Skelligs Star Party 2015, August 14th to 16th Ballinskelligs

On behalf of the Skellig 5, as we are now known thanks to Kim Smith, can I thank each and every person who made the trip down to SSP2015. We really think we hit our stride this year and hope that everyone enjoyed themselves. I think we all made some new friends, ate very, very well and enjoyed some top class astronomy. All 3 talks (and the one Nick did on Friday), just brilliant. I think we saw a star in the making in Brian. Everyone was talking about how professional his talk was. I really think Kim could have spoken for another 2 hours, her enthusiasm for her subject was infectious.

A big shout out to Freda and her staff for the lend of her Lodge for the few days. Lu Lu for the cakes, yummy! Collette and Geraldine and the NIAAS lads for Roy's cake. And the Cables guys for the use of the room and the PA.

So onto 2016, we have taken the feedback many of you gave us and decided to move the party back a week in 2016. Its an awkward month for the new moon, which happens at the start of August when its too bright and early September when the kids are back at school for many of us. So we are going with the 26th - 28th August. This will give us a few hours of moonless skies each night before the last quarter moon comes up in the small hours.

In the next few days we will have an announcement on the details of next years event. We have a few surprises in store. So Stay Tuned.

Sounds like it was a great couple of nights. Clear skies 2 years in a row, you couldn't ask for more. It's great to see so much of an interest & people travelling to dark skies for observing. IMHO that's what it's all about.

Big thanks to everyone involved in the organisation of the weekend. It was a great success, looking forward to next year's event already

Below is a brief guide of what to expect sky-wise next year (Times are approx).

Sunset will be at 20:40, with Astro twilight ending at 22:50 and not starting again until 04:30. On the night of the 26th/27th, the waning crescent will rise at 00:45, on the following night it is 01:30.

In terms of the planets on view - Mercury will be too low to be seen, Venus and Jupiter set 30 mins post sunset. Mars sets at 23:30 with Saturn leaving the scene at midnight. Uranus rises just after 22:00 and Neptune rises shortly after sunset.

There will be no "major" meteor showers visible, but we can always expect a few sporadics/minor shower activity. There will hopefully be the usual ISS/Iridium and general satellite activity. Tiangong 1 may be visible again.

In terms of comets nothing standing out at this very early stage but to quote David H Levy "Comets are like cats; they have tails, and they do precisely what they want" - so who knows!