Next SDAS Meeting 3rd February 2005 and Club News

Our next speaker will be Brian Keane, President of the Irish Astronomical Society.

Brian's talk is titled "Space Collectables" and is about space memorabilia that is available to collectors.

Some examples he will bring along include meteorites, space mission patches, rocket models, a limited edition watch issued for the Apollo programme, and much more. T

he whole area of space memorbilia is a fascinating subject as we would all like to have a unique personal souvenier reflecting our interest in space exploration.

Also we'll do an observing session at Cloon Wood on Friday, February 11th.

The arrangements would be to ring either myselfe or John Flannery between 5pm and 6pm on the night (at 086-8181931) to confirm if it will go ahead in case of bad weather. We would then meet at 8pm at the Monument in Enniskerry.

If Friday night is bad, then the same arrangements apply for Saturday. People can ring a couple of days beforehand if they would like to offer/need a lift out to the site.

Finally Terry Mosely, David Bell and a few others are organising a trip to Turkey for the Eclipse in 2006 and I've pasted below the latest alert from David.

I have some information and will photocopy it and have it available for the meeting on Thursday.

See you all there in any event.

Also remember it's free to members and non members and all are welcome.

"

To all

From Terry Moseley and David Bell

TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE, TURKEY, 29 March 2006

Terry and I are posting this to as many IFAS club-members as we have email addresses for, and we would ask you all to disseminate it as widely and as quickly as you can within your clubs, and publicize it in whatever way you can to those who don't have email access (See below for our reasons in wanting to conduct these arrangements by email only)

It is by way of being an alert to all those who might be interested in going to Turkey in 2006, under the aegis of the Irish Federation of Astronomical Societies, to see the total eclipse.


We are at last making progress in putting in place the arrangements for such a party, due almost entirely to the Terry's efforts, with some helpful input from Valerie Canty of the Cork club. Terry has put in a great deal of research, and the results look very encouraging so far.


As Terry says, if you have never seen a total solar eclipse, you haven't lived! It cannot be described, only experienced!

This eclipse will be the last total solar eclipse visible from anywhere not either incredibly remote, expensive, cloudy or dangerous, until 2017, when there's one visible in the USA. So if you want to see a total eclipse at a reasonable cost in even the medium-term future, this is your LAST CHANCE! The eclipse track starts in the S Atlantic, runs diagonally across N Africa, and exits that continent in Libya. It then crosses the Mediterranean without touching land until it reaches the S coast of Turkey, east of Antalya. It then crosses Turkey diagonally, crosses the Black Sea, & ends in an inaccessible part of S Asia.

So the only practical observation sites are Turkey & Libya. We decided against Libya on grounds of extra cost, possible political complications, & extra travel difficulties.

The weather prospects in that part of Turkey at that time of year are about 70%, SO THERE IS NO GUARANTEE OF SUCCESS! But the prospects for the IAA trip to Bulgaria in August 1999 were also only about 70%, and it was a total success.

We have chosen Antalya for several reasons:
1. Although not on the central track, even in Antalya the duration is 3m 10s, which is almost a minute more than we got in Bulgaria. So we would get a good view even from the hotel.
2. Being based in Antalya gives us the option to travel either East or South to get to, or very nearly to, the central line, to maximise the viewing time - 3m 49s in both cases. See also 4 below.
3. Since it's not the main tourist season, it would be better to be in a fairly big city where there will be many more facilities open, and more to see & do, than in some of the smaller resorts such as Manavgat, which are much closer to the centre line.
4. At Manavgat, for example, it would be a much longer journey to get to the more SE location to view the eclipse, if the weather prospects looked better there on the day.
5. There is a much better choice of hotels in Antalya.

The eclipse will take place on Wednesday 29th of March, and the bottom line is that at this stage it looks as if a week in a 4-star hotel in Antalya at that time in Turkey, Saturday to Saturday or Sunday to Sunday will cost about £400 sterling, 600 euros or a bit more for a 5-star hotel, B&B or half-board, per person sharing, including flights from London, transfers etc, but excluding insurance, which is mandatory. There would of course be a supplement for single occupancy, & reductions for children. The tour operator chosen will be fully ATOL and ABTA bonded, so the total package will be secure from that angle. We haven't quite settled on this yet, so I would caution you all that closer examination might force a re-appraisal to a slightly more expensive package.

There are no package operators in Ireland, North or South, who offer flights at this time as it is outside the tourist season, so the flight will be from London, probably Stansted. (If anyone knows different to this, could I ask you to get in touch with me as soon as possible?) This means that we will have to add the cost of a return flight from Dublin/Belfast/Shannon/Cork/Galway to London, and given the real possibility of a delay, and the admittedly remote possibility of a SERIOUS delay, I feel that this should be booked for the day before, thus necessitating the expense of an overnight stay in London, thereby adding about £50-60 sterling, 80-90 euros to the cost. Another option being considered would NOT involve an overnight stay in London, but that option is not confirmed yet.

We will NOT be making arrangements for your journey to London for the flight to Turkey, nor return to Ireland afterwards. That will be ENTIRELY your own responsibility. We simply could not enter into arrangements for all the possible flight options from Belfast, Cork, Dublin, Galway, Shannon, let alone smaller airports such as Derry, Kerry, Knock, Sligo, Waterford, etc!" Cheap flights are available to London if you book early

Another slight downside is that since the event falls outside the tourist season (who arranges these things anyway?... I reckon somebody should have a word...) there might not be the usual tourist trips and activities, and this is one of the reasons we have settled on one week rather than two. However through the good offices of Valerie down in Ballincollig, we are in touch with a Turkish tour operator who we hope will be able to lay some things on for us. Such activities would be optional, and at additional cost.

We should have firm figures soon, hopefully in no more than 2 or 3 weeks, and this is where I come into the picture...

Terry has done all the work so far, but it will be down to me as Chair of IFAS to collate a list of participants, arrange for deposits, and ultimately the balance, to be paid to the IFAS Treasurer. Here is the present and future likely program.

As I mentioned above, I want to conduct this entire venture by email. Apart from the sheer convenience of it, the main reason is that I can easily put together a database which can be sequentially updated from the initial interested parties, through those who actually confirm their interest by paying a deposit, to the ultimate fully paid-up list. For security, and in case I should fall under the wheels of the proverbial bus, I can then share this list with other individuals who could, in such an event, take over the reins. I know that far from all club members have email access, but I feel that it is perfectly feasible for the individual clubs to arrange for someone who has such access to act for those who haven't. I would also suggest that each club keeps a record of its own members who have registered, and henceforth occasionally double-check that no-one has slipped through the floorboards. In fact it might be a good idea for all applications to be channeled through one person, but I will leave that up to the individual clubs. It would not be an onerous task.

So the first thing I want to do is put together an initial list of those who are SERIOUSLY interested. Now I realize that not everyone can commit themselves this early in the proceedings, and due allowance will be made for this. But since we will be using the numbers as a negotiating factor with the tour operators, the last thing we need is outright tyre-kickers. Send me your name and Club affiliation and any other details you feel are relevant. If you know someone else who doesn't have email, but would like to go, arrange to have a SEPARATE mail sent on their behalf. (NOTE; in the event of numbers exceeding capacity, IFAS club-members will take precedence over those who are not) Since your computers might, on extremely rare occasions, break down or act up, you will find my phone number below, so you will be able to check on your application's progress that way.

This list needs to be put together as soon as possible, because as I mentioned above, it looks as if we will be getting down to brass tacks with the tour operators in 2 or 3 weeks. The reasons for the urgency are obvious. First of all, the operators and hotels will soon realize that they will be able to charge a premium at the time of this eclipse, and secondly all the reasonably priced accommodation will soon fill up. We expect at least 70-100 to go on this trip.

As well as actual numbers, we need to know whether you will require single or double occupancy, or whether you would be prepared to share with another member of the same sex, to save costs, and the ages of any children who would be going, as at 25 March 2006.

We envisage asking for a deposit of about £100, or 150 euro, per person, as soon as the price & flight & hotel details are confirmed. This will be non-refundable (unless the whole deal falls through from the travel operator's end). The full balance will become payable 10 weeks before departure.

To sum up, I'll need:
Full names of all intending participants, with postal and or email addresses,
Ages of any children (under 16) at 25 March 2006,
Whether you want a double/twin/single or family room,
If going as a single, whether you would be prepared to share,
If there is a choice, whether you would prefer the 4-star or 5-star hotel, the latter at a slightly/moderately higher cost.

DAVID: NOTES:

1. Your hotel prices for an overnight in London were far too high: you can get rooms for £40-50 per person in a 3-star hotel, or even £50-60 for a room with 2, 3 or even 4 people, which is OK for a simple overnight stay. I've suggested £50-60 per person to be safe.

2. I now hope to get a good offer on the luxury 5-star (that's OUR 5-star standards!) SHERATON Hotel, but I don't know the actual price yet - I expect to know by the end of Monday.

3. If we get a very large response, we might be allocated to two hotels anyway, in which case we might be able to offer the 4-star (UK/Irish standards) package at the original cost, or the 5-star (UK/Irish standards) at a higher cost.

4. With your approval, after a week or so, I will forward your email to all on my list, just to make sure that it reaches as many as possible. But as you have said, IFAS members will take precedence.

5. If you were to go under the wheels of the proverbial bus, it could then be too late to share the database (!), so I suggest that you share it on a simultaneously updated basis with someone else fully trustworthy & competent - perhaps Bart, or Al White?

6. Will everyone know what a 'tyre-kicker' is???

Well done so far!

Terry"