New Club Creation

To all who have shown interest in the new astronomy club The Breffni Starwalkers:

The Club is having its first meeting tomorrow evening Friday 17 at 8pm in Murray's Vintage Clothing shop (soon to be renamed Ballinamore Cultural Quarters) in Ballinamore Main Street (more or less on the other side of the street from the AIB).
I have deliberately kept this first meeting, which also includes a lecture on the life and death of stars, on a small local scale because I intend to repeat this club information + lecture evening in several locations in the area over the coming months, each time getting attention from the people in the area of the meeting, the reason being that room is limited in the venue we're using in Ballinamore and that I'm hoping to find larger venues for the other meetings. I intend to organise at least one in Carrick-on-Shannon and one in Cavan.

It is true I have not got round to advertise in the Leitrim newspapers. That is my own mistake. I intended to, but life is so busy that it escaped my mind. I will make sure to do so for further meetings. In the meantime, the meeting was advertised in Ballinamore, on Cavan Community Radio, on the Facebook page of The Cultural Quarters, and of course on the Club's Facebook page.

So, believe me, this club IS going somewhere, it is just slowly getting into its paces. Over the next few weeks/months, we'll hopefully get enough memberships/donations in that we'll be able to get our IFAS membership and use the IFAS umbrella insurance. Until then, there will be public meetings and lectures, but no public stargazing sessions.

There is much that can be accomplished as a group of people, so the more members we get, the more we'll be able to organise. First in mind, aside from public stargazing and lectures, are various trips to the observatories of Ireland. More than that I cannot say. A lot will depend of what the members ultimately want to see happening.

Our website is up and running: www.thebreffnistarwalkers.weebly.com/ . Feel free to browse and bring your own input. You can also contact us either through the website or directly at thebreffnistarwalkers@hotmail.com

Christophe Lombardi
Club Chairman

see you there,

Well done Christophe, I hope it all works out! Did you receive my email with the constitution draft a couple weeks ago?

Seanie.

An old thread, I know, but did anything come about of this proposed new Astronomy club?

Seanie.

I don't know if anything came of this but as far as I can make out it hasn't happened yet.

Not wanting to hijack this thread but are there any skywatchers in the Mayo area who would like to meet up sometime for observing sessions. I'm based in Newport, 12KM from Westport, have an 8" Celestron and trying to fathom the intricacies of astro photography. I get out when I can (and when the skys are clear) but very much an amateur.

The Breffni Starwalkers Club is still operating.
Their have been talks and observation meetings last year and this year.
Advertising has been more local in the Leitrim area.
The main problem for the club is the cost of hiring rooms because the membership is so small.
The original room at the Cultural Quarters ( A voluntary community building in Ballinamore) is where the meetings have been taking place,
Unfortunately, these rooms had major roof leaks and therefore were no longer useable. This year the local library
has been used, but the early times for use constrains most members trying to travel to it.
Regarding insurance with IFAS. This again is a major problem for such a newby club because of the low membership has the difficulty
of raising such funding.

Christophe Lombardi ( President) is trying to find low cost rooms in the Leitrim/Roscommon area.
The idea is to alternate locations in order to accommodate members travelling.
However, locations will be influenced depending on members locations. The members are wide spread geographically.
From Westmeath, Cavan, Leitrim, Sligo, Roscommon and Donegal border.
The logistics are very difficult in trying to provide some cohesion.
Although I am a member from the beginning, I can appreciate all these problems.

The plan for 2013 would be to attract new members and to have the meetings in different locationns to accommodate them because of the distance.


Eamonn