After being postponed from the previous week the Star-B-Q took place at 9:00pm on Saturday May 7.  At 2pm having consulted with the MET office and a number of other weather authorities we decided to go ahead as the night looked promising.

As usual when the go ahead is given there is a lot of preparing to do.  There is food to be washed and prepared.  Vans are packed with barbeques and telescopes etc.  Everything has to be brough up to the site. The venue, as on previous occasions, was the GAA Club Roundwood Co. Wicklow.

From 8pm nearly 200 people showed up and enjoyed barbequed food at it's best along with nearly totally clear skies.

Emlyn Jones started off the night with a terrific talk on telescopes.  His lecture was interrupted midway through as everyone was asked to go outside and look at the ISS flyby. The ISS didn't dissapoint - doing a spectacular fly past.  Later on David Moore gave his enthralling talk on the Universe.  Eamonn O'Fearchain set up an imaging display outdoors with a live spectacular video image of Jupiter on a big screen.  David Grennan had done up a night sky diary for the night which was handed out to everyone along with a FREE copy of the Hubble Telescope anniversary DVD.  

Then to the viewing.  14 telescopes were set up on the GAA pitch.  Initially most telescopes were trained on Jupiter.  After some time all started switching to other objects, nebulae, clusters, galaxies etc

 There was lots going on for everyone to enjoy and a great night was had by all.

Barbequed Food a plenty	Looking for the ISS
Activivity and food a plenty	Lining up for food
David Moore's Lecture on the Universe	Emlyn Jones's Lecture on Telescopes
The 21" Millenium Telescope	Carl O'Beirnes shows Jupiter