With regret

Astronomy & Space ltd is a limited company chaired by David Moore, while Astronomy Ireland is registered with the CRO as a dissolved limited company. The blurred line between the club/society and the company is one of the main problems with the group. The shop is often described as the club's shop (even though members get no discounts or benefits from their supposed ownership of said shop), and the same is true for the magazine. Membership seems to give you a subscription to the magazine and nothing more. In that case it seems that the club itself is meaningless, as all it does is provide content for the magazine. This is an awful pity as the club could be something spectacular. Astronomy Ireland is non-profit (it's dissolved - it cannot make a profit) while details at the CRO show that A&S ltd makes a healthy profit.

Membership figures are unbelievable. I could, perhaps, possibly in the most non-litigious way, question the truth behind these numbers. Canada has a population of 17,200,000. The Royal Astronomical Society of Canada has 4,500 members - that's .025% of population. We have less than a quarter of the population, therefore we could expect 1,000 people to be interested in amateur astronomy. Is there something special about us and our island that would have so many people bucking the trend? I doubt it.

Don't forget, this Christmas, to buy a Celstron scope, cos everyone in Ireland buys Celestron and they all buy from Astronomy Ireland. (A dissolved and non-trading company)

But you know what? AI have a ton of members. And they seem to be surviving and putting in some great work to promote Astronomy in Ireland.

As I posted before, I found out early this summer from a reliable source that OFFICIALLY, there were 384 paid members to Astronomomy & Space Ltd (still known as Astronomy Ireland for some reason) up to that time.

This 8,000 members figure Mr. Moore often posts Dave is a total headcount of all members of AI since it started in 1992/3. TAS currently has about 40 members this year so far, but we could also say we have about 1,300 members (since our inception in 1986).

Think about it... 8,000 members, most of them in Dublin actually, and only 220 average people attend a Star-B-Q??

I will add too, Dave, that I am glad that IFAS has helped you in the 2 weeks since you have 'joined'! Its a beneficial free-for-all, no strings attached... as long as you buy at least 1 Celestron C11 telescope from at least 1 IFAS club in a 3 month period...



Seanie.

please feel free to use. p.s. If you would like an article written for your clubs magazine or to have a talk from someone about light pollution please let me know.

Al,

as you are giving an ILPAC talk to TAS in January, would you like to submit an article for Realta's December issue to preceed it? Or an edited piece of the pdf you posted here?

We have had some interest in Realta that 2 local shops have offered to put it onto their shelves, and the local paper, The Tullamore Tribune, wants to do a full page spread of the club in the coming weeks. It could be some free publicity for ILPAC?


Seanie.

Shane, Michael - seems I've swallowed the coportate line... AI claim huge numbers of 'members' and I wholeheartedly agree. For my 40 quid I get a mag a month and a constant bombardment of emails telling me how I should the premium phone line to see if the ISS is about. Oh, and pop into the shop to buy stuff. And come to the lecture next monday - discounts for 'members'. And come and buy half-price books from the shop - phone the premium phone line to see what's on offer and check the website.... Get my drift?

I get annoyed at the constant 'sell' with very little real astronomical content and don't start me on the star-b-q......

All this said, guess who was on RTE radio this morning being interviewed about the aurora? DM. You can't deny that as far as publicity goes, AI seem to have the lion's share. For example, I only came across this site a few weeks ago - I didn't know IFAS existed! AI is everywhere! But I guess with full-time employees or whatever they can devote the time to nurturing their market share.

So - can IFAS change this? Having read various posts here but still blind to history (the big split) it seems that for amateur astronomy to grow in Ireland, without the hard sell, there has to be some kind of action. Do IFAS have a plan? And the more I read, the more what you say Shane about moving forward seperately seems to make the better sense.

However, I'm a mere proto star

I'll reiterate what I said before though:

1. I want to see my hobby serviced
2. I will do whatever I can to help

By the way, this is a great web-site - well, its getting there. Far better than another I could mention....

Dave

Seanie - how about a quality 4 or 5" refractor on a quality GE mount & tripod with an electronic focuser and CCD? I'm in the market ...

Dave

I am glad that IFAS has helped you in the 2 weeks since you have 'joined'! Its a beneficial free-for-all, no strings attached... as long as you buy at least 1 Celestron C11 telescope from at least 1 IFAS club in a 3 month period...

Seanie - how about a quality 4 or 5" refractor on a quality GE mount & tripod with an electronic focuser and CCD? I'm in the market ...

Dave

Sorry Dave, that doesn't sound like we are doing you out of enough money... :lol: But try the A&S Shop, they might have something.... or Andromeda Optics - they WILL have something CHEAPER!




Seanie.