THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY OF CANADA
                      252 College Street, Toronto 2-B, Ontario
                      ________________________________________


                   STANDING COMMITTEE ON OBSERVATIONAL ACTIVITIES

                                    LUNAR SECTION

                                                                 Bulletin No.1

This is the promised follow-up to the Bulletin from the Standing
Committee on Observing which all Centres received last month.

As was mentioned at that time, no attempt is being made to standardise
or direct the observing activities of the local Centres. On the
other hand, many members have recently been criticising the isolation
of the Centres as far as observing is concerned. The displays of
amateur work at the last few Annual Meetings have been a beginning -
but there remains little real contact in between times, As I see
it, the job of National Co-ordinator is to keep in close touch with
each Centre, receive from them periodic reports of their activities,
and then pass on this infonnation to all Centres by means of regular
bulletins. In this way ideas for worthwhile projects can be secured,
each Centre' s observing programme can be more easily planned and
unnecessary duplication can be avoided. Furthermore, it may be
possible, it the system works Out as hoped, to provide some sort of
outlet for all our efforts in the forth of a publication of amateur
work at the national level,

I am hoping for a lively response from our various Lunar groups.
Interest in the noon is reviving at an amazing rate these days -
for obvious reasons, The field is wide and varied enough for any
taste, and useful work of some sort can be done with any telescope
from a refractor up,

For a start, I would like to hear from the member in each Centre
who has chosen or been chosen to represent the Lunar observers.
I would also appreciate any suggestions or thoughts you may have on
the problem of national Lunar co-ordination.




                                                Raymond R. Thompson,
                                                National Co-ordinator,
                                                Lunar Section,
                                 Standing Committee on Observational
                                                Activities.


Box 79,
Maple, Ontario.
7 November, 1961.