Bob O'Brien, Paul Cahill, Liam Smyth and myself met at the Martello Tower at Sandymount last Friday night between 9 and 11.30pm for an amazing night -for me it was a historic night. Many people stopped and looked to what we were observing with our 2 telescopes. Liam brought his 12.5" GoTo Dobsonian and I had my 6.2" refractor. We only looked at 2 objects, and they were the 7 day old Moon and Saturn; although Liam had a quick look at Epsilon 1 & 2 Lyrae. The Moon though made our observing session worthwhile. The 100 km walled plain Plato was on the terminator. We could see the rim completely illuminated. However the Sun was causing amazing shadows to appear on the floor of Plato on the western side of the plain. This was truly spectacular! Also the 58km crater Eratosthenes was right on the terminator. Its rim was lit up too and its floor was immersed in darkness. Rupes Recta (The Straight Fault) was just inside the terminator. I have noticed over the years it is rare to see the fault when the Moon is 7 days old.
It seems my telescope is working alright. I was able to make out 5 moons of Saturn at 90x. They were Iapetus, Titan, Rhea, Tethys and Dione. This week Saturn's rings are at their tightest tilt of the year -less than 1.6 degrees.
Lastly, all four of us are hoping to meet up again at the same place next month to observe the Moon again. I thank God for these dramatic observations.
Aubrey.
  