IAS/SDAS Monthly meeting and Sandymount event

Hello All,

The IAS and SDAS will be holding our monthly meeting in Gonzaga college, Ranelagh at 8PM on Thursday 26th January.

The speaker is John Flannery and he will be talking about the upcoming transit of Venus and the historic importance of observing the event.

We will also be meeting at the Martello Tower in Sandymount between 8 and 10 on Friday the 27th for out monthly sidewalk astronomy evening.

Details of the venues are available on the IAS website www.irishastrosoc.org .

Regards,

Michael.

Thank you, Michael, for the announcement. Valerie and I will be at both events.

Yours, Aubrey.

Hi there all

Managed to get a few snaps of the night.

Hope you like them.

Paul

"Ah, there it is."


"I know it's up there somewhere."


"Do I look through it this way?"


"Of course I know everything!"

Good afternoon, all. This is my report of last night (27th January). First of all I would like to thank Michael Murphy for organising the whole event. Me and my 6.2" apochromatic refractor had a sensational night. I didn't leave until after midnight. Ken, Bob, and Joe were with me to the very end. Thank you to them also.
I started off with the Moon and Uranus conjunction -both in the same field of view at 7X in my 70mm. At 112X, I could make out the green disc of the planet.
Next up was Jupiter with its 4 moons. From left to right, all could see: Ganymede, Jupiter, Io, Europa and Callisto. At 167X, the North Polar Region, the South Polar Region, the North Equatorial Belt, the South Equatorial Belt and the North Temperate Belt were observed.
Then Joe joined me and we split Alnitak (Zeta Orionis) into 3 components between magnifications 112X and 167X. We split Rigel in two at 112X.
But what impressed Joe greatly was seeing a quadruple star and a triple star side by side at 112X. The stars were Sigma Orionis and Struve 761 -both seen in the same field of view (37').
Bob and Ken joined us at this stage for the final object -my 26th Carbon star.
It took us a long time to find it but it was worth hunting down. Has anyone ever observed R Leporis? It is also called Hind's Crimson Star. It must have taken us 30 minutes to find it, but for the four of us, this star is truly magnificent. Even at just 30X, the red hue was gloriously spectacular. In Burnham's Celestial Handbook Volume 2, the best description of R Leporis is it is like an illuminated drop of blood, and I completely agree with this. We all went home smitten having seen this beauty.

Yours, Aubrey.

Nice report Aubrey.

Thanks for the report Aubrey.

Thanks for all who came along to help out.

Michael.