Society Members
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At the annual meeting held on May 21, 1941, the Society decided to publish a quarterly cyclostyled journal. This was named Starry Pages.
As the 1939-1945 war continued, the policy of holding meetings had to be abandoned and the Journal was the sole activity for several years. The Society was effectively in recess during 1945 and 1946.
On April 16, 1947 an Annual General Meeting was held and the Society began to function again. However, the old observatory was dismantled early in 1947 and the new committee spent much time on ways and means of building another observatory.
Starry Pages resumed publication and membership again rose to 47.
Starry Pages Vol 1 No 1
OPEN NIGHTS AT OBSERVATORY: Owing to a temporary shortage of demonstrators (and to decreased attendances of the public in the blackout) the open nights at the Society's Observatory in Symonds Street, have been temporarily discontinued.
J L Stichbury
I became involved in the Society from Otahuhu College where the late Mr R D Thompson had a hobby astronomy class going.
When I left school in May, 1945, I joined the New Zealand Society because the Auckland Society at that stage was in recess. It had been in recess for several years although there was a telescope (in an observatory if you could call it that-a sliding shed something like a railway truck) almost on top of where the motorway now goes under Symonds Street.
By the time I got a list of members in Auckland , contacted Mr Ron McIntosh and he put me in touch with the University and Professor Burbidge, the shed had disappeared.
But from that stage on things started to move. I think that unwittingly I provided the tool for the elders who had hoped to get things going again but had not had the opportunity, and I was fresh from school with a bit of spare time. We called a meeting of those interested, had an annual meeting, got the Society functioning again, started to have regular meetings, and membership started to creep up (there might have been 30 at the first meeting.)
Interest grew faster than we had expected. We started to produce a magazine (The Amateur Astronomer) and about a year after we got going I got a group of secondary pupils interested and we started a junior astronomical society that eventually functioned virtually on its own, and very well.
About this time it was discovered that a property which had been given to the Society could be realised and the money invested as a basic deposit for starting a fund appeal for an observatory if we became incorporated. We were therefore incorporated in 1948. Things blossomed after that. An eclipse of the sun gave us very good publicity as did a very active sunspot cycle. But we hadn't got to the stage where we felt we could go out and even approach people for money.
During a sunspot cycle in the late 1940's we had a series of auroral displays which were visible in South Auckland and were even visible right in the middle of the city. I was living at that time at Patumahoe and a farming acquaintance rang me up one evening about 11 or 12 o'clock at night and said: "I have just been outside and the sky was all red". It was a beautiful aurora, the one time I can honestly say I have seen a full ray display. It was seen all over Auckland. People rang fire brigades because it was so brilliantly red.
We were trying at this stage to get permission to put and observatory on top of the Auckland War Memorial Museum. That got us interested in whether we could finance it and this brought up the idea of the bequest in Onehunga for which we got about £1350. And that is how it all started.
An indication of the activities of the Society at about this stage, and perhaps an eye opener on the amount of support received is given in the following list of Society Meetings in 1949-1950:
May 18, 1949 Film evening 120 present
June 15, 1949 Juniors' contribution 40 present
July 20, 1949 "Meteors in Upper Atmosphere" by Ron McIntosh 50 present
Sept 21, 1949 "Thrills with a 3inch refractor" by L R H Beaumont 50 present
Oct 19, 1949 Annual Exhibition and Conversation Meeting 38 present
Feb 22, 1950 Field Night 36 present
March 15, 1950 Discussion on Telescope Making 55 present
March 24, 1959 "Graphical Methods in Astronomy" by A P McKenzie 30 present
April 19, 1950 Annual General Meeting 36 present
The average attendance was approximately 45.
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