IAS + SDAS Sandymount Observing Friday 18th March

Good evening, IAS, SDAS and Dublin Sidewalk Astronomers. As we all remember, last Friday night (11th March) was almost completely clouded out. So I wish to suggest this coming Friday night (18th) to do some observing at the usual Martello Towers car park from 8pm. Bob O'Brien and Liam Smyth are interested in coming along. I shall bring my scope. The weather seems much more promising according to the forecast. An almost Full Moon will be on view, as well as Orion, Gemini, Leo and Saturn too. Please ring me on 086-2922101 or answer this post.

Yours sincerely,
Aubrey Glazier.

Bob O'Brien and myself spent 2 full hours observing the 14 day Moon last night (18th) at the Martello Tower car park. I brought my 6.2" refractor and we used magnifications of 7X, 30X, 40X, 112X, 125X and 172x. We also had Moon maps with us, including Antonin Rukl's Atlas of the Moon. What was extraordinary to us was we were observing 5 craters neither of us had seen before all on Map 1 Antonin Rukl's book. These were Markov, Cleostratus, Oenopides, Repsold, and Xenophanes. But the most stunning sight of all was seeing the great large crater Pythagoras which was right on the terminator. We could see the whole rim of the crater, but its floor was in darkness. The Sun light had not reached it. However, the Sun was illuminating its very large central peak.
Bob and I will remember this sight for a long time.

Yours sincerely, Aubrey.