3 Comments

When dealing with this kind of statistical distributions, it is important to refrain from pushing the analysis of the data too far and to stay at an appropriate level: a global analysis, rather than a location-per-location perusal.

Apart from strong densities in Europe and the Eastern half of the U.S.A., the most striking feature - common to all categories - is the desperate emptiness of most of the African continent. A similar comment is also of application to quite a number of the so-called third-world countries. This was already an important conclusion of the previous study and it is reinforced here since the maps have been obtained with much larger samples.

The general aspects of the corresponding distributions between the various categories considered in this study are similar, with some nuances though.

As far as professional institutions are concerned, we see also a reinforcement of the nuclei of the previous study, albeit more spread out and with the disappearance of typical observing stations (in Antarctica, for instance). The concentrations of institutions in areas such as Paris, Moscow, and so on, are clearly noticeable.

The samples of public observatories and planetariums have to be compared to the combined corresponding sample in the previous study, but the total size here would be about three times as large as in Heck (1998b) where only the locations of observational activities were used. There is also a reinforcement of the tendency noticedto 11.5cm in Heck (1998b): a much higher density of points in the Netherlands, Germany and central European countries. This confirms what we identified as a cultural component or a result of deliberate national policies.

As to associations, the maps show a dramatic reinforcement of locations in countries such as Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and so on. This implies that the average associative activity profile is significantly away from observing. Not too surprizingly, the US nuclei are located in the Northeast and California, together with a definite one in Washington State.

Concentrations of astronomy-related publishers are to be found in and around London, Paris, Amsterdam, with some others in Germany and of course in Northeastern USA and California.

If the sample of astronomical-software producers is the smallest one (thus requiring more caution in statistical interpretation) and if the US pattern is what can be reasonably expected, the European distribution is extremely surprising: mainly along a line from Dublin to Budapest.

Acknowledgements

We are very grateful to all persons and organizations wo contributed over the past quarter of the century to the very substance of the master files used here by returning the questionnaires, by providing the relevant documentation, by participating in the various procedures of maintenance, validation and verification of the information, or otherwise.