Burren Sunday Night 11th April

Frank Ryan · Post by **Frank Ryan** » Sun Apr 11, 2010 5:22 pm

Not a club session but I'm heading up there tonight if
anyones around.
It's going to be clear.
No moon either.

I'm hunting down comet 81P Wild
and also want to catch Venus and Mercury again.

087 6775281

John O'Mahony · Post by **John O'Mahony** » Sun Apr 11, 2010 6:50 pm

Would love to go out but just got back from Dublin and am shagged out. Should be a good night.

Dave Lillis · Post by **Dave Lillis** » Sun Apr 11, 2010 7:36 pm

Just back from Cosmos starparty, I'll see you Frank, I'm going !!!

Frank Ryan · Post by **Frank Ryan** » Mon Apr 12, 2010 12:15 pm

My god what a night!
Awesome Awesome Awesome skies!
Lads..
You just have to be persistant with this weather!
Again, esaily mag 6 unaided.

Dave, Dennis and I headed up..
4 AM finish up.
2 hours sleep and I'm feeling it!

I left behind a bracket for the astrotrac and now
I'm actually glad..
I spent the whole night visually observing through the 10''
but in skies like that it may as well be 14''

Too many objects to list now but,
without a laptop...
had to rely on an old book,
'The stars & Planets' by our good friend Ian Ridpath and Wil Tirion
for guidance (along with the walking Stary Night program that is Dave Lillis!

)

End of the night we saw 3 Iridium flares one after the other
in the same part of the sky...

Sean Daveron also came up trumps and killed the security light...
We are soooo lucky to have this place.
You get a drought with observing and then one night like this can recharge
the batterys for a full year...
well, with me anyway....

Frank Ryan · Post by **Frank Ryan** » Mon Apr 12, 2010 12:22 pm

Venus and Mercury setting to the West of the Caherconell Ring Fort.

Dave Lillis · Post by **Dave Lillis** » Mon Apr 12, 2010 4:31 pm

It was a good night for sure, at the end of the night the milky way in Cygnus was the best i've seen it in a good while, memories of Parnon.
Totally shattered at the end when I got home, especially after 2.5 days at Cosmos.
Got in planets, many many galaxies and clusters.
It was interesting to compare the views of M51 from cosmos the night before and in the Burren, the spiral arms were more pronounced in the Burren and the constellations were lost in the blizzard of stars, definitely a darker background as expected.
Hunted down many galaxies in Ursa Major, Virgo and Leo, clusters in Hercules/Bootes and a small few in Ophiuchus.
Saw Cygnus and Vega rising, got fleeting glimpses of the central star of M57.
The seeing wasnt great though, as in Cosmos, the views of Saturn were fairly unstable and the rings were almost flapping at times,

Anyway, again, my favourites were the brighter galaxies and globulars,
Until next time.

John O'Mahony · Post by **John O'Mahony** » Mon Apr 12, 2010 7:55 pm

Sounds awesome. I think you willl be in for a good run this year weather wise. I'm bringing all the rain with me.

Dave Lillis · Post by **Dave Lillis** » Mon Apr 12, 2010 9:55 pm

hopefully