The Amateur Astronomers' Association of Princeton (AAAP) is a not-for-profit organization for all in the Mercer County, New Jersey, area who share an interest in astronomy. Founded in 1962, the AAAP promotes astronomy-related activities both for members and for nonmembers. AAAP is not a member of the Astronomical League, the world's largest federation of amateur astronomers.
Monthly Public Lectures and Business Meetings are on the second Tuesdays of the months from September through May at 8 p.m. in Princeton University's Peyton Hall on Ivy Lane in Princeton. Lectures tend to be by researchers at Princeton University and Princeton's Institute for Advanced Study and cover "armchair astronomy" topics unrelated to observing with the naked-eye, binoculars or amateur telescopes.
John W. H. Simpson Observatory in New Jersey's Washington Crossing State Park was constructed and is operated by the Amateur Astronomers' Association of Princeton. The observatory houses an antique Hastings-Byrne 6.25" refractor and a new 14" Celestron Schmidt-Cassegrain reflector. Both telescopes have motor-driven equatorial mounts, and the 14" is computerized and equipped for astrophotography. For convenience, the observatory has a toilet (summer use only), a heated "warming room" in winter, a computer and a telephone (609-737-2575). The observatory is open for use at anytime for any member who is a keyholder (keyholders take a short course in observatory operation and agree to accept scheduled duty on a Friday public starwatch night). The observatory is open to other members and for visits by the general public on the first and last Friday nights in March through September and all Friday nights in May and October, weather permitting.
United Astronomy Clubs of New Jersey (UACNJ) Observatory, a dark-sky observatory in New Jersey's Jenny Jump State Forest about 60 miles north-northwest of Princeton, is accessible to AAAP members because the club is a supporting member of the UACNJ. This observatory is open from mid-April through mid-October after the Saturday evening UACNJ public program, and at other times by special arrangement. In addition to the shared facilities there is a separate AAAP observatory there with a 12.5" Newtonian reflector. AAAP members are eligible to earn the UACNJ's Messier, Asteroid and Spectroscopic Certificates that are awarded to qualifying observers. For more information, contact one of AAAP's UACNJ representatives.
Member Workshops and Starwatches may include astrophotography and "star-hopping" training and an all-night "Messier marathon" in the early spring.
Sidereal Times is the official publication of the AAAP and is published 11 times annually (July and August issues are combined into a single midsummer issue). The newsletter includes club news and events, as well as astronomy-related articles by members and others. All members are encouraged to contribute, and classified ads may be placed free of charge for members selling astronomy-related items. For more information, contact the Sidereal Times editor.
Discount Magazine Subscriptions and Merchandise from Astronomy and Sky & Telescope are available through the AAAP.
Club Archives include historical records of the club, along with a small library that includes back issues of Sidereal Times and astronomy magazines, books, videotapes (including PBS series Cosmos and The Astronomers) and computer freeware, shareware and CD-ROMs. For access or for more information, contact the AAAP archivist.
Introduction to Amateur Astronomy Course is jointly held with the New Jersey Washington Crossing State Park Nature Education Center, usually on Friday evenings in autumn. For more information, contact the Nature Education Center at (609) 737-0609.
Special Public Starwatches are jointly held with the New Jersey State Museum Planetarium on Friday evenings in autumn. The museum presents special shows at the planetarium, followed by starwatches at the Simpson Observatory. The State Museum Planetarium and AAAP also join forces for such special events as eclipses, meteor showers and comets. Members are encouraged to bring their telescopes to share with visitors.
Super Science Weekend in January is an annual New Jersey State Museum event in Trenton that has AAAP-sponsored displays promoting astronomy and the club.
Jersey StarQuest is the annual summer weekend convention held in Hope, New Jersey, a dark-sky observing site about 57 miles northwest of Princeton.
School and Scout Groups and other organized groups interested in astronomy may be able to arrange a visit to the Simpson Observatory and a program by an AAAP volunteer. For more information, contact the AAAP education chairman.
Member Road Trips may be organized for members who want to travel with other members to star parties or conventions or to observe such special celestial events as solar eclipses.
In autumn of 1995 I was creating a Web page for my business, EYE ON THE SKY® News Service. I met with the executive board of the AAAP and offered to create a club Web page as a public service at the same time. The board approved this at its 16 November 1995 meeting and the first official AAAP Web page was published the next day. All code was written by hand, and the page was edited extensively in the next six weeks. I uploaded a finished version of the page the last week in December of that year (my wife, worried that we would miss our flight to England, was sitting in the car honking the horn as I was correcting coding errors and uploading the finished version of the page). I also created a page for the Simpson Observatory, weather and almanac pages for the Simpson Observatory, an on-line version of the Sidereal Times, AAAP press releases in both HTML and downloadable ASCII text files, and an on-line archive of press releases and the Sidereal Times.
In England I was able to see the page in an Internet cafe, and it drove home the concept that the "World Wide Web" was truly world-wide. However, when I returned to New Jersey I found that in my absence another club member -- who had not bothered to go to an executive board meeting for official approval -- had started his own AAAP Web page. To make a long story short, the gutless and clique-ridden executive board would not acknowledge that it had authorized this page as the official Web page, and after my request at the executive board meeting on 21 November 1996 for the board to clarify the situation it was somehow decided that the club had no official Web page. This decision was not made on the record at the executive board meeting, but instead was made sometime after the meeting and then publicly announced by the president at a club meeting (which is how I first found out about the decision). The executive board never clarified whether or not the club had ever had an official page (which seems clear in the minutes of the November 1995 executive board meeting) or, if this page was being de-certified as the official page, the reasons why such action was justified. After my company's donation of several thousands of dollars worth of professional services to this organizaton, to this day there has been no apology or explanation on the record for this action, or even whether or not such an action was valid according to the club's constitution and by-laws.
I am no longer a member of the AAAP. I couldn't take the back-stabbing, the cliques that are allowed to operate without regard to the club's rules, and the officers so cowardly, inept, incompetent or indifferent that they allow this state of affairs to exist. Unfortunately, such disgraceful behavior continues to occur; in October, 2000, the club attempted to hijack this 5-year-old site by sending e-mail to Webmasters at pages where it's linked claiming that this page had been "updated" to the URL of their new page (I received the mailing only because I'm a webmaster). It was at that point that I decided to add the history of this Web site to this page. Why do I still operate this page? Pride of authorship is one reason. A lot of work went into this page, which has operated at the same address for more than seven years and is one of the oldest New Jersey astronomy club pages on the Internet. Another reason I continue to maintain it is that there are a lot of good people in the club, and if you're willing to put up with (or work to change) the BS, there are some good reasons to join the club as I've outlined above. Another reason this page still exists is because potential members have the right to know what they may be getting into. I strongly encourage you to take a close look at the advantages and disadvantages of being associated with this club before joining and financially supporting it. Oh yeah, I should mention that the AAAP is now unnecessarily shelling out hundreds of its members' dollars every year to another Internet service provider when it had this Web site donated for free. What goes around, comes around -- it's called karma, and it's a mistake to pretend you're not answerable.
P.S. In July, 2002, in a move that would make the Politburo proud, the AAAP posted its revisionist history on the Web
"3/96 Comet Hyakutake begins its fine apparition. Dan Benedict and George Lewicky launch AAAP homepages on the Web."apparently pretending that the November 1995 Board approval and launch that month of this Web page just didn't happen. But it did, folks, and ignoring it isn't going to change that fact.
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