SAC Burren Star Party 2014, September 26th-27th

No problem Seanie and Neill,
We set up at around 7pm, , not a cloud in the sky, it was a super night, we had over 30 at it and there was a great selection of scopes to see through, thanks to everyone who came and made it a great night, we'll try again this evening, meeting at the hotel at 7 and heading to site if it's clear.

How was the mag -7.9 flare? Must have been super bright.

Great night. One of the busiest (thanks to good old Facebook) but one of the most relaxed and enjoyable IMHO.
By 9 the Carpark was full. Thanks to all the committee for being there early to set the place up!
A huge thanks also to the Daverons of Caherconnell Stone Fort for ringing around to get all the area to go lights out.
amazing the difference that makes in an already dark sky site!
Certainly one of the better years for club attendance. Almost all the club showed up with scopes and there was a great spread from the country
(one gang that arrived at 11 - Spanish I believe? I thought they were just lost tourists but they
actually drove up from Ballyvaughan when they heard it was on)
One man drove down - and back up - from Dublin!
Another couple arrived in a motor home. (very nifty! sneaky cups of tea we're had id say)
a good turn out of photographers. Mental note, must bunch them all together next year
It was great to see so many young people.
There were so many people pointing out stuff at one stage it looked like a scene from StarWars with all the lasers.
(sorry astrophotographers! lol)
A very sociable event. Fair play to Dave L for being so generous with his views through his 20".
I was giving folks views through the club 12" Dob and then they were treated to comparative views through the 20".
(I think there are a lot of people who will no longer be happy with their gear!! lol)
We got through a bucket list of objects starting with Saturn as it set- very surprising it was decent enough quality for so low Down.
then onto the deep sky stuff as we got fully dark.
Milky Way horizon to horizon. you couldn't ask for better. Oh and yes Neill the flare was awesome!
There was a shout out a min before it flared and then a lot of wow's when it did. it was a big hit as you'd expect from
the general public and the kids. (even the big ones like us )
By 11/12 most of the casual attendees had gone leaving the usual bunch of late nighters.
we packed it in at 3 as Orion was rising due to clouds.
Typically as we had all finished packing up it cleared again so we stood about chatting for another god only knows how long.
already Can't wait for next year.

here's a few quickly processed snaps. (done on ipad so they'll prob be a little dark on a PC screen.)

Sounds like it was a great night!

Out of curiosity, did you folks spot a reasonably bright meteor just after midnight towards your south?
It would have happened at 00:12.
I picked it up on my all-sky meteor camera.
It flew right over counties Limerick and Kerry.

Frank_Ryan_jr wrote: Great night. One of the busiest (thanks to good old Facebook) but one of the most relaxed and enjoyable IMHO.
Another couple arrived in a motor home. (very nifty! sneaky cups of tea we're had id say)
a good turn out of photographers. Mental note, must bunch them all together next year
There were so many people pointing out stuff at one stage it looked like a scene from StarWars with all the lasers.
(sorry astrophotographers! lol)

.)

Good point about the astrophotographers. We are not the most sociable bunch when we are engrossed in catching photons, especially when there is an issue with the mount or camera :evil:
At most starparties they usually put the dedicated astrophotographers on a separate field away from lights and lasers. A suggestion would be to use the ring fort car park for the dedicated imagers.
A great night on Friday. Well done to the organisers.
I decided to stay in Ballyvaughan on Saturday night (as the forecast looked crap) and have a nice Italian meal and a few dwinkies - very pleasant indeed. Did you get any seeing last night?

Quick snap attached of NGC 7000. Canada was destroyed by the death ray :laugh:

www.flickr.com/photos/7703127@N07/15195219937/

oops, sorry again bout that John,we're going to have to re-think the laser policy for next year and come up with a plan. We need to put in a minimal use rule for lasers or something like that..
Is that a small meteor or satellite to the lower left ?
Totally agree with you Frank, thee best and enjoyable session in recent times, we had alot of members at it and alot of locals and not so locals there also, like you say that's why alot of lasers were used. This wasn't so much an issue in previous years as the general public would come and go, but this year alot of people hung around for literally hours and got many great views, I think this is a testament to how enjoyable it was and how much craic was going around.
Getting the woow reaction by the newbies to some of the objects through the scopes was great
@Michael, we saw several meteors, I personally didn't catch them all as my eye was burried in a eyepiece for alot of the night.
The iridiums were awesome !!!
We got in alot of globular clusters, open clusters, planets Uranus and Neptune and planetary nebulae.
Getting in the M13, helix, veil and soap bubble nebulae were my lighlights of the night
Looking forward to next year already !

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