Club News: 2014

9th January 2014

Michael Johnson speaking at the University of Limerick

The club held its first talk of 2014 at UL where club member Michael Johnson presented a lecture detailing the future of robotic space exploration. 

6th February 2014

Club AGM

The club held its annual AGM, where a new committee was elected and a run down of the clubs finances were discussed. Gordon also presented the night sky talk, detailing the sky in February. 

20th - 25th April 2014

Global Astronomy Month (GAM) 2014

The club ran a series of observing nights at O'Callaghans strand in Limerick from Tuesday 20th to Saturday the 25th of April from 8.30 onwards.
This was a global event with clubs and societies from all over the world participating. We in SAC were happy to be doing our bit for it. 

We had  the clubs telescopes and binoculars there, the public were shown great views of the Moon and planets.
For more details of GAM worlwide, click HERE

1st May 2014

Club talk by Tony O"Hanlon

An avid observer, Tony was a founding member of SAC back in the 1980's. He gave a cracking talk about the spread of galaxies across the universe, how they interact with each other and illustrated the immense scale of it all. Been a very experienced speaker, the talk went down a treat and we hope to see Tony more often in the future.

5th June 2014 

Seanie Morris, out of town speaker.

Seanie came down from Tullamore and gave an excellent thought provoking lecture about the birth of the Universe and how it might end. It provoked a good debate that was enjoyed by all. We hope to have Seanie down again in the not too distant future.

September-October  2014 

2014 Burren Star Party

The club will be running its annual starparty in the Burren, the dates have not yet been confirmed yet but it will be over a moonless weekend sometime in September-October, dates will be put up as soon as they are decided.

6th  September 2014

IOM 2014 (international Observe the Moon night)

The club will run a public observing session at O'Callaghans strand in Limerick in support of IOM 2014. The clubs 10 and 12 inch telescopes and high power binoculars will be available for the public to use.

26th & 27th September 2014

2014 Shannonside Astronomy Club Burren Starparty

The club Burren Starparty went ahead on Friday 26th of September.

There was clear skies on Friday Night with a stunning Milkway from Horizon to Horizon. Over 30 people arrived to view the night sky through the club telescope and various member and visitor owned telescopes.

Unfortunately the sky was overcast on Saturday 27th so viewing was not possible.

Winter solstice sunset observing in conjunction with Loch Gur heritage center.

^{SAC Club members were invited by the newly formed Science Advisory Group for Lough Gur to help celebrate the Winter Solstice at the Great Grange Stone Circle with members of the public. Earlier, the group went to the HoneyFitz center where Frank Ryan gave a presentation regarding stellar allignment in the  stone circle and Dave Lillis gave a general presentation showing the night sky in December.}