ASTRONOMY RIP-OFF IRELAND DOES IT AGAIN

Another AI rant..get over it..thats old news! :bricks: Well if you bought a proper telescope it would not fall over :stooges:

:lol: :lol: wish I had come up with that one.
My question goes unanswered, maybe I should start a rant :rant:

Pat_Dunne wrote:

GLIESE 581G wrote: 50 EURO TO LOOK TROUGH YOUR OWN TELESCOPE
AND YOU HAVE TO PAY FOR THE FOOD THATS
THERE AS WELL YOU WOULD THINK THAT COMES
WITH THE PRICE WELL YOU TAUGHT WRONG
AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST WHY DONT YOU BRING
THE KIDS SO THEY CAN KNOCK OVER A TELESCOPE
AND SMASH IT AND ANNOY YOU ALL NIGHT
THATS NOT INCLUDING 15 EURO FOR PETROL
FOR YOUR CAR TO GET OUT THERE THATS IF
YOU HAVE A CAR NO THANKS DAVE I HAVE THE
MONEY IM JUST NOT PAYING IT.

I started to read this post and I said to myself, someone having a go here fair enough. However having completed the full text, I just hung my head in despair

What a truly miserable so 'n so you are!

I wonder if Gliese knew what kind of Starparty this was going into it. This isn't one of those starparties like Cosmos or the Burren Starparty nor like the starparties you read about on the UK and US astroforums. This is a Income generator for Dave...cough I mean fundraising event for AI Its an outreach event where the public pay for the priviledge of looking through a scope with a burger in one hand and a plastic cup of lemonade in the other. Its not a starparty for amateur astronomers to get together and do serious observing. Its also not the same kind of outreach event where 200 people attend, listen to some speakers in the Glendalough visitor centre, then view the glorious heavens at the upper lake for a few hours and don't have to put their hands in their pockets once. Then again, their not provided with a burger and lemonade. That said, maybe the mobile vendors should be on call for the Glendalough events and the burger and coke would cost a fiver instead of 40

Or maybe Gliese knew all that and is just a bit peeved that he had to pay into the event like everyone else even though he was providing his own time and telescope for free. He's just lucky he must own an ATM scope or a Celestron or else he wouldn't even have been allowed in and would have been told to turn the car around.

Someone who won't tolerate the presence of kids full stop is a miserable so and so alright but I don't think someone is a miserable git just because he was upset by out of control unruely kids knocking over his expensive equipment.

Calibos wrote:

Pat_Dunne wrote:

GLIESE 581G wrote: 50 EURO TO LOOK TROUGH YOUR OWN TELESCOPE
AND YOU HAVE TO PAY FOR THE FOOD THATS
THERE AS WELL YOU WOULD THINK THAT COMES
WITH THE PRICE WELL YOU TAUGHT WRONG
AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST WHY DONT YOU BRING
THE KIDS SO THEY CAN KNOCK OVER A TELESCOPE
AND SMASH IT AND ANNOY YOU ALL NIGHT
THATS NOT INCLUDING 15 EURO FOR PETROL
FOR YOUR CAR TO GET OUT THERE THATS IF
YOU HAVE A CAR NO THANKS DAVE I HAVE THE
MONEY IM JUST NOT PAYING IT.

I started to read this post and I said to myself, someone having a go here fair enough. However having completed the full text, I just hung my head in despair

What a truly miserable so 'n so you are!

I wonder if Gliese knew what kind of Starparty this was going into it. This isn't one of those starparties like Cosmos or the Burren Starparty nor like the starparties you read about on the UK and US astroforums. This is a Income generator for Dave...cough I mean fundraising event for AI Its an outreach event where the public pay for the priviledge of looking through a scope with a burger in one hand and a plastic cup of lemonade in the other. Its not a starparty for amateur astronomers to get together and do serious observing. Its also not the same kind of outreach event where 200 people attend, listen to some speakers in the Glendalough visitor centre, then view the glorious heavens at the upper lake for a few hours and don't have to put their hands in their pockets once. Then again, their not provided with a burger and lemonade. That said, maybe the mobile vendors should be on call for the Glendalough events and the burger and coke would cost a fiver instead of 40

Or maybe Gliese knew all that and is just a bit peeved that he had to pay into the event like everyone else even though he was providing his own time and telescope for free. He's just lucky he must own an ATM scope or a Celestron or else he wouldn't even have been allowed in and would have been told to turn the car around.

You know what I have never read such a complete pile of BULLSXXT in my life. Why don't you keep that sort crap on boards.ie because no one wants to here it.

This will be my final post on this topic, as there is an obvious in house political undercurrent to some of the posts here.

I went along to the event in Roundwood on Saturday night and thoroughly enjoyed it. What made the night for me was the reaction of the kids looking through the scopes, they were all well behaved and each and everyone of them thanked the telescope owners. I personally didn't see one child misbehave or make a nusisnce of themselves on the night.

Oh yeah, forgot to mention that the spit roast pork was the biz, as were the very interesting talks given by Dave Grennan (sorry we all ran out to see the ISS) and Paul Abel.

When is the event in Glendlough taking place, would love to go along.

Carl is clearly upset by your post Keith and I must admit I am too. Like many people, I have issues with AI but having been there last night (unlike you) I an quite annoyed by your ill informed and unwarranted post.

Let me tell you what you might have seen if you had have been there.

You would have seen that people who payed their 39euro (and those who booked before July 31st) and only paid 29euro, were well fed with not just burgers, but with a magnificent hogroast, chicken fillets, hotdogs and so much more I can't even remember it all.
You would have seen a Sky at Night presenter wow the attendees with a wonderful talk.
You would have seen the special area set aside for kids, with facepainting and special talks just aimed at the youger set.
Later you would have seen lots of telescopes not just celestron. I saw at least on LX200 and a couple of skywatcher scopes.
There was lots more happening too but then you didn't see any of that because you wern't there.

Do you think for one minute that all of the above can be provided as a free event?

Most importantly, you didn't see the couple of dozen people (both AI staff and volunteers) who worked their back sides off to make it happen. You didn't see the people who did bring their own telescope and wern't asked to pay a penny to be there.

Here's a quote from an e-mail I received this morning from a gentleman who was there;

"My son ***** (age 14) and I were at the Star BQ last night and thoroughly enjoyed the evening. The talks were good fun and very informative. The stands interesting (my young fella kept the Rocketry guys busy for about half an hour) and the telescope work afterwards was amazing. Great evening and well worth the money."

You mention some of the other great events like Cosmos and Burren. These indeed are wonderful events. But every one of these events have overhead costs and as such need to have an attendance cost too. All of these events charge a fee around the same cost as Star B-Q. They are absolutely right to, these things cost money to run. I know that the Burren event this year is a bit different due to the lack of funding.

I summary Keith, you are entitled to your opinion. I am also entitled to point out that I find your post downright offensive, innaccurate and wholly ill-considered.

Dave.