Grianan Fort

I've often thought to myself that Grianan Fort, located in Donegal (15 minutes from Derry) would be an ideal spot for observing. Located 244 metres above sea level, it is a ring fort dating from 800BC or there abouts. For some more info and images you can see it here unknownswilly.orgfree.com/grianan.html .

The problem is that it is unfortunetly shut each evening and entry is forbidden there after. It would be an excellent location for a star party. I think contacting the local council may be in order to enquire...

I've thought about that too. But it's probably best for us to just head on out towards Buncrana for another 10 minutes and go to the carpark in lisfanon or somewhere like that. I usually just observe from my garden in Derry but have thought about taking a trip out that road or else the Letterkenny road. Observed a couple of times from Buncrana itself and it was so much clearer than from Derry. I reckon the ultimate night would be up the Glenshane, high up with extremely dark nights

The light pollution from Derry would be a problem, but I would still fancy it. I'm thinking about some gate hopping soon!

Fahan would be a decent spot, although I would prefer somewhere more elevated. I think for a perfect observing night the area in and around Ballyliffin would be ideal. There is limited light pollution and plenty of highly elevated areas.

I just bought a new 5 inch Sky Watcher and I'm hoping to go down around that area in the next few weeks. Have you been been observing long? I haven't heard of any groups around the Derry area, have you?

There's a place out in the Bluestacks in Donegal that I'm thinking of camping at soon, as it is good for climbing (my other hobby), and I might bring my scope along as well, if it fits!
I got my 8 inch telescope two years ago, so that's pretty much how long I have been observing deep sky objects (in reality, not many nights out due to the poor weather). Have a nice pair of 10x50 binoculars that I've used since I was a child, good for picking out star clusters and brighter objects.
I don't think there's an astronomy club in Derry. I know St. Columb's College had an after school club that I went to a couple of times, but not many people went and I think it sort of fizzled out. They had a nice telescope though.
Ballyliffen sounds like a good spot, might check it out some time. I'm camping in Gweedore later in August too, might be good for binoculars.

Bluestacks sounds like another good spot! I've literally only been out one night with my telescope because I be up at 5 every morning for work (only got it on Monday).

I hear what you’re saying about the poor weather, although Monday night had excellent seeing conditions. I got a good look at Jupiter and it's moons then scanned the area in and around the summer triangle.

I live about 5 minutes outside of Killea so light pollution in my area is pretty minimal. The main source of light pollution (Derry) is covered by trees so it doesn't affect the seeing so much.

I wouldn't mind meeting up with some like-minded people in the area if we could get a night organised. Although I'm not sure if there's many around! I have one friend who's also interested in astronomy but that’s as far as my connections go!

Hey guys, I hope you find some good sites up your way.

I just thought I'd help out a bit with some of the lingo. "Seeing" usually refers to the stability (or lack thereof) of the atmosphere. It controls how much fine detail is smeared in an image, and is mainly an issue when viewing the planets, the sun or moon, or while trying to split tight double stars. Targets such as galaxies and nebulae don't have much fine detail, and so are less bothered by the seeing.

"Transparency" refers to the amount of particulate matter in the atmosphere, and how much light is bouncing off of it. (The light is usually light pollution, but can also be from natural sources.) Transparency mainly affects dimmer targest such as galaxies, nebulae, globular clusters, etc.

Seeing is often measured on a subjective scale from 1 to 5, based on the observer's experiences. However, that's not very objective, and so one observer's 3 doesn't necessarily line up with another's. A more objective method is the Pickering seeing scale, which is best described (and illustrated) here:

uk.geocities.com/dpeach_78/pickering.htm

Finally, some astro-photographers measure seeing by measuring how much the bright center (known as the FWHM, or full-width half-maximum) of a star's image moves. But you pretty much need a CCD and a computer for this method, and some astro-photographers still prefer the Pickering seeing scale.

Transparency is most commonly measured by naked-eye limiting magnitude (NELM), which is simply the dimmest star you can see. Since peoples' eyesight varies, this is also somewhat subjective, although probably less so than seeing. An objective method uses a gadget known as the Sky Quality Meter, which measures magnitudes per square arc-second or something like that, but is commonly just called the "SQM" reading.

I'd better stop now before I bore you all to tears....

Cheers,
-- Jeff.