AAS Reaches out to Amateur Affiliates

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mikemarotta
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AAS Reaches out to Amateur Affiliates

#1

Post by mikemarotta »


A new initiative to include amateurs in the American Astronomical Society professional organization is being launched at the 237th Meeting, 10-13 January 2021. In 2016, Amateur status was added to the membership categories. Now, the AAS is extending its initiatives for inclusion by actively seeking engagement at the conferences. Ahead of that, an ad hoc committee of correspondence was launched by several AAS members. We held our first meeting online on 16 December.

Speaking to the group, AAS publicist Rick Fienberg underscored the fact that when the AAS was founded in 1899 a significant fraction were amateurs. However, the birth of astro-physics with spectroscopy meant that by the early 20th century the communities already were diverging. Amateurs fell away. Then, by the 1990s, amateurs were equipped with CCD cameras, spectrographs, and now are doing good science in collaboration with professionals. It made sense for the AAS to open its arms to the amateurs in 2016.

An 8 August 2018 press release said:
As long as amateurs do not depend on the field of astronomy as a primary source of income or support, they are now welcome to join the AAS as Amateur Affiliates.
Applicants are required to be a member of an affiliated organization, such as an astronomy club that belongs to the Astronomical League; the Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers (ALPO); the Astronomical Society of the Pacific (ASP); the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO); the Society for Astronomical Sciences (SAS); the International Meteor Organization (IMO); the International Occultation Timing Association (IOTA); the Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers (SARA); or the Citizen Science Association, to name a few.
Dues for Amateur Affiliates will be $52 for 2019. Inaugural benefits include reduced registration fees to AAS meetings, access to the AAS family of journals, and the annual AAS Wall Calendar. Additional programs and opportunities are expected for this group once a critical mass is established for survey and feedback purpose
Now we have 300 Amateur Affiliates. Also, the AAS recently purchased Sky & Telescope magazine. That being as it may the AAS opened the membership to amateurs ahead of a defined rationale. So, in the summer of 2019, the Board of Directors created a task force to develop a coherent set of programs and benefits.

Largely unaware of that, eclipse chaser Rik Yeames contacted some others in his circle who are looking at the 2024 events, the annular and full eclipses. Among his efforts, he has been shepherding proclamations through state legislatures in the USA to declare the 2024 darkenings special. Working within the AAS has also been part of that; and as a consequence, Rik started this group to promote Amateur Affliate status within the AAS. We met informally to introduce ourselves to each other and to discuss some of the alternatives for the future beyond the fleeting path of totality.
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Michael E. Marotta
Astro-Tech 115 mm APO Refractor Explore Scientific 102 mm f/6.47 Refractor Explore Scientific 102 mm f/9.8 Refractor Bresser 8-inch Newtonian Reflector Plössls from 40 to 6 mm Nagler Series-1 7mm. nonMeade 14 mm. Mounts: Celestron AVX, Explore Twilight I Alt-Az, Explore EXOS German Equatorial
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Re: AAS Reaches out to Amateur Affiliates

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The Amateur Affliates are holding a Meet-and-Great at AAS 237 January 11-15.
"Recognizing the increasingly important role of backyard stargazers in astronomical research, science advocacy, and public outreach, the AAS recently created a new membership class: Amateur Affiliate. Subsequently the Society became the owner/publisher of Sky & Telescope after the magazine’s former owner went out of business. As 2021 begins, the AAS has about 300 Amateur Affiliate members. Many of them, as well as many S&T readers and other amateur astronomers who haven’t yet joined the Society, have registered to attend AAS 237. If you’re among them, please join us for this virtual get-together. (Others interested in meeting an engaged group of astronomy enthusiasts are welcome too!) In addition to getting to know each other, we’ll hear from Rick Fienberg, AAS Press Officer and former S&T Editor in Chief, about how the AAS plans to bring professional and amateur astronomers closer together for our mutual benefit. You’ll also have an opportunity to offer your own ideas about how the AAS can be more supportive and encouraging to amateur astronomers." -- Read here: https://www.abstractsonline.com/pp8/#!/9243/session/594
I sent this to the six other early adopters who held a planning meeting in December.
The Amateur’s Credo

My love of astronomy is its own justification.
I am motivated to practice the science of astronomy by my enjoyment of the activity.

I choose my own research projects.
I can change (or abandon) my research programs, goals, and methods.
My funding and my spending are my own.
I schedule my own time.
I choose my own instruments and equipment.
I schedule my own instruments and equipment.
I choose when and how to share my instruments or equipment.

My amateur colleagues and I call each other by our first names. We also have cool usernames.

I do not need approval from anyone to engage in and practice astronomy.
My advancement does not depend on approval from another person or group.
When I publicize my work, peer review is after the fact, not as permission to publish.
My publications stand on their own merit, independent of my name or ascribed status.

My learning is continuous and informal, an integrated aspect of my life and lifestyle.
I decide when and how to extend my knowledge, drawing from an open market of learning platforms including self-paced and self-directed studies offered by accredited organizations. I also benefit from public libraries and bookstores. Through social media, I ask questions. My love of the learning is its own justification, motivation, and reward.
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Michael E. Marotta
Astro-Tech 115 mm APO Refractor Explore Scientific 102 mm f/6.47 Refractor Explore Scientific 102 mm f/9.8 Refractor Bresser 8-inch Newtonian Reflector Plössls from 40 to 6 mm Nagler Series-1 7mm. nonMeade 14 mm. Mounts: Celestron AVX, Explore Twilight I Alt-Az, Explore EXOS German Equatorial
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Re: AAS Reaches out to Amateur Affiliates

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Post by mikemarotta »


One purpose for the AAS to sponsor of the Amateur Affiliate Meet-and-Greet at the 237th Meeting January 10-15, 2021, was to find out from us what the AAS could do to support amateurs. I wrote this and sent it to the six of us who formed a core group ahead of the convention. I received no responses.
The AAS could actively support the amateur affiliate community with certified distance learning.

I have a master’s degree in social science (2010). I just turned 71 years of age. No astronomy department is going to take me on as a student researcher. However, I did sign up for and pay for a class in astrophysics online through edX (founded by Harvard and MIT) and presented by the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne. Should I actually do well at that, a more involved class is offered by the Australian National University.

Astrophysics is just one subject and a broad one at that. The AAS could create a series of courses that meet our needs. Our desire to understand optics is fundamental to our instruments and our activities. Amateurs who pursue spectroscopy are largely on their own, teaching themselves in isolation as they work.

Astro-photography is another example of that. Here where I live, one of our local photography stores provides a wide array of classes for those interested in weddings and graduations. However, my inquiry about astro-photography went unanswered. As amateurs we learn on our own and share our knowledge peer-to-peer. If the AAS had a structured experience, it would save us all a lot of time and effort.

The online classes that I know are inexpensive because they come with a minimum of instructor interaction, like none, actually. The advantage is that the professor does not sacrifice other obligations to students, peers, and career. In addition to the online engagements, I have three university-level workbooks. A Student’s Guide to the Mathematics of Astronomy by Fleisch and Kregenow (Cambridge University Press, 2013) is supported by a website of solved problems and other materials. If the AAS were simply to endorse that particular course, and accept some kind of automated proctoring, then there could be a certificate for that.

In his 1909 address to the graduates of Case Institute of Technology, Edward Pickering also noted the value in ribbons. Napoleon Bonaparte and George S. Patton both spoke of the value in honorary awards. I point out that soldiers are not the only ones who will exert themselves to win a strip of colored silk. Pickering underscored the fact that the tangible acknowledgement need not be intrinsically valuable; and it is better that it not be. The AAS could create more awards that recognize the achievements of amateur affiliates.

Here, too, though, we amateurs already have the Astronomical League with its dozens of programs and the certificates and ribbons that are granted for their completion. Mostly, they are pursued by individuals satisfying their personal desire for self-actualization. I never met an amateur who tallied their AL awards on a curriculum vitae.
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Michael E. Marotta
Astro-Tech 115 mm APO Refractor Explore Scientific 102 mm f/6.47 Refractor Explore Scientific 102 mm f/9.8 Refractor Bresser 8-inch Newtonian Reflector Plössls from 40 to 6 mm Nagler Series-1 7mm. nonMeade 14 mm. Mounts: Celestron AVX, Explore Twilight I Alt-Az, Explore EXOS German Equatorial
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Re: AAS Reaches out to Amateur Affiliates

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Post by mikemarotta »


(Ahead of the 237th Meeting of the American Astronomical Society, I sent this to the early adopters who formed a core group. Among them was the AAS manager for the Amateur Affiliates outreach. I received no replies.)

One of my libertarian comrades from the seventies was an advocate for a “meta-stable society.” The organization is organic and resilient, horizontal, not vertical, more like tissues and rhizomes and less like crystals. I feel that this resonates with our desires to reach out to other AAS Amateur Affiliates to provide engagement in support and valuable service, rather than marshalling them into a single-minded lockstep.

I serve in the History of Astronomy Division of the AAS. I am also a member of the Dynamical Division. It is a cliché that those who are ignorant of history are condemned to repeat it. I see that failure within the AAS vis-a-vis both amateurs and dynamics. You will find attached an address from Edward C. Pickering, “The Future of Astronomy,” from 1909.
“The work of the early astronomers was eminently practical, and appealed at once to everyone. This work has now been finished. We can compute the positions of the stars for years, almost for centuries, with all the accuracy needed for navigation, for determining time or for approximate boundaries of countries.”--Pickering
As a result of that broadly-shared assumption, celestial mechanics languished for 50 years. Then came the Space Race. Suddenly, orbits were important again. Then we began launching interplanetary probes. And now we have so much light-weight junk orbiting the Earth that non-gravitational physics is required to track it. That is one area where amateur observers can be valuable assets to professional astronomy.

Pickering identified three great advances in astronomy: the telescope, photography, and spectroscopy. As Rick Fienberg noted in our kick-off meeting of 16 December 2020, advances in technology brought photography and spectroscopy to amateurs. That was a motivation for the AAS to open up to us again after a generations-long estrangement.
“Photography of the heavens is one area of astronomy in which amateurs have made, and continue to make, significant contributions.” Alan Hirshfeld, Parallax, (page 273).
Pickering went on to make a general plea for generous funding of open research that would allow any and every talented astronomer – and he explicitly meant astronomers with PhDs in the field—to pursue whatever they want.
“Having thus considered, among others, some of the ways in which astronomy is not likely to be much advanced, we proceed to those which will secure the greatest scientific return for the outlay. One of the best of these is to create a fund to be used in advancing research, subject only to the condition that results of the greatest possible value to science shall be secured.” – Pickering.
That was also the motivation for Vannevar Bush to call for massive government funding of every possible scientific research program. But who decides what is worthwhile? Just as Planck was publishing, William Thomson said that all that was left for physics was to chase another decimal place. The best minds of Georg Ohm’s time considered him to be a fool. But how do you tell a genius from a crackpot. How do you know whom to fund and at what level?

My answer is to leave it to the individual. Amateurs fund their own research. We choose our own projects. We buy or build our own equipment. And we publish among ourselves on discussion boards, blogs, and chatrooms. We get our peer reviews after the fact, not as permission to proceed.

Even the so-called hobbyist periodicals—Sky & Telescope and Astronomy -- are generally closed to us. I understand that from their point of view. My other hobby is numismatics. I was an editor for Coin World, a weekly publication serving 100,000 readers. Just the same as the astronomy magazines, we editors did most of the writing ourselves with occasional support from a small set of approved contributors. Honestly, amateurs do not write like professionals; and fixing their middle school essays is usually more trouble than it is worth.

But with the true amateur media—the blogs, websites, discussion boards, and video channels – our observation reports, our equipment reviews, our research notes get read. And that’s the point: the scientific method requires publishing your results. We publish in chatrooms as scientists.

All of this is to speak to the reasons why the AAS can advance its amateur affiliates by giving us space to present at conferences, either live (virtually) or in print (electronically). Those media do not require the resources in hall space or publication pages needed for traditional formats. They can be open almost without limit.
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Michael E. Marotta
Astro-Tech 115 mm APO Refractor Explore Scientific 102 mm f/6.47 Refractor Explore Scientific 102 mm f/9.8 Refractor Bresser 8-inch Newtonian Reflector Plössls from 40 to 6 mm Nagler Series-1 7mm. nonMeade 14 mm. Mounts: Celestron AVX, Explore Twilight I Alt-Az, Explore EXOS German Equatorial
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