Sts 127..A unforgettable launch and mission

Hi all.

Just a note to all of you to say hello,and to say how grateful I am to all of you for your enthusiasm and interest and advise over the last 10 days.As Sts 127 draws to a close,I think this mission had more coverage and interest around the Country then the last 126 put together !! Our pictures and Video have reached Nasa,and Iam sure not long after there return will reach the laptops of the crew themselves.So dont switch off Nasa tv,always keep up with with this great subject,and fingers crossed we will all get to see this unforgettable sight one last time before the end of the Shuttle program in September of next year.

Clear skies to you all

Eamonn and Siobhan in Kerry www.space-multimedia.nl.eu.org/

Well, Eamonn and Siobhan in Kerry, thanks for starting the thread in questions! It certainly drew a lot of interest from board members and visitors alike. I guess it's proof this place does exactly what it says on the tin!

Seanie.

I'd also like to thank Eamonn and Siobhan for starting this thread. It was the first I'd heard about the SHuttle being visible so soon after launch over Ireland with the fuel tank in 'de-orbiting tow'

That same night I noticed its visibility over Ireland was also being discussed on the boards.ie astronomy forum but in a thread with the un-catchy thread title of 'STS-127-Endeavour'. Catchy to me and you but pretty meaningless to the casual browser of boards.ie. Thus I started a new thread on boards.ie Astronomy forum called, "Space Shuttle Visible Over Ireland Tonight!!!'

That title certainly got them in and the launch delays and 'Will they, Wont They' excitement kept them coming back in for the following 3 days. In the end that thread on boards.ie got nearly 700 replies, ie. 45 pages of replies and 27 Thousand views!!! It then spawned a load of other busy threads discussing the ISS flyovers over the following nights. Those threads then got several thousand views, meaing hundreds and maybe thousands more got to see multiple ISS flyovers.

I'd like to think that between your tip-off and a catchy thread title on boards.ie, we helped thousands of Irish people watch the event. Hundreds of people directly that read the thread and the 9 or 10 people each that those passed the word onto.

Traffic on the boards astronomy section was massively up for those few days and a few days after. Its dropped back to more sane levels now but still well up from what it was. Lots of people asking about scopes lately too after their interest in space was sparked by that shuttle launch.

I echo the sentiments here.
Calibos,
I can say that one friend of mine that uses boards.ie
rang me after the shuttle launch to say he had read the
message on boards.ie and was in Bantry town square for the
flyover.
He made a point of going outside from the pub he was in to see it.
As he put it,
people thaught I had lost is as I was standing there looking up
at the sky, but then people saw it and stopped in thier tracks.
He had to explain to them what it was and they were all amazed!

:silly:

He gave out to me! for not telling him!!
I had no Idea he had an interest in this kind of thing.


Thanks again y'all for posting and breathing some well needed life
back into theis fourm...
It just go's to show how important the messageboards are.