TAS Outreach Event - Castledermot - 06/12/08

Hi All,

TAS held an outreach event this evening in Castledermot Co. Kildare. Many thanks to TAS member John Lally and family for sending all the leaflets into the residents of Ard A'Laoi earlier today.

Temperatures hit -2C and with freezing fog, it made it a cold night, as can be seen in the photos below of the frozen scopes. However, we had great fun all the same. Great to see so many residents turning out to see the Moon, Orion Nebula and Pleiades to mention but a few. First Quarter Moon went down very well and many mentioned that they had spotted the conjunction of the Moon, Venus and Jupiter earlier in the week.

Many thanks to all the TAS members who turned out with their scopes and also to Deirdre Kelleghan for supporting us too with her 8" LX90. Her mad new hat went down a real treat too!

I would encourage everyone to try and organise an outreach in their local area. Its great to share astronomy with members of the public and see that spark of enthusiasm in their eye when they see a first quarter moon through a telescope for the first time.











From left: John Lally, William Coughlan, 12" LX90, myself and Declan Molloy.


From left: John Lally, William Coughlan, Deirdre Kelleghan with mad hat and Declan Molloy.

Regards,

Michael
TAS Chair
www.tullamoreastronomy.com

Well done to all, sounds like a good night had by one and all.

Michael and I drove through walls of fog even did a bit of slip sliding on the icy roads to join the other guy's in Castledermot. Actually it was hard to drag me away from the view of
Erathostenes and the detail on the floor of Mare Mare Imbrium in Michael's 16 inch so we ran late just a tad.

There is nothing like showing people, the night sky through a telescope , the fun , the sharing , the excitement people get is very rewarding. The Meade LX 90 was given to me by Bob Winter who is a member of the BAA. Bob gave me the telescope for public outreach and this was the first opportunity I had to use it in this regard. Of course being a complete dob head I forgot the dew shield, so just got an hour or so of use before it was swamped. However thanks to John Lally and Declan Molloy I was able to continue with their dobs despite the fact that they were caked in ice at that time. Thanks also to William Coughlan who has promised a power tank for the scope.

Thanks to TAS for setting up the evening , it was a blast ,icy but a blast all the same.

Deirdre Kelleghan
PRO IFAS
President IAS

sounds like a great night, well done!

Well done guys - sounds like you all had a lot of fun!

SDAS also held an observing session on Ballyremon commons, on the side of the Sugarloaf Mt. south of Bray in Freeeeezing conditions!:huh: It was great to get out and dust off the cobwebs (from the scope and my memory of the sky!!) The seeing was surprisingly steady and we weren't plagued by fog or mist - just the occasional wisp of high cloud. Saw some lovely sporadics and even got a glimps of Saturn low on the eastern horizon when it rose. It was a deep reddy-orange through all that atmosphere, and it was wonderful to see the rings nearly edge on. As John Flannery described it - like a ball of wool skewered with a knitting needle!

Hot drinks were a real saviour and I can thoroughly recommend using an insulated thermos-cup - they really keep your drink hot for ages... unlike my old flask top, which went cold almost immediately. We did nearly have one casualty in the darkness... me! I tore open a sachet of Knorr Quick Soup and mixed it up in my new uber-cup. I had a bit of difficulty getting the contents to mix properly with the hot water, so screwed on the lid and gave it a good shake - she'll be right! I have to say, it did taste a little funny, but my need for hot liquid was too great. It wasn't until I got down to the lumpy dregs that my stomach began to rebel and I thought the soup was going to do a bounce! I wandered off into the bushes feeling a bit cactus but eventually recovered. When I looked at the soup sachet in the torch light I discovered that it was a mere eight years beyond its best before date!!:woohoo: :woohoo: : blink:

Caviet astronomer!

Phil.

Are you sure it wasn't one of those dodgy rashers and sausages you ate earlier!!:laugh:

I must concur with everything Philip said about the SDAS session. Twas nice to get out under a near pristine sky even if some of my equipment didn't work right, nor did I have an observing plan and wandered the sky aimlessly.

Even my own mishap didn't ruin the night.

Note to self....As great an idea as it was to have a dual purpose scope handtruck that turns into the moveable base of a fold up Eyepeice table I made, it can still end in disaster when you decide to roll your eyepiece table to a better position but forget that your webcam cable would catch on the open lid of the eyepiece case and pull it off the table!! Eyepieces and filters........everywhere!! Nothing damaged, scratched or lost thankfully. :laugh:

The rolling table with the Pneumatic tyres performed like a champ and soaked up the bumps, the fold up tabletop stayed firmly attached, the laptop articulated mount and the laptop thereon stayed in place. Twas the one unsecured piece of the jigsaw that took a tumble. In future, I'll wrap a luggage strap around the EP case to hold it in place on the table. :laugh:

When I came home and read the TAS outreach report it also reminded me that I can't wait for the next outreach event Dee organises on the east coast. Sounded like great fun. Small reminder of that feeling at the SDAS observing session where David(sorry can't remember your surname mate) attended to get a feel for different types of scopes and what objects look like in them before he makes a purchase. I enjoyed being able to show someone some objects they might never have seen in a scope before.

So Dee! Whens the next outreach!!