Shannonside Astronomy Club GAM observing session, Friday16th

Hi,
SAC are holding an observing session on Friday 16th, 9pm onwards at O'Callaghans strand, Limerick as part of the Global Astronomy Month.
We'll have the club scopes and some members will bring their scopes along also, bring yours along if you like.
This is a good opportunity to see some of the planets and some of the brighter deepsky objects, chat about astronomy or whatever aspects of it that might interest you.
It's a free event and open to the public.
see www.shannonsideastronomyclub.com/
All are welcome

The weather is looking good for this, so we're going ahead as planned, see you there!

All I can say is WOW, what a night!
We had prestine clear skies here in Limerick, some people asked if the volcanic dust from the Icelandic volcano would be a problem when infact it has actually helped us due to the complete absence of any contrails in the sky, and not a cloud in sight.!!
Over the entire night we must have had over 150 people come along to the event with well over 100 there at one stage!!!
This was an amazing turn out and shows what some proper advertising can do for us.
We started out at 8.30 and everyone there had views of the thin cresent Moon through the clubs 12" Dob and Venus through clubs 10" Meade SCT.
The views were steady and everyone was happy.
Later on as the Moon set, we set the 2 telescopes on Saturn and again everyone got fantastic views of Saturn and its moons Titan, Tethys and Rhea, the rings were very nice also.
Later we swung the scopes over to Mars and despite its small size and it been past its best, everyone got enjoyable view of it.
Some people brought along their own scopes and we helped them in setting them up and how to use them.
By 11.30 people were starting to melt away and we finished up at midnight,














Our riverside location with the newly refurbished riverside walkway with seating, railings and bins is definitely working to our advantage despite the lighting and a few trees.
I think everyone attending got a great views of the planets and Moon, its an event we're definitely going to run again!
Many thanks to all in SAC who made this event possible!
For more information see.
www.shannonsideastronomyclub.com/ and on facebook
www.facebook.com/pages/Shannonside-Astro...omy-Club/99044545822

Great work guys, you managed to get some crowd there and I hope they all went home happy.

Paul

Nice report Dave.
Ya, we were utterly blessed with the weather!

Along with all the papers running an article beforehand
and some local radio stations calling the club
to find out more with even Lyric FM picking it up
it turned out to be a brilliant night.

We had handouts all about GAM and the what the sidewalk astronomy
event was all about (which we ran out of quickly) along with
GAM / IFAS stickers and cards.

We contacted all the schools in Clare, Limerick and Tipperary
along with the Colleges and a great number of the attendees
were kids with thier parents.

I'm not joking when I say we at one stage needed croud controll!
:laugh:
There were so many people around the scopes that it was hard to move.
The queue was half an hour long from end to getting to the scope
and some re queued to get a second and third look.

Thanks has to go to everyone on the committee
that pitched in along with some
club members bringing thier own scopes.

We'd also like to officially wish John O Mahony
a bon voyage and happy life down under and
many thanks for his donations of gear & books to the club.

It would be fantastic to see GAM becoming more engrained into
the astronomy calander year and having May Global Astronomy Month
every year!

Wonderful , delighted for you all. Great to see so many turning up for your event.
I love when that happens, its a great buzz for the astronomers and the crowd.

Global Astronomy Month will be an annual event. The contribution from Shannonside and other Irish clubs
is an outstanding platform to move forward in this worldwide effort to bring astronomy to the people.


Deirdre Kelleghan
GAM 2010 Coordinator Ireland