Ha Ha, I think that's courtesy of my spell checker/changer....
Many thanks Roy and see you next year if not before.
Jouke

Just home now.

I had a great weekend thanks to Roy for badgering us into going down.
To Seanie and John for the quiz and to Kevin and Joulke for the burgers.

See you all next year.

Michael.

Super shot by Dave Connolly
of the Magnificent Milkway as seen
from Skelligs Lodge...

Cheers Roy

#ClearSkies #LunarNut #LoveSkelligsSkies

Congrats Roy on organising great star party in Ireland's first dark sky site, job well done!

Thanks to Freida Skellig Lodge Hostel for excellent accommodation and special thanks to chef Kevin and Liz for feeding some hungry astronomers for the weekend. Also thanks to Stephen Ktec for quiz prizes. Suggestion: consolation prizes for also rans next year

john5 wrote:

 Also thanks to Stephen Ktec for quiz prizes. Suggestion: consolation prizes for also rans next year

John, ill refer that to our sponsorship division :-D

Many thanks to Roy for organising such a brilliant event, and for the invite. The skies were fantastic , the company was even better.
Skelligs Lodge couldnt have been better, and thanks to Kevin and Liz for keeping us fed.

Also a small thanks to those of you who picked up various bits and pieces over the weekend from us

Roll on 2015!

Clear Skies,

Stephen

Sounds brilliant. I'm gonna have to go next year.

Thanks for a great event Roy. Very well done.

Thanks Stephen (for the help with the telescope on the Friday night), I'll be in contact again about some of the bits that we spoke about.

Regards,

Noel.

I think I'm the only one still awake after that long drive home, so, on behalf of all the NIAAS contingent, many thanks to you all for sharing in a memorable weekend.

Special Thanks to Roy for all his hard work in organising the whole thing, and for being the life and soul of the party.

Many Thanks to Kevin and Liz for the superb barbie, to Stephen K for the prizes for the quiz, and to Frida for putting up with us all with such good humour.

And many thanks also to John for sharing his Captain Morgan rum, very tasty and much appreciated. I'll have to remember the Southern Comfort for next time.

Hopefully Jonathan will put up some of his photos when he recovers, and if any of my photos of the planetary and Moon conjunction are usable (which I doubt), I'll ask him to post those as well.

See you all next time.

.

Roy, you for all the hard work in putting together the weekend and kick-starting what we'd love to see as an annual event.

Many thanks to everyone else who helped out on the weekend, supplied food for the bbq, spot-prizes for the table quiz, etc and all the craic and in the dishco

I'm never drinking again

See you all soon!

John

Hi all

Got around to working on some of the images I took. All images were taken with a Nikon D7000, a Sigma 24-70 f/2.8 lens, 30 second exposures at ISO 6400.

First is a meteor streaking through Persues with M31 close by.
www.flickr.com/photos/32880031@N03/15008...hotostream/lightbox/

The Southern Milky Way, with ghost.
www.flickr.com/photos/32880031@N03/15008...hotostream/lightbox/

Finally, the Coathanger.
www.flickr.com/photos/32880031@N03/14844...hotostream/lightbox/

Thanks for looking, still can't get over those amazing skies.

Paul

Hi all,

Had a super weekend. It was a long drive down from the North, but it was so worth it. The skies on Friday night were amazing and the craic on Saturday was great with the talks, quiz and the pub! Big thanks to Roy for putting it together, Kevin and Liz for the BBQ and Stephen for the quiz prizes.

Neill

Unbelievable weekend!
I think we should make it a week long next year. Great company, dark sky and beautiful part of the country. Thanks to Jouke who donated burgers on Friday, Stephen for the Quiz prizes, Frida for being an excellent host and to Roy for the perseverance and pushing it to conclusion. Nice to meet those I had not met before and hope to see you all soon.

The grand total for the Barnardos kitty including the BBQ and Quiz was €230 and a £1 coin : )
Meath Astronomy will be hoping to do at least a couple of charity event over year and as usual everyone is welcome.
Please find and Astronomy for Good Link. www.facebook.com/barnardosireland?ref=br...ps/1459802997638206/ please post your great pictures and maybe we can start somehting good.

Clear Skies!

You are welcome to Captain Morgan Stevie but its Liz you should be thanking as was hers and kindly offered by yours truly! Apologies Liz ,will bring nice bottle next year

Looking at the moon phases for next year, new moon is on Fri Aug 14th and Sun Sep 13th. If you go with the August weekend, you have to wait until around 23:30 for astronomical twilight to end and you get around 4 hrs of darkness. If you wait until September, you get over 6hrs of darkness with twilight ending around 22:00 through to 04:50. Approx sunset times are 21:00 in August and 19:50 in September. I suppose given that one of the main reasons for being there is to observe the Southern sky with Sagittarius and Scorpius etc, is it better to wait until the darker skies of September? Discuss

Cheers for that info Neill ... and good to see you at the weekend in Kerry.

I'd go for the weekend of September 11th to 13th. It's not just for the longer hours of darkness but the fact some clubs organize events around the August Perseids such as the MAC camp-out in Tullamore.

I think the September date also lets us see the transition from Summer skies, through Autumn, and then the Winter constellations over the course of one night. There's a nice gathering of Venus, Mars, and Jupiter in the morning sky before dawn too. The very thin crescent Moon joins the trio on the Friday (11th) morning.

I definitely will take a couple of extra days next year as the scenery is spectacular and there is so much to explore on the various peninsulas. Michael, Paul, and myself spotted a wild mink at one stage while we were driving around Valentia Island.

John

Hey Guys..

Just the same as Neill, I've been scrolling
through Starry Night and came up with the same
dates..
My vote is for Sept but I don't want to be standing
on anyone's toes so I'll do the same as last time..
So those in favor of Sept or Aug sound off.

Cheers Roy

#ClearSkies #LunarNut #LoveSkelligsSkies

We could always do both weekends .

I suspect August will be busier as it is an earlier weekend so I would vote for September as well.

Michael.

I'm for the September dates also. Might be slightly colder but its not like we are in tents.
We will also get that extra bit of darkness.
I think ill be taking an extra day myself, going to bring the fishing rods.
Teach Seanie and Dave Mc how its done !

WOW! It shows how great a weekend it was when there's already plans for 2015, 13 months in advance.

For me, I'm torn. the Perseids peak on August 12, and I can only guess what that must look like under those pristine skies, it might tempt some members to go down on the Wednesday to catch the shower and stay on for the weekend.

I know there were a few of us die hards who stayed up on the Friday night until 4.45, and the skies were still dark, Stevie showed us the Silver Coin Galaxy, NGC 253, in the early morning, so there is plenty of observing to be done in August.

We all want southern skies, and September offers the likes of Aquarius, Piscis Austrinus, Cetus, Pisces and eastern Eridinus, prime galaxy country for those who pursue such objects.

As John states, there are the stars of summer, autumn and winter to be seen in a single night, start off observing Lyra and finish off with Canis Major.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm good for either August or September.

Paul

September would be fine by me, now that my hankering to see M54, M69 and M70 in a scope has finally been settled.

The Teapot will be low on the horizon by the time daylight fades, but the M objects above it will be visible for an hour or so.

NGC253 and the elusive Helix (which I saw for a total of about 5 seconds) will both be visible, although lower down in the sky.

The constellation Cetus was also brilliant in the early morning, and I have never really had a chance to get stuck into the Eridanus galaxies.

One thing about the really dark skies down in kerry, was that you had to be super careful not to knock over/come into contact etc with other people's gear. Can anyone recommend where you could get red led lights which could be clipped on/attached to gear that's not being used etc.

Cheers

Neill

I still have M22 through a 9mm engrained in my mind. Thought I was going to have to use a moon filter it was so bright : )

I am up for August as I want to take a few days off and at least make it a long weekend or maybe even a full week - that’s not easy with kids at school although I would do September if that’s the agreed weekend. Neill, I bought some little luminous stick on stars at the Astronomy Centre that I was going to put on the bottom of the mount legs on Saturday night if it was clear. Might try it next time I am out and see how bright they are initially and how dim they get. We also had lots of clutter around so now we know how busy it can get we can clear the place out early including the chairs and BBQ. We should really also politely ask the neighbours to join us that evening i.e. turn the lights off! You could really see the difference when the lights did go off.

Hi Kevin..

Sept is the off season, so all the house's
around the area will be empty so there
will be ZERO light pollution.. That's one
of the big advantages of having it in Sept.
But if there are any neighbors around we can
certainly invite them to come and join us.

Cheers Roy

#ClearSkies #LunarNut #LoveSkelligsLodgeSkies

Neill wrote:

One thing about the really dark skies down in kerry, was that you had to be super careful not to knock over/come into contact etc with other people's gear. Can anyone recommend where you could get red led lights which could be clipped on/attached to gear that's not being used etc.

Cheers

Neill

Aldi/Lidl had some reflective strips with red flashing lights a few years ago. They have velcro on them and are perfect for attaching to scopes. Keep an eye out for them.

Michael.

I will be there next year no problem was a great weekend not to bad off a drive home only 9 hours! But it was worth it.

Thanks again too everyone who helped organise it hope to see you all again soon

Geraldine