SOLARFEST 2015

Can't wait to meet up with you
all again, roll on Saturday.

Cheers Roy

My first Solarfest ever, have to say really looking forward to Saturday and meeting up.

After another successful Solarfest, big thanks are due to the following people for without their help and support the event would not be possible:

- All the speakers for taking the time to prepare their excellent talks. Thank you all;

- Kevin Smith & Meath Astronomy Club for coming on-board to co-organise the event and make it a weekend solar festival. Thanks Kevin!;

- Dunsink Observatory (DIAS) Astronomy & Astrophysics Group – Hilary O’Donnell in particular has always been very supportive;

- Trinity College Dublin Astrophysics Research Group - Dr. Peter Gallagher once again gave his support to the event and delivered a great talk. Thanks Peter!;

- Irish Astronomical Society - John Flannery, Val Dunne, Robin Moore and Deirdre Kelleghan for helping promote Solarfest and for their help on the day;

- KTEC Telescopes www.ktectelescopes.ie/ for providing prizes for our solar-themed astrophotography event. There is still time to enter ‪#‎KTECSOLAR‬ and ‪#‎KTECSMART‬ - see our Facebook page for more details;

- Michael Murphy and John McKeon for helping with the astrophotography talk on Saturday and sharing their solar equipment;

- Charlie Bates Solar Astronomy Project www.charliebates.org/ for providing the solar glasses;

- And of course the Irish Federation of Astronomical Societies (IFAS) for supporting the event as always.

Regards,
Michael OConnell.

Hi everyone,

Well done on organising another great Solarfest and extending the event to a full weekend's celebration of our nearest star. I missed Terry's talk on Friday night due to some things I was setting up for the Meetup group members I brought up to Dunsink on the night but they were thrilled to visit the Observatory and enjoyed the outing.

Just got to hear some of the afternoon talks on the Saturday but it was fascinating learn the history of the Marconi station at Clifden, as well as the nail-biting efforts Peter Gallagher and his team went through to intercept the March 20th eclipse track off the Irish coast.

Sorry I missed the Sunday viewing at Rathbeggan Lakes. Hope it all went well.

John

Many thanks to all concerned for a great SolarFest 2015, especially to Michael and Kevin, great line-up of speakers too; I missed Friday evening unfortunately but heard it was great despite the weather. Had a wonderful time, learnt a lot and always great meeting up with people with similar interests and the visit to Dunsink Observatory is always special. On the Sunday I meet up with Kevin at Rathbeggan Lakes in the afternoon, the sun gods allowed breaks between the clouds to view the Sun, Moon and planets on show, a big thanks to Kevin. Roll-on SolarFest 2016!

Best wishes and clear skies
Mike