NLC 2009

[Bill W]

Dear All,

Although NLC observing is not quite an "astronomical" science it's close enough for me!

2009 is the International Year of Astronomy and to celebrate there will be a NLC observers meeting held in Glasgow. The target time will be September/October. The exact dates will depend on feedback and chosen so as not to clash with other planned meetings around this time.

This will follow in the footsteps of the successful NLC 2006 meeting.
I will be working on the details over the coming months so stay tuned.

For those who missed NLC 2006 the event was based around the twin threads of some speakers and a fantastic international display of photographs.

This is an opportunity to get together and review the previous few years efforts and meet up with fellow observers.

If you have any idea's/suggestions or would like to give a presentation then get in touch.

Let's hope summer 2009 provides more cracking results.

cheers,
Bill.

[johnm]

Bill,

Not sure how to finance it but it would be a good idea to get a couple of professional speakers - suggestions would be someone from the AIM project and or one of the ISS astronauts such as Don Pettit who has an interest in NLCs.

Regards

John

[Bill W]

Hi,
Rather sadly, there is not much of a chance of that.
When I organised NLC 2006 it was essentially an amateur get together and I think it'll need to stay that way as it is simply a matter of resources.
Given the relatively small number of people who would attend it wouldn't come anywhere near enough to cover big costs. (Around 30 in total last time)
The Scottish Astronomers Group paid for the cheese and wine and I'm hoping something similar will happen again but there may need to be a small cover charge this time.
It all a matter of what people are prepared to COMMIT to.
50 people paying £100 might get you a couple of international speakers (assuming they don't charge an additional fee) and a venue for a weekend plus some catering. It is astonishing how expensive it is to go to the next level! The travel being scheduled tends to be much more costly as we're not talking a package holiday.
It's also not going to get any cheaper the way things are going.
Without serious backing (unless someone can offer some commercial sponsorship. I am open to any offers) it'll need to be a bit more modest.
We'll see how things pan out, it's well over a year away and things will firm up in due course.
You never know I might be inundated with those offers!
Bill.

[leolion]

Hi . Bill , was the 2006 NLC Meeting a 2 day event at the Mills Observatory in late August ? I missed that one as I was over at a meeting in Leiden.
Is there no legacy NLC work at Aberdeen now since the late Mike Gadsden passed away that may provide a speaker ?
A 2 day weekend meet would be worthwhile and possibly covering both NLC and auroral observation as this could expand the audience and speaker range somewhat . Look forward to hearing more,
Len E

[markt]

Thanks for the heads up Bill. It's certainly something I would like to come along to. As soon as you have definite dates if you could let us know here it would be great so I (and hopefully others) can get pencilled into the diary

[Bill W]

Hi Len,
Yep, that was the one I organised.
I think there are a few pictures of it floating around...

I try to keep it single topic as although the results end up with the BAA, Tom runs the website/nlc forum as an entirely separate and independent entity.
As contributors come from all over I tend to look at the NLC observers group meetings as similarly independent simply for practical reasons.

There are other events organised by Dave G. whom I'm sure you know who, cover aurora etc. He is organising an event for the autumn so such things may be covered there. Keeping it separate is just a way to ensure that there isn't too much un-necessary duplication. It's also maintains a degree of reasonable control as the last thing I want is just a mish mash trying to keep everyone happy.

As far as I know there hasn't been any further work done from Aberdeen. I think Dave and/or Ken still place records with Aberdeen for archiving though.

I'll need to see what develops as I/"we" are resource limited.
cheers,
Bill.