IFAS Astronomer Of The Year 2008

Fair lay lads, well deserved indeed!

This is a really great honour and I just want to say thanks for all your kind words.

As it happens, I only just found out in the last hour or so - things have been a bit hectic work-wise for the last few weeks so I've been unaccustomedly deprived of participating in the boards as much as usual.

Anyhow, I rang Dave G up and we gave each other a few mutual (figurative) backslaps. Of course, Dave is absolutely delighted as you can expect and as he deserves to be.

I think that its also fair to mention Andreas Doppler (who also happens to be mad busy at work) - he was an instrumental part in both discoveries and certainly deserves credit too. So I'm sure the three of us will have a wee dram to celebrate over the Holiday Season.

Lastly, as I have always maintained, all of the work I have done (and I'm pretty sure Dave G will agree) is a testament to all ye folks too. All those tips, encouragement, answers to difficult questions that you gave have played their part. Also, the enthusiasm at the various talks we've done over the years has made its mark and driven us to these achievements. So, a big thanks to you all for both the award and for playing your part getting us there.

Dave McD

Wow, that is utterly stunning and totally unexpected.

I am deeply honoured by this award and also humbled to be joinly awarded this along with Dave Mc. To be honoured like this by your peers is, to my mind, just as exciting as the discoveries. Its funny that this should happen to day as I've just been talking with Dave Mc and we were both bemoaning the fact that both our 'rock hunting' setups are experiencing technical gremlins at the moment.

I know there are people out there day in day out (or should I say night in night out) who are doing the real work of IFAS which is public outreach and to my mind these guys are my IFAS astronomers of the year not just this year but every year.

Deepest thanks to the committee of IFAS and to all those who nominated us for the award and also many thanks for the preceeding kind comments.

I'm certainly looking forward to the International year of astronomy and hoping that it will be the best year ever for Irish astronomy and for IFAS. I'm sure Dave and myself and all of the people involved in amateur science will continue our efforts and hopefully a few more of you will think of joining us and thus help keep astronomy at the forefront on this little island.

Well done. Great achievementB)

Well done Dave's!

Seanie.

Congratulations to both of you. Well done !!