Club News: 2011

4th January   2011

Partial Solar Eclipse

A partial solar eclipse was in progress as sunrise, however due to cloudy weather nothing was seen except for a 1 minute gap in the clouds where a small partial phase was observed.

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4th February 2011

2011 AGM

It was decided to run the BSP this year with no outside speakers and have it as an observing only event with 1 night sky talk, such as traditional starparties elsewhere in the world. It was decided to change the day of the club meetings from Wednesday to Thursday due to difficulties for some members in attending the Wednesday meetings, this necessitated the changing of the meeting room to 202 from now on.
This becomes effective from March onwards. A new committee was voted in.

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6th February 2011

25th Anniversary of the club forming, observing session to celebrate

Sunday February 6th was the 25th anniversary of the club forming, so we had an observing session at the Burren the following night.
It was perfectly clear untill after middnight when it then slightly hazed over. Saturn as well as a setting cresent Moon were observed

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7th April 2011

April Club Meeting + Observing

The club went ahead and ran an observing night in the grounds of Mary I to catch a double
occultation by the Moon, namely 37 and 39 Tauri and postponed the usual club meeting.
The schedule was
37 Tauri goes behind the Moon at 20:07.46 and reappears at 21:07.36
39 Tauri goes behind the Moon at 20:37.38 and reappears at 21:18.32
Clouds abscured alot of the event, but we all got a good view of the Moon throught the clubs 25x100 binoculars, 
10" scope and Tom Walsh's 9.25 SCT.

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11, 13, 15, 16th April 2011

Global Astronomy Month (April 2011)

The club ran 4 free  observing sessions at O'Callaghans strand in Limerick during the month, Monday the 11th, Wednesday the 13th, Friday the 15 and Saturday the 16th, 7.30pm onwards. We had clear nights on Monday and Saturday, on Wednesday it clouded over after 10pm, and on Friday it was completely cloudy. We had  the clubs 10 and 12 inch telescopes there aswell as the 25x100 binoculars on its  new mounting system. 
The clubs PRO, Roy Stewart, has sent out posters to all the schools and libraries in Limerick, he is our point of contact for this event.  

The Moon and Saturn were very favourable in the sky and we even got a view of the Beehive cluster in Cancer.

Thanks to advertising this in most of the schools in Limerick, and the Limerick Leader and The Post newspapers, 
we had over 50 people attend on each night.

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May  15th 

CATDIG PUBLIC  PRESENTATION.

The club has been invited along to the Saber Studio in Limerick to give a general talk on Astronomy, a presentation will be given usingstarrynight planetarium program in Burkes Bar in Catherine St, Limerick. The invitation is  by the Catherine Street Culteral Dig (CATDIG) and is run in conjunction with the ev+a art exhibition. 

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June 14-16 2011

Lunar Eclipse viewing from Barcelona, Spain.

A lunar eclipse was visible on the 15th of  June, however not favourably so from Ireland. So a number of  club members came together and arranged a trip to Barcelona for a few days with the prime goal of getting a good view of this eclipse. The club made contact with the Barcelona Astronomical Association and arranged to meet up with them at their observing sites near the olympic stadium.
So club members Dave Lillis, Frank Ryan, Tom Walsh, Michael Johnson and ex SAC member (now MAC mamber) Michael O'Connell headed off on Tuesday morning for Dublin airport.

The flight was in the evening, arriving in Barcelona on Tuesday night, the pic above show the apartment and the view fomr it.

On Wednesday morning we met up with Pierre and joseph of ASTER (Barcelona Astronomical Association) and they took us on a great tour of Barcelona, it was certainly enjoyable.

Later on that evening we attended their club meeting before the eclipse where chairman Dave Lillis gave them a little presentation on SAC and astronomy in general in Ireland. Later on a Barcelona TV crew arrived and interviewed members of ASTER about the eclipse.

Click HERE for the youtube video of the Barcelona TV broadcast, Tom  models the eclipse t-shirt (done up 
by Frank Ryan)at 50 seconds into the video for the TV crew.

We then proceeded to head up to Mount Juic near the olympic stadium and had a grad elevated view across the mediterranian sea of the rising eclipse, there were hundreds of members of the public and ASTER there.

The eclispe was very dark so was not visible in any sense until it was 45 minutes after Moon rise. The bright mid summer sky didnt help either, but once the Moon became visible, it  showed a stunning deep dark red colour, barely visible to the naked eye. 

We finished up after middnight and headed back to the apartment.

Next morning we headed up to observatory in the hills to the west of Barcelona.
There we were given a great tour of the facilities and telescopes there.

We headed back to the apartment ready to pack for the airport, we said our goodbyes to our new found friends in ASTER.
Most people wouldn't travel so far just  to see a lunar eclipse but it was very well worth it, 
such a deep lunar eclipse wont be bettered until 2029.

Frank did up a video of this trip, click HERE to watch it on youtube.

For details of the eclipse, click here.

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31st October 2011

Dave and Roy go on Clare FM

The club were invited to send reps to the radio station and discuss generla astronomy, the club and the up coming Burren Starparty

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2-3rd September 2011

BURREN STARPARTY

This months starparty ws once again a great success, unfortunately Friday night was rained out but Saturday proved to be far better.
On Saturday evening the sky had 50-50 cloud cover, but as soon as the night fell, the skies cleared and remained so untill 1am Sunday morning. Many great sights were seen such as the supernova in M101, comet Gerradd, Jupiter and numerous open/globular clusters and nebulae. Many high end telescopes were there, such as numberous SCT's, refractors and dobsonians.
We setup at 7pm while still bright, making it alot easier to get ready. As it got dark, the crowds swelled and a good evening was had by all.
Many thanks to all who came along and we look forward to seeing you all again next year. 

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8th October  2011

International observe the Moon night

The club attempted to hold an observing session at O'Callaghans Strand in Limerick on the 8th of October.
The weather was against us and it was completely cloudy, which was a pity as we were hoping to see a few meteors from  
the Draconid meteor shower also.
Next time this event comes around we will try it again.

see below for more details.
http://observethemoonnight.org/
Spaceweather

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18th December 2011

Christmass night out

A good night was had by all at South's Pub on O'Connell avenue, Limerick.
Had a good few drinks to sign off another successfull year.

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