Well, we all had a good night alright.
We had an excellent night looking at the Moon first. at 112X, we could see the craters Aristarchus and Herodotus reasonably close to the terminator. But was particularly stunning was Vallis Schroteri (Schroter's Valley) north of Herodotus. Then very much closer to the terminator was Mons Rumker. I have only seen this feature twice before, and it is quite majestic at 112X. Also at about 9.55, the Gibbous Moon occulted Rho 1 Sagittarii. It is a 3.9 magnitude star.
Secondly, we observed Saturn which was positioned just over the infamous Esso garage with all its lights on. Still we endured it, and at 167X I could see Titan, Rhea and Dione.
Object no.3 was Mizar and Alcor at 40X and 112X.
Object no.4 was the Coathanger -wonderful at 11X in the guidescope and 40X in the Main scope.
And lastly, Albireo at 11X and 40X. Orange and blue alright.
Many people stopped by -including 1 Chinese girl from Wuhan -who observed the Total Solar Eclipse in 2009! She remembers it very well.
I would like to thank Val and his daughter Tia for joining me also. Val had his 8" Dobsonian and a refractor. Of course, Liam was brilliant answering all the difficult questions that people throw at us.
And I would also like to thank a couple who stayed with us for over an hour to the very end. Ciaran and Agnes who loved every minute of their time with us!
According to our Orbit magazine, the next time we are down at Sandymount is on Friday the 5th September -when we do it all again!
Aubrey.
