This was a highly successful event, fully up to the standards of the 1992, 1994 and 1996 symposia. The papers were without exception well prepared and well presented. The speakers kept to their allotted times and ample time was allowed for discussion and questions.
In the opening address I mentioned how pleasing it was to see so many old friends but how much better it would have been if there had been a larger number of newer members. There were, however, a sprinkling of young people and I am sure that they benefited from the proceedings.
As can be seen below, amateurs were well catered for and in fact I was asked by the technical organiser to help to emphasise the amateur side of astronomy. The papers are marked "A" and "P" for the benefit of Canopus readers who do not know all the speakers.
| P J W Menzies | The PLANET Project |
| A Brian Fraser | The Lameia Occultation Event and Minor Planet Occultations. |
| P Case Rijsdijk | Alexandrian Astronomy |
| A Maciej Soltynski | The Discovery of Cataclysmic Variables |
| P AP Fairal | The Cosmic Egg |
| P RS Stobie | SALT - Current Status |
| P DAH Buckley | Science with SALT |
| A Chris de Villiers | Digital Encoding of Co- ordinates on a German Equatorial Telescope Mount |
| P DM Kilkenny | R Coronae Borealis Variables |
| A Jan Hers | Discussion on Amateur Variable Star Observing - Visual or CCD? |
| D O'Donoghue | Astroseismology with the Whole Earth Telescope |
| T Lloyd Evans | A red Variable |
| Ethleen Lastovica | Thomas Maclear - Astrologer Royal |
| A Danie Overbeek | Detection of a Stellar Gamma Ray Flare with Amateur Equipment |
| P D Smits | Multiwavelength Radio Observations of the Maser Flare in Mon R2 |
| A Cliff Turk | Running a Public Observatory |
| A Tim Cooper | The ASSA Observations of Comet Hale-Bopp c/1995 O1 |
| A Andrew Gray | History of the Durban Observatory |
| Poster papers: | |
| A Hugh Lund | Amateur CCD Observations of a Contact Binary |
| A Richard Wade | Preliminary Report of Research into Archaeoastronomical Aspects of Great Zimbabwe |
| P Tom Lloyd Evans | Visual Light Curve of R Lep |
| A TP Cooper | Observations of Lunar Eclipses (1) and (2) |
| A TP Cooper, MD Overbeek and J Smit |
The 1993 Superoutburst of the Cataclysmic Variable OY Carinae |
| A D Toldo and MD Overbeek |
Solar Flare Monitoring at Edenvale, RSA |
A period was set aside for poster presenters to discuss their posters. Many questions from the floor demonstrated that posters are an effective means of communication at symposia.
I hope that the above will give the Johannesburg Centre a yard- stick to use, should the Centre decide to present national event in the next century.
Danie Overbeek.
( Danie is, of course, currently chairman of the ASSA Parent body
)
The Editors
What say, Jo'burg Centre, why not set up the last ASSA
Symposium of the 20th Century up here in Johannesburg. We're sure you'd be able to
hold a symposium that would be memorable.
The Editors.