Meridian

Meridian is the complete operating system for an amateur astronomical society and its hilltop observatory. It is drawn in the idiom of 19th-century engraved celestial cartography — Bode's Uranographia, Jamieson's Celestial Atlas, the plate-engraved charts of the Royal Astronomical Society: a hairline right-ascension and declination grid with real tick marks, an SVG stipple field for the sky ground, the Plough drawn in single-weight line with leader-lined copperplate italic labels, engraved-rule dividers with a compass rosette, drop-capped editorial columns, and ruled ephemeris rows in monospace numerals. The whole celestial plate is inline geometry — no images — and the hero flows into horizontal-scroll observing-session panels, one per session night, with snap and keyboard support.

Behind the sign-in the society actually runs. Telescope Booking offers slots on the 14-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain, the 10-inch Newtonian on its Dobsonian mount, the 4-inch apochromatic refractor and the H-alpha solar scope, each night carrying moon phase and illumination, astronomical twilight start and end, forecast cloud cover and a seeing estimate in arcseconds. The Observing Log records target, instrument, eyepiece and magnification, filter, transparency 1-5, seeing on the Antoniadi scale I-V and sky quality in magnitudes per square arcsecond, with a sketch plate per entry — M31 Andromeda, NGC 7000, Saturn at 0.4-degree ring tilt, Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks. The Sky Quality Register tabulates SQM readings by date and site with a trend and a light-pollution note. Member Progression tracks observing certificates — Messier 110, Herschel 400, Lunar 100 — hours at the eyepiece, mentor and whether the member holds a key to the dome. The Outreach Programme rosters school visits and public open nights with expected attendance, scopes assigned, volunteers and a weather contingency.

A template for societies, clubs, guilds and member organisations that run real facilities, real progression and real rosters.