Announcement J62

I thought it was about time to join Dave Mcs club. It was certainly a coincidence when I read the piece in A&S about your news brief and then checked my mail and found this other news.

Tonight, I just got confirmation from the Minor Planet Center that Kingsland Observatory is officially been given an observatory code J62.

I got some measurements of a few minor planets over the last weeks. In fact I got a number of measurements of 3 of them in the constellation Leo and submitted them last week. When I didn't hear anything, I thought they must have been botched up. Dave Mc, I remember you said you got a response within hours. However, I did check the residuals and they were good. The MPC came back tonight apologizing about the delay.

Dave, thanks for blazing the trail for all of us. I hope others on the board will take up the gauntlet.

Eamonn A

Congrats Eamonn!

So, over the last few months the number of Irish Obervatories has doubled! Can we keep up this great rate of growth I wonder!?

Bart.

Eamonn - that's brilliant news! Well done indeed - I'm delighted for you. Can't wait to see you up there in lights on the code list And you won;t have to type you lat/long into the ephemeris page ever again - J62 will do the trick

I think the MPC response is very dependant on their workload - they do slow down on dishing out codes when the moon is out of the picture (they get loads of observations coming into them at that time). I think its just a matter of timing.

I'd say the MPC is delighted too that Ireland is starting to build up a portfolio of observatories - I really hope some of the other folks here give it a lash - you really can do it you know. Don't think for a second that you need the kind of kit that Eamonn and myself are fortunate to have - you don't. You do need patience and perseverance though. I'm sure I speak for Eamonn when I say you all now have two 'veterans' you can utilise

Once again Eamonn - hearty congratulations on a job well done. I'm sure you're very proud.

Dave

Well done to Dave and Eamonn, two "stars" of Irish Astronomy!

Congratulation Eamonn

Well done Eamonn.