Nationwide Moon Watch
Locations Nationwide
Listen to David Moore speak about the Moon Watch on radio HERE!
Stylised image of the Moon and the Pleiades
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On Thursday, March 11th, 2011, Astronomy Ireland held a successful Nationwide Moon Watch in locations around the country. Here are the reports from various locations; please check back for more as they come online!
Louth - Seabank, Castlebellingham
With cloudy conditions through most of the day, which thickened to give some light rain at about 5pm, prospects for a successful Moon Watch in Louth were not looking great!
Indeed the latest satellite images at 6pm, showing quite extensive high cloud cover extending from the west, did not add to my optimism.
However, despite the trends and forecasts, the skies suddenly and unexpectently cleared just after 6.30pm and remained so until our watch had ended.
Approximately 35 people attended the Louth Watch at Seabank where they were afforded excellent views of the moon through the 6 telescopes that were available. These telescopes included refractors, newtonians, dobsonians and smith-cassegrains, ranging in size up to 9.25 inches. As always, special thanks go to those who kindly brought their telescopes and made the evening more interesting and enjoyable - Thomas, Caeilte, Ray and Lavelle, Brendan and Kieran.
Having viewed the moon we looked at the Orion Nebula and then Saturn (and it's moon Titan) which had just risen above the Irish Sea to the east. For those who had not seen Saturn and its ring systems before, this proved the most exciting part of the evenings viewing.
In addition to the above I give a tour of the constellations and prominent stars using a beam projected from a powerful laser, and 5 meteorites were also seen.
The event finally ended just after 11.20pm
An excellent night all round!
-- Derek Watters, Louth Coordinator
Kildare - Athy
Just home from Athy watch which lasted for 2 hours. Reasonably good skies were to be seen. A crowd of about 25 attended over the 2 hours to see such wonderful sights as the craters on the Moon, polaris as a double star, Orion Nebula and later on Saturn low in the east. By far the most successful watch in Athy to date with many hearing of the watch on the local radio. Thanks to all who attended and were so courteous while waiting their turn to look in the scope.
-- Dermot Gannon, Carlow/Kildare Coordinator
Dublin - Phoenix Park
About 100 people braved the cold weather and were simply amazed by the features on the Moon. Having spoken to a few people, this was the first time many of them had seen such sights, and they were stunned! There were a number of telescopes present, each focused on a different portion of the Moon at varying magnifications. Some were also trained onto the Pleiades star cluster, which was placed beautifully just above the Moon. David Moore gave an interesting talk about the Moon and the Pleiades, while Tony Ryan gave a laser-guided tour of the night sky, pointing out some of the more fascinating objects that can be seen. A great night was had by all, and we look forward to the next Watch!
-- Conor Farrell, Dublin Coordinator
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Check out this stunning 576Megapixel image of the Moon!
If you are interested in running a Public Watch in your area for Astronomy Ireland, please let us know.
Click HERE to see a list of other exciting Astronomy Ireland Events coming soon.
