Summer Solstice 1987 No_ 55 • I~LAN H. BATrEr~ DO~lII\l Im-J ASTROPH'r'SICAL :JBSERVA I CR 5071 WEST SAANICH RQAD VICTORIA, Be "\ ' ,8 . ~ 4r-i6 "~~·'~nll'"I1'11.1 , ~-------:-----1111111.11~ C.... r; -.. -~. ~ • ' ..f) C.A.S. Board of Directors President E. Seaquist, U. of Toronto First Vice-President G. Michaud, U. de Montreal Second Vice-President M. Marlborough, U. of Western Ontario Secretary C. Aikman, D.A.O. Treasurer J. Climenhaga, U. of Victoria •o. Directors P. Martin, C.I.T.A. S. Pineault, U. Laval R. Roger, D.R.A.O. C.A.S. Committee Chairman Awards P. Martin, C.LT.A. Computing Facilities C. Pritchet, U. of Victoria Education R. Bochonko, U. of Manitoba Heritage P. Millman, H. I .A. Optical and Infrared Astronomy t. b. a. Radio Astronomy P. Dewdney, D.R.A.O. (acting) Small Grants C. Purton, D.R.A.O. Space Astronomy J. Hesser, D.A.O. Editor: Colin Scarfe .- Address: Department of Physics Uni versity of Victoria .. Victoria, B.C. V8W 2Y2 Telephone: (604) 721-77 40 FAX: (604)721-7715 BITNET: SCARFE@UVPHYS • -1- Cassio pela Editorial Tn the last issue T mad e some pessimisti c remarks concerning the jolnt meeting wi th the A.A.S . In retrospect it seems that only two of my fears proved unfounded. No. "5 Summe r Solstice 1987 The fir s t wa s that the high fees would deter many Canadians from at tending . The meeting \Jas as wel l attended by Canadians as most are , whether they are C.A.S. or A.A.S. meetings . The secolld was the reaction that I feared (" })OW cute!") to the Observatory posters. There was no r eaction at all , and indeed almost total lack of inte rest. On seve ral occasions I found the room nearly CANADIAN ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY deserted, even when the neighbouring poster hall was very c r owded. Indeed I twice found myself alone tn the r oom at such times. These SOCIETE CANADIENNE D'ASTRONOMIE results have been confirmed by other observers, and strongly s uggest that the effort of many people in preparing the posters was wasted. The title of "cllte s t poster should certainly be awarded to the University of Toront o. My main conce r n, that the C. A. S. would as an entity be nearly undetectable, was fully borne out, however, and future C.A.S . executives should be aware of this in conS idering the advisability of jOint meetings. Dead lines Nevertheless the meeting admi rably served its main purpose, whi c h Mate rial for each issue of Cassiopeia should be in the editor's was to enable astronome r s t o meet and exchange ideas face to face . It hands by the deadline published in the preceding issue. These deadlines seemed to be ve ry eff i ciently run , and the local or ganizers deserve a re normally about one or two weeks before t he appropriate equinox o r g reat c r edit fo r their attention to detail in coping adroitly with large solstice. Fo r the Summer Solstice issue, however, the deadline is t wo numbers of people. weeks after the end of the A. G.M. , if this is later than the solstice itself will allow! Colin Scarfe For the Autumnal Equinox issue the deadline is Monday, September 14. -1.. - -3- Canadian Astronomical Society/ Sociiti Canadienne d'Astronomie * AGM * June 19, 1987 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING - 1987 UNIVERSITY OF VICTORIA held during the Eighteenth Meeting of the Canadian Astronomical Society PO HO X I 7rXl VIC10RI". BRITISH COLlIMBI ·\.("-\ N.\I H V8W 2'1"2 • D ep a rlf1lt'fll of ('las .... /c ...; TLI U'Il 0NE (604 ) 7:!1-71 II . TE LEX 04Y-7222 Law Building 72H5J.1 University of British Columbia 2 9 June 1987 Friday, June 19, 1987 1. 1987 CASCA ELECTION: Ernest Seaquist, President of the Society, called the meeting to order at 14:27 PDT, Profes sor Colin Sc arfe, with about 70 members present. A final call was made for election ballots, and 148 Editor , Cassiopeia, returned ballots were given by the secretary to scrutineers Doug Hube and Jean-Rene Department of Physic s, CAMPU S. Roy, who retired to count the ballots. 2. ADOPTION OF MINUTES: Sir: Astr o ids a nd As t e rophysics It was moved by Gordon Walker, seconded by Georges Michaud that: Some time ago, you expressed puzzlement over the fact that devotees of asteroseismology have chosen t o spell their new science wi th an "e" . Pro f essor MOTION 1 Tatum asked me i f I could shed light on this conundrum, but a l as , af t er mon t hs The minutes of the 1986 Annual General Meeting be adopted as published in Cassiopeia of the most painstaking research, the ans wer remains e ssentially "not!. 51 , pageo £·£0, (1986 8ummer solstia i.8ue). The motion carried. ll Gr eek has two words f or "star : a ster (dcrr-f)p) , which gives a stero- i n compound words , a nd astr on ( ~ OTpoV ), which gives astr o- i n compounds. The 3. BUSINESS ARISING FROM THE MINUTES: first means a n individual star (usually a c onspicuous one) , whereas t he s econd Chris Aikman noted that the joint proposal (with the RASC) to feature Canadian Tl word is normally used in the plural to r efer to TIt he stars in general. This observatories on postage stamps was submitted to the chairman of the Stamp Advisory disti nct i on i s generally observed in compound wor ds ~ whether by luck or design: Committee of Canada Post Corporation on October 1, 1986. The timing of the submission thu s ast e r isk mean s " a little s t a r" , a nd asteroid "like a star " , whereas astrology , astr ometr y-:- a str onomy and a s trophysics a ll r efer to study of lithe proved to be unfortunate, since the closure of a national observatory became a political stars II i n general. So far so good , but the asteroseismo l ogists clearl y do issue only a few weeks later. Although receipt of the proposal was acknowledged in a letter not fit this pattern. Can t hey defend their spelling , or is thiS, as I suspect . from the committee chairman dated October 30, there have been no further developments. simply a case of one-uprnanship? A member suggested that perhaps this was indicative that the proposal was subsequently lost in the mail. 4. PRESIDENT'S REPORT: Ernest Seaquist noted that the past year had seen many representations by the So­ Yours sincerely , ciety to the government and the public on a wide variety of issues. As president , he had written an article challenging the federal government's undermining of basic research as J r r.~ evidenced by recent policies and NRC funding reductions; this article was carried in the Globe ff Mail in the last week of November 1986. A similar article by Georges Michaud J ohn C. Fitch was carried by Le Devoir on December 8th. A brief edited by Georges Michaud had been been submitted to the Cloutier Commission which was charged to review the impact of the JCF:an NRC budget cuts. Letters dated December 1 were sent to both Prime Minister Mulroney and Science &. Technology Minister Oberle expressing the Society's alarm over the closure of ARO and concern for the long term provision of national facilities. The content of these letters was also communicated to NRC President Larkin Kerwin. On the same date, the president had communicated to NSERC Council member John Rice the Society's concern over NSERC's proposal to replace lnfrastructure I grants (which provide support to uni· -5- - f, - Canadian Astronomical Societll/ Sociiti Canadienne d'Astronomie * AGM * June 19, 1987 Canadian Astronomical Society/ Sociitl. Ca nadienne d'Astronomie * AGM* June 19,1987 versity observatories) with a user fee policy. Fortunately NSERC has decided to continue match government funding timescales which are strongly political in nature, when the this infrastructure grant program. Soc iety as a whole meets but once a year? This consideration is of particular concern Letters were also sent in December to the Honourable Frank Oberle and Arthur Collin for major projects (those costing _$107 or more) which are visible at the political level. at MOSST and to David Low of the Interdepartmental Committee on Space urging that Addi tionally, how do we rank proposals of vastly different scale, not only among themselves, space science be a fundamental activity within the proposed national space agency, with but in comparison to existing projects or faci li ties? Although the research councils (NRC ell 15% of the agency budget being earmarked for this purpose. A reply from Minister Oberle NSERC) appear to respect the Society's advice and can deal with most proposals internally indicated that space science will indeed be an activity of the new space agency, although the and non-politically, the effectiveness of our recommendations appears to have been diluted level and form this activity would take remained unclear at this time. More recently, Ernest by our reluctance to assign ranked priorities to new and existing facilities. Seaquist and Jim Hesser represented the Society and presented a brief on the Canadian In the intense discussion which followed , it was suggested that all members, but par­ space program to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Science, Technology ell ticu larly the Board members, should maintain a ranked list of priorities in mind.