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CLUB NEWS 2010  ( 2009 /   2008 /  2007 / 2006 )                  

May 23 2010

PUBLIC  VIEWING EVENT.

The club a public starwatch event at Lees road in Ennis as part of BioDiversity day. Clare county council through Shane Casey (BioDiversity Officer) invited the club along to do the viewing event. We attended at 10pm and showed a crowd over over 60 people the Moon and Planets through various telescopes. We also handed out starcharts and gave a 15 minute run down on the constellations, where they are and explaining their significance. We had a perfectly clear sky and the night was enjoyed by all, we finished up at midnight.   

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May 16 2010

PUBLIC VIEWING EVENT.

On the 16th of May SAC ran a very succesful public observing event as part of
Global Astronomy Month, our observing director Dave reports:

Well guys'n gals,
All I can say is WOW, what a night!
We had prestine clear skies here in Limerick, some people asked if the volcanic dust from the Icelandic volcano would be a problem when infact it has actually helped us due to the complete absence of any contrails in the sky, and not a cloud in sight.!!
Over the entire night we must have had over 150 people come along to the event with well over 100 there at one stage!!!
This was an amazing turn out and shows what some proper advertising can do for us.
We started out at 8.30 and everyone there had views of the thin cresent Moon through the clubs 12" Dob and Venus through clubs 10" Meade SCT.
The views were steady and everyone was happy.
Later on as the Moon set, we set the 2 telescopes on Saturn and again everyone got fantastic views of Saturn and its moons Titan, Tethys and Rhea, the rings were very nice also.
Later we swung the scopes over to Mars and despite its small size and it been past its best, everyone got enjoyable view of it.
Some people brought along their own scopes and we helped them in setting them up and how to use them.
By 11.30 people were starting to melt away and we finished up at midnight,














Our riverside location with the newly refurbished riverside walkway with seating, railings and bins is definitely working to our advantage despite the lighting and a few trees.
I think everyone attending got a great views of the planets and Moon, its an event we're definitely going to run again!
Many thanks to all in SAC who made this event possible!

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May 9 2010

PUBLIC  PRESENTATION.

The club was invited along to the Saber Studio in Limerick to give a general talk on Astronomy, Dave and Gordon attended and gave an hour long talk on the solarsystem using Starrynight. The invitation was by the Catherine Street Culteral Dig (CATDIG) and was run in conjunction with the ev+a art exhibition. The event was well atteneded (30+) and many questions were ask by the audience, some of which provoked some long discussions. Its something we hope to do again in the not to distant future.