Galway Astronomy Fest January 25/26 2008

We get some beautiful skies and a Hell of alot of cloud too at other times thats why were the Cloudiest city in Ireland. Lots of times driving towards Galway from Home its clear in Mayo but cloudy over Galway. But the view from Spiddal or Ougtherard on a clear night is spell bounding, like west Clare or Kerry.

We will have a B&B list up soon of places near the Hotel in Dangen. As Mathew said the Hotel will also do a special deal.

You can see the NUI Observatory on Google Earth at 53'17' 11.30 N and 9'03'57.43 W. Hope that makes sense. Hotel is large Building "up" the road and left.

Ronan Newman
Galway AC

www.galwayastronomyclub.ie

What i would like to ask is how far would people really be prepared to travel to get to one of these wonderfully dark places around Galway?

I am enquiring about a secure location about 12 miles North of the hotel and past Moycullen on the same road actually (N59).Too far?

But has potential to be very dark under clear conditions, just hope people dont mind being out in the dead of winter and in COLD conditions?

Ronan Newman
Secretary
Galway AC

If the weather was good, then I'd be ok to do this small journey.

Ronan,
My view on it would be that whether it's 5 miles or 15 miles out the road, it still involves hopping in the car and heading away from the hotel. So, if we are gonna be driving otu the road anyway, it's better to go the extra couple of miles and have really dark skies to make the trip worthwhile.

Well everyone ..Good news

Just confirmed a venue at Roscahill ,sky is unpolluted by lights , and there are several suitable places on site where we could set up our telescopes within easy reach of the their car park. It is also an easy run from the Westwood Hotel - about 20 minutes.

And keeping on an astronomical line here we can do the observing on a Calendar Sundial there which is the biggest in the country, and tells the time as well as the date - as it is a flat, paved circle about 15m in diameter.

Ronan Newman
Secretary
Galway Astronomy Club

Sounds good Ronnie, now all you need to make sure is that the clouds are kept at bay.