Here is the report of last night at the Martello Tower, Sandymount. A substantial group of SDAS + IAS were present. Paul Byrne, Liam Smyth, Ken Finlay, my wife Valerie and Patricia all came. I was delighted to have our SDAS leader, John Flannery, with us also. A number of pleasant people stopped to have a look at what we were observing on the night.
1. Conjunction of 3-day old Moon with earthshine and Jupiter 3 degrees apart. With my 70mm apo, I have 6 degrees field of view. Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto were all easily visible at 30X, 40X and 112X. SEB and NEB sighted also.
2. Just north of Jupiter, was a double star Struve 287. Component A is orange and magnitude 7, while Component B is mag 10. Everyone observed it at 112X. (It is even closer to Jupiter tonight).
3. We observed Mare Crisium, craters Lick, Picard, Pierce, Swift and Cleomedes. We saw the central peak in Cleomedes and its satellite craters B, E, and A. Lastly on the Moon, we observed on the terminator, Dorsum Oppel, which was a beautiful sight.
4. Next up was carbon star R Leporis at 30X and 40X. I don't think I will ever tire of these intensely red stars.
5. Venus was majestic at 112X, 52% lit.
6. M44 Beehive open star cluster sighted at 7X, observed at 30X.
A great night had by all, and to think we are doing some more this Friday night coming.
Aubrey.
  