The Society's 26th Annual General Meeting took place on Saturday 18 July at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich. As in previous years the AGM formed just part of a wider series of informative lectures and entertaining members' talks. To mark the International Year of Astronomy 2009 we hosted our lectures jointly with members of the Society for the History of Astronomy. Furthermore the day followed on immediately from a public two day conference being held at the museum on Thursday and Friday 16th-17th July 'The Long View: 400 Years of the Telescope' (external link). We were delighted that some conference delegates chose to stay on for our joint event. Indeed the overall numbers attending our event were higher.
The 2009 AGM took astronomy and the telescope as its overriding theme.
Neil Handley spoke on the changing role of 'opticians' over the years and its implication for the supply of optical goods such as telescopes.
Marcus Cavalier spoke about private aristocratic observatories and the estate staff who made astronomic observations on behalf of their masters.
A key note lecture was delivered by Dr Allan Chapman of Wadham College, University of Oxford. The full programme for the day, to take place in the Leopold Muller Lecture Theatre, was as follows:
1015 Registration and Coffee
1045 Introduction by the chairmen of the two societies
1100 A morning of Members' Talks featuring....
Neil Handley - Some remarks on the role of opticians in supplying the ‘business’ of astronomy
Peter de Clercq - Thomas Bugge’s travel journal of 1777
Marcus Cavalier - An Englishman's castle is his observatory
Allan Mills - The discovery of helium in the Sun
The image shows delegates trying out an interactive experiment to discern a helium spectrum using Dr Mills' demonstration equipment and viewing filters. Allan pointed out that the Fraunhofer lines on most spectra as viewed experimentally are far less distinct than the enhanced images that appear in physics text books.
1230 Lunch
1400 AGMs of the SIS and SHA (to be run concurrently)
A framed print of electrical demonstration instruments was presented to Peter de Clercq in recognition of his sterling work as Meetings Secretary of the Society. Although Peter is stepping down from that post it was announced that he still intends to complete the project already begun to arrange a conference in Kassel, Germany in 2010.
1500 Tea
1530 Keynote Lecture: Allan Chapman - The history of the telescope from Harriot to Hubble
1645 Close
Registration fees: £7.50 without lunch or £17.50 with lunch
Those who wished to attend only the AGM were able to do so without charge, but believe us, they missed a treat!
Conference organiser and Society Committee Member Richard Dunn was also promoting his new book 'The Telescope: A Short History' which has now been published and details of which may be found here (external link).