CELEBRATING 26 YEARS OF
ASTRONOMY IN IRELANDS MIDWEST

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CLUB OBSERVING SESSIONS 

Weather Permitting, we run scheduled group club observing sessions
generally on Friday or Saturday nights.
We inform our members of upcoming observing sessions by a mobile phone text.

These sessions are held at either of  the clubs secure dark sky observing sites
in Boher, Co. Limerick or the best site, By the Dolmen in the Burren, Co. Clare
(see pics below)

       

Currently we have a fine selection of equipment for members
to avail of during these sessions.

  Poulnabrone Dolmen Car Park 
 (click icon to view location in Google maps)


To see reports on some recent sessions check out the
Observing Sessions thread on the Message Board.

Print out an observing log form in PDF format

  SAC Observing Log

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EQUIPMENT

The club hold some of the finest astronomical equipment of any astronomical society in Ireland.
It is based around 2 complete telescope setups and a  large binocular setup. 
These are available for any club member to use at observing sessions and are maintained by members of the committee.

Telescope set #1

Back in 1987, SAC designed and built a F/5 12" newtonian dobsonian telescope.
Here it is with club member Harry McCarthy back in the early 2000s.

By the late 2000's, the scope was beginning to disintegrate due to age and use.
In 2007, it was time to decide its fate, either repair it or scrap it,
so after costing up repairs against buying a new one, the committee decided to 
fully refurbish the telescope, it is now in full working order and
offers magnificent deep sky, lunar and planetary views.

(pictured here with Dr. Chris Lintott, co-presenter of 'The Sky at Night' )
          

This telescope is accompanied with a comprehensive set of eyepieces, click here for a comprehensive list.

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Telescope set #2

This set includes a 10" Meade LX3 F10 Schmidt Cassegrain Telescope (SCT).
A celestron powertank is used to run it during observing sessions.
Two cases are  included which holds a set of eyepieces, filters and accessories,
Click here for a complete list. 

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Binocular set

The club owns a set of 25 X 100 Celestron skymaster binoculars, they are run on a parallelogram 
"unimount" system and tripod which provides a means of steadily holding these heavy binoculars 
and an ability to change the height of the binoculars while keeping the same object in the field of view, 
great for observing nights.

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The club owns a celestron skyscout, a great device for helping newbies find objects in the sky.

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