Up: Astronomy-related organizations over the

2 The maps

We are presenting here the maps (drawn via IDL) that appeared to be the most interesting. Others can be produced of course and they can be requested from the author.

2.1 General distributions

At the time of writing, there were about 6050 entries in the master files, out of which about a thousand were simple cross-pointers. Thus the total number of effective organizations gathered together was about 5050.

The total number of positions available from the files amounted to 6616, including the positions registered by the organizations themselves (basically those used in Heck 1998b). For the record and as background references, Figs. 1 to 4 give the overall world distribution with blowups for Europe and North America, together with a stereographic view from the South Pole. These are all the geographical locations recorded in our files, what we call StarGuides/StarWorlds' world at the end of March 1998.

$\begin{figure} \centering \includegraphics [width=12.5cm]{1548f1.eps}\end{figure}$

Figure 1: StarGuides/StarWorlds' world (see text)

$\begin{figure} \centering \includegraphics [width=12.5cm]{1548f2.eps}\end{figure}$

Figure 2: StarGuides/StarWorlds' world -- European blowup (see text)

$\begin{figure} \centering \includegraphics [width=12.5cm]{1548f3.eps}\end{figure}$

Figure 3: StarGuides/StarWorlds' world -- North American blowup (see text)

$\begin{figure} \centering \includegraphics [width=12.5cm]{1548f4.eps}\end{figure}$

Figure 4: StarGuides/StarWorlds' world -- Stereographic view from the South Pole (see text)

However there are only 4125 different physical locations. For the sake of legibility of the maps, the size the symbols (asterisks) has been kept the same, even if several points were superimposed. Some cities however present a significant concentration of entries such as (by decreasing order) Paris (79), Washington, DC (65), Tokyo (50), London, UK (49), Tucson, AZ (37), New York (34), Boulder, CO (31), Moscow (29), Cambridge, MA (27), Brussels (25), Pasadena, CA (25), Roma (22), Houston, TX (21), just to take those over twenty occurrences.

Thus Paris ranks first and a blowup centered on France (not reproduced here) shows also a very strong concentration around Paris itself (the "Île-de-France'' region) - another illustration, if needed, of the French centralization. Locations are more spread out in countries such as the UK and Germany for instance.

The largest concentrations of astronomy-related organizations are located in Europe and the USA (Northeast and California), with a few nuclei in Japan, Australia, New Zealand, India, as well as a few spots in South America. This is consistent with and reinforces what was already appearing from the observational activities only, although with some nuances as it will be seen later on.

Before going on to more specific distributions, it seemed interesting to have a look at the distribution of organizations who have already a site or at least pages on the World-Wide Web (WWW), about five years after this medium started spreading quickly over the world. Our master files have also reached an acceptable maturity and exhaustivity in this respect with about 5000 URLs since quite some time already (a figure which is only very slowly increasing now compare with what was happening a couple of years ago). This corresponds to 3417 organizations.

Figures 5 to 7 give the world distribution of entries offering WWW pages, with enlargements for Europe and North America. It is striking how France, Spain and Portugal have significantly much lower densities than their European neighbours, obviously lagging behind as to the penetration of the WWW.

2.2 Specific distributions

As in Heck (1998b), it seemed appropriate to sort out the entries in several basic categories: institutions, public observatories, planetariums, and finally associations. The first one is clearly related to professional astronomers. The latter ones deal mainly with amateur astronomers and the grand public. They have strongly similar educational missions. They could of course be merged for a statistical investigation such as the current one, but it should be kept in mind that public observatories and planetariums have a more official structure and a better stability (mainly because of the buildings, equipment, and personnel involved) than most associations, the nature of which is consequently different.

$\begin{figure} \centering \includegraphics [width=12.5cm]{1548f5.eps}\end{figure}$

Figure 5: World distribution of organizations with WWW pages (see text)

$\begin{figure} \centering \includegraphics [width=12.5cm]{1548f6.eps}\end{figure}$

Figure 6: European distribution of organizations with WWW pages (see text)

$\begin{figure} \centering \includegraphics [width=12.5cm]{1548f7.eps}\end{figure}$

Figure 7: North American distribution of organizations with WWW pages (see text)

2.2.1 Professional institutions

Out of a total of about 1800 institutions registered at the time of writing, we retained 1155 city reference positions corresponding to those who clearly indicated a definite research activity in astronomy. As in the previous study, some borderlines had to be adopted and we did it by making the best usage of the registered profile of activities and of the information provided by the organizations themselves (as part of the authentication/verification process, we request a report of activities). Figures 8 to 11 give the world distribution of all astronomy-related institutions with enlargements for Europe and North America, together with a stereographic view from the South Pole.

$\begin{figure} \centering \includegraphics [width=12cm,clip]{1548f8.eps} \vspace{-1.5cm}\end{figure}$

Figure 8: World distribution of institutions (see text)

$\begin{figure} \centering \includegraphics [width=12cm,clip]{1548f9.eps}\end{figure}$

Figure 9: European distribution of institutions (see text)

$\begin{figure} \centering \includegraphics [width=12cm,clip]{1548f10.eps}\end{figure}$

Figure 10: North American distribution of institutions (see text)

$\begin{figure} \centering \includegraphics [width=12cm,clip]{1548f11.eps}\end{figure}$

Figure 11: Southernmost distribution of institutions (see text)

2.2.2 Public observatories

There were 329 city reference positions in the master files registered for public observatories. These are institutions set up specifically to deal with the public at large (and thus they do not include professional institutions that might be occasionally or routinely open for public visits). Figures 12 to 14 show the world distribution of public observatories with enlargements for Europe and North America.

$\begin{figure} \centering \includegraphics [width=12cm,clip]{1548f12.eps}\end{figure}$

Figure 12: World distribution of public observatories (see text)

$\begin{figure} \centering \includegraphics [width=12cm,clip]{1548f13.eps}\end{figure}$

Figure 13: European distribution of public observatories (see text)

$\begin{figure} \centering \includegraphics [width=12cm,clip]{1548f14.eps}\end{figure}$

Figure 14: North American distribution of public observatories (see text)

2.2.3 Planetariums

There were 464 city reference positions registered for planetariums in the master files. Note that there is definitely some overlap with the previous category as planetarium buildings are often hosting observing facilities and as some public observatories host also a planetarium. We also included here planetariums of educational institutions (universities, high schools, etc.) when used for public shows. Figures 15 to 17 show the world distribution of public observatories and planetariums with enlargements for Europe and North America.

$\begin{figure} \centering \includegraphics [width=12cm,clip]{1548f15.eps}\end{figure}$

Figure 15: World distribution of planetariums (see text)

$\begin{figure} \centering \includegraphics [width=12cm,clip]{1548f16.eps}\end{figure}$

Figure 16: European distribution of planetariums (see text)

$\begin{figure} \centering \includegraphics [width=12cm,clip]{1548f17.eps}\end{figure}$

Figure 17: North American distribution of planetariums (see text)

2.2.4 Associations

We could use up to 1150 city reference locations for the astronomical associations registered in the master files, which is more than four times as much as in Heck (1998b) where again only the locations of observational activities were considered. Figures 18 to 20 show the world distribution of associations with enlargements for Europe and North America.

$\begin{figure} \centering \includegraphics [width=12cm,clip]{1548f18.eps}\end{figure}$

Figure 18: World distribution of associations (see text)

$\begin{figure} \centering \includegraphics [width=12cm,clip]{1548f19.eps}\end{figure}$

Figure 19: European distribution of associations (see text)

$\begin{figure} \centering \includegraphics [width=12cm,clip]{1548f20.eps}\end{figure}$

Figure 20: North American distribution of associations (see text)

2.2.5 Other distributions

There is of course the possibility to draw geographical distributions for all the categories of entries mentioned in Sect. 1, but we retained only two that seemed appropriate in this study: astronomy-related publishers and software producers. Figures 21 to 23 show the world distribution of astronomy-related publishers (202 positions) with enlargements for Europe and North America. Figures 24 to 26 give the same for astronomy-related software producers (181 positions). These distribute generally commercial products. Specific software packages developed in scientific institutions were not considered here.

$\begin{figure} \centering \includegraphics [width=12cm,clip]{1548f21.eps}\end{figure}$

Figure 21: World distribution of astronomy-related publishers (see text)

$\begin{figure} \centering \includegraphics [width=12cm,clip]{1548f22.eps}\end{figure}$

Figure 22: European distribution of astronomy-related publishers (see text)

$\begin{figure} \centering \includegraphics [width=12cm,clip]{1548f23.eps}\end{figure}$

Figure 23: North American distribution of astronomy-related publishers (see text)

$\begin{figure} \centering \includegraphics [width=12cm,clip]{1548f24.eps}\end{figure}$

Figure 24: World distribution of astronomy-related commercial software producers (see text)

$\begin{figure} \centering \includegraphics [width=12cm,clip]{1548f25.eps}\end{figure}$

Figure 25: European distribution of astronomy-related commercial software producers (see text)

$\begin{figure} \hspace*{3cm} \includegraphics [width=12cm]{1548f26.eps} \parbox[]{18cm}{}\end{figure}$

Figure 26: North American distribution of astronomy-related commercial software producers (see text)

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