... e.t.c., but then again, I used to say that when I joined 13 or so years ago!

Like the saying goes, you can't please all of the people all of the time, so you will only get out of a club what you put in. I have a lot of respect for the other members who do more for the general public/open night side of the NAS than I do, because that's not my thing. They come to me and ask me to show them around the sky, because that's my thing. Then there's others who build telescopes, if that's what they like to do, great. As a club, we have around 200 members, with about 75% annual renewal rate, so we must be doing something right.

Dave

[trudie]

Like Ant, I went to CPAC on 2 occasions, I not only found the majority very "clicky", But the 2 guys who actually bothered to speak to me were very patronising, telling me I had probably been ill advised and had bought a scope above my capabilities. ( Thanks to you guys, and UKAI, I KNOW I have the right scope).

Needless to say I came home furious, and have not been back since.

Trudie

[Astroman]

I not only belong to a great club, they made me their president. They did it literally while I wasn't looking, but they did.

I was never much one for group anything, but it seemed a good idea to join one and pick the brains of the more experienced, rather than reinventing the wheel. I'm really glad I did.

[barkis]

I was a member of my local society for years. I used to enjoy it very much, and the membership grew quite large.

We eventually moved our meeting place to a local school, and soon the governors sanctioned the building of an observatory, and that became our home. I modified the 16" f6 telescope housed in the dome, as it was built of aluminium angle in the form of a square tube. I installed a round tube inside the centre section of the original where the declination axis was located. The tube was supported on four bearings to allow it to be rotated for easy access to the drawtube at all positions of the scope. A lot of work. I also installed a drive system on the Right ascension and declination axis, using stepper motors, heavy duty gearboxes and stepper control cards. All this took a lot of my spare time, as I was still working. The straw that broke the camels back, was a night before an open week started, during a National Astronomy Week, when I had requested a couple of volunteers to help me adjust the massive mount for polar aligning, as it was not spot on.

I turned up at the Obs. early. One hour later, the oldest of our membership arrived, at that time he was 75, and a very knowledgeable man.

That was it. We got the scope mount as near as we could, using drift alignment. Afterwards, we made a cup of tea in the annexe to the Ob. had a bit of a chat, and I locked the place up. I handed the keys to old Tom, and said my goodbye. He asked why I had given him the keys, and I told him I would not be back. I am afraid this willing horse had been flogged to death, and I have not been back since.

There are those who do astronomy, and those who don't turn up.

Ron.

[palefire]

I'm a member of Cardiff Astronomical Society.

http://www.cardiff-astronomical-society.co.uk/

I've only been a member since last summer, but they have been excellent. It's run by a friendly, helpful group of people and the website is really good at keeping you up to date with what's going on.

They have an observers evening at least once a month and also meet (regardless of weather) at the bar of the golf club at which they're based on the last friday of the month.

Oh, and regular lectures at the university, but I haven't managed to get along to one of those yet.

[Stephen Green]

The club I go to is good we have meeting nights to observe and another night for talks and lectures

we have 5 ex RGO astronomers so we get very good talks

Stephen

[Pip]

I've only just found out that there's a local club, have contacted them and will probably go to their next meeting to give it a whirl.

[RobH]

I'm a member of the Weymouth astronomy club, a fairly new club.

We have talks once a month although I often can't get to them due to work.

There's also a viewing night once a month but I've not been to one of those as, if it's clear, I'm down in my observatory!

It's a good group, we often have more than 50 attending meetings, not bad for a little seaside town.

Not enough youngsters though.

Cheers

Rob

[DanDare]

Hi Dave,

I thought this survey would have generated more feedback, 63 voters is pretty poor - c'mon guys and gals you can do better than that

I joined the Letchworth and District AS about 3 /4 years ago but let my membership run out after the first year. The reason for this was that it was just a bit too far for me to travel. I went to an observation evening and after a 45min+ drive to get there the cloud rolled in after about an hour and half so we packed in and I drove home. I was hoping that some of the members would have been there with their 'scopes so I could have had a peek, which would then have helped me in deciding which 'scope to buy, but there was only about 5 members there and observing was done with the society's equipment (a rather large reflector and a dob (around 6", if I remember correctly). So it didn't really help me, although I did see my first view of Saturn, which was a 'wow' moment. The members that were there were very welcoming and the only reason I didn't go back was that it was too far travel wise. (For me anyhow!!).

Roy

[Astronut]

I used to be a founder member (founder status bestowed on first 1000 or 2000 members) of The Astronomy Centre http://www.astronomycentre.org.uk between Bacup and Todmorden, Lancashire around 20 odd years ago but haven't paid my annual membership for a long long time so I'll need to do something about that in the near future.

They've got a star party on the 12th April so that'll be the ideal opportunity to reinstate my membership. The last star party I attended there I met Paul Money who is now the reviews editor at S&N mag. I remember he was a friendly likeable chap, enthusiastic and knowledgable.

[centroid]

68 votes is better than no votes at all, but still a pretty poor response given the number of members we have.

However, thanks to all of you that did make the effort.

It would seem that the majority of those that voted, are members of their local astro society, and a reasonable percentage would like to be a member, if there was a club local to them.

The remainder is made up from people, who find astro clubs are not their 'scene', or have been a member at some time, but found a reason to discontinue their membership.

Again thanks to those that contributed to this Poll.

Dave

[Andrew*]

I'm "other". There is one and I keep on meaning to get out there, but so far haven't managed...

Andrew