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Report on the Nationwide Venus-Moon Watches 27 February Plus Saturn and Comet Lulin!
(Images and reports from branches below)
2009 is the International Year of Astronomy, and here is a report one of the many events being run by Astronomy Ireland.
Venus, the Moon and Jupiter as observed on December 1st 2008 (photo by Deirdre O'Moore)
Click on the above images to view full-size versions (credits: Keith Geary and David Moore)
Carlow
no report received as of
yet
Cavan
Clear for Moon and Venus. Unfortunately
nobody showed up.
Clare:
Angus Sealy sent in this report:
The "Watch" was held for the first time at a new
location - St. Michael's Community College, in Kilmihil, Co. Clare, and this
was announced in the school for anyone interested. About a dozen people turned
up altogether, hoping to see some sights through the 8.75" reflector and
8x56 binoculars I had set up. Although there was nearly continuous cloud,
there were some breaks in just the right location, and everyone there got at
least one good view of a magnificent crescent-phase planet Venus through the
telescope, and enough glimpses of the Moon to see the Moon/Venus
configuration. The first person to get a good view of Venus commented, "I
can see the Moon". I said no, that's Venus! There was a lot of interest
in future events, so I think this was an excellent start to the International
Year of Astronomy, 2009, in County Clare.
Cork
Martin Lynch reported:
About a dozen people showed up to the Cork watch on what was
largely a dull night. Some travelled fro as far away as
Clonakilty. The clouds cleared for about 10 - 15 Minutes and everybody
got lovely views of the Moon and Venus so a successful night was had.
Donegal
Seamus Byron reported
Location: Letterkenny 100% Cloud cover
0 turned up
But at least it was not raining :-)
Dublin:
DUBLIN REPORT: Big crowd,
tiny breaks in clouds
After a huge amount of media publicity all day,
and all week, we had a large crowd of about 200 people in the Phoenix Park.
Lots of magazines were sold, everyone was urged to join the society, at
least one new member signed up on the spot, and loads of people joined our
emailing list. There were two 11-inch and one 9.25-inch computerised
Celestron telescopes (C11-S GT, CPC 1100 GPS, and CPC 925 GPS) as well
as a few others and binoculars up to 25x100mm in size. An introductory
speech was given all about Venus, the Moon, their closeness and future
viewing prospects, Saturn, and Comet Lulin as well as the David
Southwood lecture on March 16. Unfortunately the Moon and Venus did not
pop out from behind the clouds which was a pity as RTE's 9 o'clock TV news
asked for photos so they could announce the Venus-Moon conjunction on their
top rating news show. Still, a great night was had by all and lots of people
were introduced to the hobby.
(All images courtesy of Patrick O'Leary)
Click to Enlarge
Limerick
Gerry Raddie Reported
We had total cloud cover over limerick for the
evening but about 25-30 people turned up over the period of two
hours and seemed happy enough to look at the "ONE"
telescope that we had there. Sold 10 copies of the magazine and
got a couple of e-mail addresses for the mailing list. Also seemed
to be a good interest in the evening classes all 30 application
forms were taken. Pity about the cloud.
Louth:
Derek Watters reported
Dull grey clouds hung over Co Louth
all day. The forecasts earlier in the day had promised some
sunny spells, especially in the east and south, but these did not
materialise. After sunset the weather actually worsened with light
drizzle descending on our viewing location. As a result only 2
turned up. No viewing took place.
Mayo
Paul Gannon reported
Small
turnout in Castlebar, Grey skies and rain kept those that turned
up last time away. Cloud did break but only 10 people waited. Lots
of confusion about the venue.
Sligo
Patrick Rolleston
reported
From 6 to 7.30 Venus & the
crescent moon went in and out of the
clouds, then nothing. But an enthusiastic group of about 7 people with 3 telescopes.
Waterford
Samantha Clooney
reported
The
Waterford Branch had a good turnout on Friday with a lot of people
turning up, even though we had grey skies; we had an interesting
talk from Emmet. Although the weather was very bad on Friday
we had arranged to go out again Sunday with the hope that we would
see something and weren’t disappointed! We got to see
quite a lot on that night and have generated a very keen interest
from a lot of class members who were saying they would like to
make it a more frequent event.
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