IAS/SDAS Sandymount event on 27th April

Hello All,

The IAS and SDAS will be meeting at the Martello Tower in Sandymount between 8 and 10 on Friday the 27th April for our monthly sidewalk astronomy evening.

Details of the venue is available on the IAS website .

Regards,

Michael.

Hi Michael. I wonder what the weather will be. Perhaps not too bad. I notice Venus will be a dazzling crescent with a faint wide double star nearby. I could tease Val with it. He often slags me about my love for double stars !!

Aubrey.

24 hours seems to be a long time in weather forecasting also. Meteireann appears to have changed its forecast for tonight. They are now promising clear skies for the east coast. Time to load up the telescopes then.

Aubrey.

Thanks to all who turned up. We had 8 scopes and a pair of binoculars.

The skies were mostly clear for the evening and we were able to show the Moon, Venus, Saturn Mars and various double and double-double stars.

Michael.

Yet another historic night for me, Michael. Seeing a 30% lit Venus is rare for me, and less than 2 degrees away from it was double star Struve 623 (magnitudes 7 + 8.7).
Saw the optical 10 mag star of Capella, which proves it was a very clear night. Gamma Leonis and Castor both cleanly split also at 112X.
What made the night very memorable for me was observing the tiny craterlet Linne on the Moon. I still don't think I saw the central crater even at 320X, but we saw its incline casting a shadow westwards, a first for everybody. I must look into this further. Does anyone wish to comment on this phenomenon?
And lastly, I viewed Saturn at 167X. At this magnification, Bob O'Brien and a few others, observed Cassini, bright equatorial region, rings' shadow on planet, Titan, Rhea, Tethys, Dione and the 9 magnitude star SAO 139444 which some might have thought was another moon east of Saturn.(No!). Oh and was that little 10 mag Iapetus north west of Saturn? I think it was.
Thank you Michael for organising yet another historic night for myself and Valerie.
And thanks to Bob O'Brien for bringing his 28mm William Optics eyepiece.

Aubrey.