Club News: 2015

5th February 2015

Club AGM

The club held its annual annual general meeting where last years activities were appraised, the club finances were discussed and a new committee was voted in, the new committee is now as follows,

Chairman, Gordon Lalor
Secretary, Shea Morrisey
Treasurer, Simon Kenny
PRO, Frank Ryan
IFAS reps, Dave Lillis, Frank ryan.
Webmaster, Donal O'Sullivan
General committee member, Mick Bulger

Gordon also gave a brief rundown of astronomical events coming up in the year.

Visit to the Galway Astronomy Festival

The club members payed a visit to the excellent Galway astronomy festival ths year, there were excellent speakers as well as shops full of equipment to browse through.

Pics coming soon.

Aurora observing

A number of club members payed a visit to Cratloe hill to try observe the elusive aurora, while some faint aurora were observed, it was decided to head to Loch Gur and try seeing some from there. While there, some more aurora were seen. While not spectacular or bright, these were the first aurora seen from here in a number of years.
Frank and Dave also evaluated the darkness of the Loch Gur site for general night sky viewing.

More pics coming soon.

Solar eclipse observing session at Grange stone circle (near Loch Gur)

The club ran a public observing morning for the almost full (95%) solar eclipse. The club members turned up at 8am to a low hazy sky and for a while it looked like we'd see none of the eclipse. At the time of greatest eclipse, it got noticabily dark and cold. Once the time went on, it got warmer and brighter. Then gaps appeared in the clouds and everyone got to see a thin crescent Sun, as more gaps appeared some people snapped some pics of it. 

The club also advertised this event and articles appeared in the Irish Times (March 19th, page3) and the Limerick post (page18). Gordon was on ClareFM and it was advertised by Live95FM and on the RTE website of eclipse events.
A UTV Ireland TV crew was also there and recorded a report for the 6.30 TV news.

IFAS also organised free solar observing glasses to be handed out, we had planty to go around.

Club Observing night

The club ran a general observing session on the Saturday night of 21^st at Lock Gur, it was a good dark clear sky and many objects were seen, it was well attended by over 10 of the club members. The best views were of Jupiter and the Hercules cluster. Many galaxies in Virgo, Leo and Ursa Major were also observed. Saturn was seen rising as the night came to an end.

Out of town speaker, Michael O'Connell

Michael (from midlands astronomy club) gave a fascinating talk on the Antikythera mechanism, the Greek two and a half thousand year old analog computer that predicts solar/lunar eclipses and the positions of the planets. This device had been lost in history and was only recently re-discovered, it is literally fiteen hundred years ahead of its time, the likes of which was not seen again until the 16th century.
Many thanks to Michael for coming down and describing its history and how it works.

Out of town speaker, Albert White

Albert is the chairman of the Irish Light Pollution Awareness Camgaign and he gave a talk at the heritage center at Loch Gur, County Limerick. This is the launch of the Loch Gur Dark Sky Inititive.  Albert talked about the impacts of light pollution on the environment and how to minimise it. It is hoped that Loch Gur, with its very low light levels can obtain a bronze status dark sky site over the coming year, this is an official internationally recognised status. 
Many thanks to Albert for coming down, it was very enjoyable and informative.
See http://www.darksky.ie/ for more info on fighting light pollution.

Global Astronomy Month (GAM) 2015

The Moon, Venus and Jupiter will be giving a fine display and will be easily seen through the club telescopes.

This is open to the public, you do not need ot own a telescope as the club will be brining along its own, all you need bring is your interest, enthusiasm and a warm jacket. 

We are delighted to announce we will be part of the Summer Solstice Festival at Lough Gur this year.

We will be setting up the club scopes and equipment by the lake in the grounds of the Heritage Centre at 8PM on Saturday the 20th to catch the sunset and provide safe solar viewing through the scopes.

At 9PM Frank Ryan will present a nights sky talk in the Heritage Centre, this will be a fantastic opportunity for anyone who is new to astronomy to learn about our telescopes & what will be on offer to see in the sky that evening.

We will be treated to a lovely conjunction of a young Crescent Moon with Venus & Jupiter shining brilliantly alongside setting over the lake.

SAC will offer all those that attend guided viewing of these celestial wonders and also discuss the various objects and constellations that can be seen over the summer months.

There is a small charge of €5 for the event which will go to support of the Heritage Centre. Please call Lough Gur on 061 385186 for details.

Open night, club meeting

Burren Starparty,

IOM (internation Observe the Moon night)

The club will run a public observing session at O'Callaghans strand in Limerick in support of IOM 2015. Passers by will be treated to a great view of the Moon using the clubs 10 and 12 inch telescopes and high power binoculars.

Lunar Eclipse observing session

The club will be running an observing session for the lunar eclipse, details will be put up here nearer to the event.

Out of town Speaker, Peter Household

Peter hails from Cork Astronomy Club, he'll be presenting a talk titled "The ethics of space", it should be a very interesting talk and it's a topic that we've not touch on before.

Christmass night out

The club will be organising a christmass night out, detaisl will be put up here nearer to the time.