IAS/SDAS Sugarloaf event

Calibos wrote: As the purpose of this little expedition is light pollution and dark adaptation immune, there is less of a problem arriving late to the party at the observing site. As such, I'll be taking advantage of my proximity to the site here in Bray and will be phoning one of you to give me an on-site Sky transparency report before I drive up

You haven't changed your phone number in the last 3 or 4 years Michael have you??

It's still the same or you can use the IAS number 087-6398143.

Typical. Skies clear.....after Venus/Jupiter set.

Did you guys stay up there long enough to see it even low on the horizon or indeed stay up there till it cleared and get some DSO observing in until the moon came up?

I saw them low to the horizon just now, a fine sight.

There was Aubrey, Michael, another chap whose name I forget :blush: , and myself. We were there for about an hour chatting and admiring the clouds and mist. :laugh:

As you say Keith, typical Irish weather, build you up and then toss you down.

Here's hoping that Sunday night will be clear.

Paul

lunartic wrote: There was Aubrey, Michael, another chap whose name I forget :blush:

Twas ME! :silly: aka Graham

It cleared up here in Bray just as soon as they set behind a flood lit house! :dry:

Graham.

I mean, its not like its going to look much different tomorrow night if we get some clear skies at the right time but its the communal observing aspect that will be missed tommorrow. No banter, no craic, no Aubreys' loud verbose enthusiastic proclamations of delight. Instead, "Hey the Jupiter Venus conjunction is beautiful love, you should come ou....", "Thats nice dear, but I'm busy re-arranging the...eh....glassware in the cupboard..."

The weather Gods just love twisting that knife just a little bit more than absolutely necessary. Its not enough to just have the day of the conjunction clouded out. No, much more soul destroying to have it cloudy all week beforehand too, all day of the conjunction, and then.......and then have the skies clear only a few minutes after the planets have set

Well for goodness sake. Do those guys and gals in Meteireann ever get the weather right? At 6 o'clock tonight, Newstalk stated it would be cloudy and misty for the night. However as soon as I got home -before 8pm -a big clearance started. And by 9pm, the sky was completely clear. Valerie and I observed the Venus - Jupiter conjunction through the 70mm apochromatic refractor at 15X. With 6 degrees field of view, we could see Venus and Jupiter 3 degrees apart, Europa, Io, Callisto and Ganymede, and 29 Arietis. This truly is for me the greatest planetary conjunction of 2012!
Individually, at 112X, -4.3 magnitude Venus was 20" in diameter and 75.5 million miles away, and -2.1 Jupiter was 35" wide and 523 million miles away. We could easily see that Venus was 58% illuminated.
We observed until 9.15pm. Did anyone else observe this event through a telescope?

Aubrey.