Hi from anothar newbie...

Welcome along swanner. I know Greystones is quite a way down the coast from Dublin, but if you can make it to any of the observing sessions in the Dublin mountains whenever you see the guys on these boards organising one, you should make the trip. There are a couple of members here from Bray that might be happy to meet up with you sometime.

Seanie.

Excellent!! I won't be the only newbie at the next SDAS meet They have a habit of organising the meets for cloudy nights though. I think its so they have an excuse to go to the Pub. "Don't worry Honey, I'm just going to the pu....I mean Astronomy Soc. meet"

Thats what happened to the last meet on Sunday 30th. It was going to be my first but after seeing the Satellite photo's I knew it was probably going to be a waste of time. 5 of the lads did go up though and suprise suprise it was cloudy, "Ah Sure, we might as well head to the pub lads!" :twisted:

......You know I'm just taking the pi** lads............please don't ban me from the next meet.....but, but.....

Seanie needs to look at his maps again though. He makes it sound like it might be more of a hassle for you to get to the observing sites than the lads in Dublin. For us lads in Bray and Greystones, their sites are virtually on our doorstep. I mean its such a chore for me to drive from Bray all the way to Enniskerry!! I know thats only the meeting up place and the sites are further up the mountains/inland but still.

The only way their sites would be easier for them than us to get to would be if it was at the Hellfire Club but then that kind of defeats the purpose of a dark site when it overlooks the entire city of dublin. The whole object is to get away from the lights of Dublin which brings them into our backyard!!

As for Andromeda M31. I finally found it last night too. Twas just a smudge in my 12inch reflector too. That smudge is actually only the brighter centre....of the centre of the galaxy. The actual disc part with the spiral arms is much much bigger. Several times the diametre of a full moon infact. Andromeda would be a huge object in the sky if it was brighter.

While you are never going to see spiral arms and dust lanes that make up the disc in any scope visually, properly dark adapted eyes and when viewed from a dark site without skyglow washing out detail, we should be able to see much more of the actual disc. Thats why I can't wait for my first meet. Even with the back of my house blacked out, there is nothing I can do about the neighbours lights. I can't get fully dark adapted and the skyglow in Bray can be quite bad. God only knows the frustration that the Dublin guys must have, trying to view these things from the Dublin Light Dome!!

Excellent!! I won't be the only newbie at the next SDAS meet Very Happy They have a habit of organising the meets for cloudy nights though. I think its so they have an excuse to go to the Pub.

With a bit of luck i will also be there.

Seanie needs to look at his maps again though. He makes it sound like it might be more of a hassle for you to get to the observing sites than the lads in Dublin. For us lads in Bray and Greystones, their sites are virtually on our doorstep. I mean its such a chore for me to drive from Bray all the way to Enniskerry!!

Fine, I can't recall my mental maps very well! For some TAS members, we have a better record of members coming from Monasterevin, Athlone, and Mountmellick (counties of Kildare, Westmeath, and Laois) rather then closer ones!

Sound. Thanks for the welcome. I'll definatley barrell up to one of the observing sessions. Dublin mountains would be pretty close from Greystones but not knowing the roads very well it'll probably take me as long to find the place as it took to find M31 :lol:

I'm kinda lucky where I am that I have no streelights near the house. The only light pollution comes from our house (easily remedied) and my neighbour's porch, but she's sound and switches it off if I ask her nicely

Hi Swanner,
I hope you like the site and be sure to ask what ever question or put up what ever comments that pop into your head.