Mars Tonight

So anyone headding out to Wicklow tonight and want to arrange a meeting point or shal we all go on merry dances around the various car parks in the wicklow mountains?

Cheers,
~Al

hi Al,

and there was me trying to be first to post in the new forum!!! I'm still using the Columbus method of typing -- discover and land!

am heading down to John Nooney's observatory in Clonkill outside Mullingar tonight with a couple of others. He has a public open night there and we're showing videos, have a slide show maybe as well, and a few scopes available for people to see the planet.

I've been telling people I know to have a look for Uranus too ... it's only just over two binocular field-widths from the Red Planet. I think that's a far more personal goal -- to see an object that maybe even only 10% of amateur astronomers have ever seen.

some nice finder charts for Uranus on the www.astronomy.com website

will probably be heading to Wicklow though this weekend ... drop me a line at my Jefferson work mail with your contact number.

John

I've been telling people I know to have a look for Uranus too ... it's only just over two binocular field-widths from the Red Planet. I think that's a far more personal goal -- to see an object that maybe even only 10% of amateur astronomers have ever seen.

Cool ... how bright is Uranusat the moment? I followed it in Binoculars a few years ago, Ishould really try for it again.

I had no idea it was such a seldom seen object!

I guess as a person who has seen Uranus in Binocculars, Mercury with the naked eye and a total solar eclipse I am a member of a very small percentage indeed!

Bart.