R wrote:

Is there observing Fri/Sat night as a few going from Galway, they asked.

Looking forward to it, weather prospects are excellent

Hi Ronan,
Yep, both nights, all going to plan. We have exclusive use of St. Peter's GAA, only a few minutes by car and offering a good location with minimal light pollution. Or, we do have some of the car park and the permission to turn off all the carpark lights too. We'll judge it on the evening(s) itself. So, yes, bring all your astro observing gear!

(We'll generate a map for the GAA grounds and how to get there soon)

Seanie.

Neill wrote:

ISS Passes for the Weekend (Based on location of hotel)

17 Apr -1.0 22:37:12 10° WSW 22:38:58 14° SW 22:39:29 13° SSW visible
18 Apr -1.4 21:42:54 10° W 21:45:24 20° SSW 21:47:51 10° SSE visible

Iridium Flare Info (Same location)
Day Time Mag Altitude Azimuth Sat Distance to flare centre Brightness at flare centre Sun altitude
Apr 17, 22:20:53 -0.4 45° 61° (ENE) Iridium 41 41 km (E) -8.0 -14°

That's brilliant, thanks for posting Neill.

S.

COSMOS T-Shirts!



MAC will have limited stock of souvenir COSMOS (not 2015) T-shirts on sale at €15 each. Fruit of the Loom blue polycotton with colour print on the front, sizes from S to XXXL

If you would like one put aside for you, please let us know how many and what sizes.


Thanks,

Seanie.

There is an additional ISS pass on the evening of the 17th:

17 Apr - 21:00:02 10° W 21:03:10 42° SSW 21:06:16 10° SE

along with 2 dragon passes on the 17th and 18th:

17 Apr 1.8 21:34:54 10° WSW 21:36:24 17° SSW 21:37:43 11° SSE
18 Apr 2.3 21:36:03 10° SW 21:36:55 12° SSW 21:37:49 10° S

All 3 will be post sunset, but in twilight so not sure how visible they will be.

Seanie_Morris wrote:

R wrote:

Is there observing Fri/Sat night as a few going from Galway, they asked.

Looking forward to it, weather prospects are excellent

Hi Ronan,
Yep, both nights, all going to plan. We have exclusive use of St. Peter's GAA, only a few minutes by car and offering a good location with minimal light pollution. Or, we do have some of the car park and the permission to turn off all the carpark lights too. We'll judge it on the evening(s) itself. So, yes, bring all your astro observing gear!

(We'll generate a map for the GAA grounds and how to get there soon)

Seanie.

The weather prospects are indeed looking good, but I cant see the hotel been any good for observing, its in the middle of Athlone. Where are the GAA grounds, I cant find it on google maps..

Hello Seanie.

I agree with Dave Lillis. It has to be the GAA grounds to do some great observing.

Please inform us when we arrive on Friday afternoon of the location.

Aubrey.

COSMOS OBSERVING SITE

Observing will be at ST. Peter's GAA. Here's a Googlemaps layout:

www.google.com/maps/dir/Shamrock+Lodge+H...96781!2d53.41657!3e0

Seanie.

You weren't kidding about it been near athlone...

Congratulations on organising another successful COSMOS. In particular, thanks to all of you in Midlands Astronomy Club for the hard work and dedication. I had a wonderful time, the talks were most professional and effective. I remember Brian Harvey's talk finally to have Chinese women astronauts to be the first astronauts on Mars, John Zarnecki's space probe landings ups and downs. The importance of the applying the 'F' words as a prerequisite to successful astrophotography by Steve Richards. Kate Russo's psychology behind eclipse chasers. The observing, rocket launches, exhibits of telescopes/ accessories and book selling, etc. Unfortunately, I missed Birr and the other talks. What was special for me was meeting others and making new friends, the dinner was excellent. In my opinion, this was even a better COSMOS in all the years I have attended. All I can say for those who missed this one make sure you put this in your calendar for 2016, you will not be disappointed.

Eamonn
www.kingslandobservatory.com

Well done to all in MAC on an excellent Cosmos event in Athlone at the weekend. The lectures were excellent and I'm sorry I couldn't stay for all of Keith's astrophotography talk. Great to chat with everyone too during the downtime and the trip to Birr was well worthwhile too. Fantastic weather throughout the weekend and I know the dedicated observers took advantage of the clear skies.

Roll on the next event!

John

Thank you and congratulations to the MAC for organising and hosting a wonderful COSMOS 2015. I agree with all Eamonn had to say in his post. Looking forward to next year's event!

Brendan.

Hi everyone,
Just wanted to add my thanks to all the good people in MAC for a great weeekend in Athlone. Really enjoyed it and met loads of nice people. The event was really well run. A lot of hard work, but the ever cheerful organisers took it all in their stride ...looking forward to next year.
warmest regards
Kevin Berwick

Valerie and I had a most memorable Cosmos of all time. I was in complete awe when I shook hands with the great John Zarnecki. His brilliant talk on Titan and Rosetta I will always remember, and to think he is married to an Irish girl - simply astounding.

We were both thrilled to meet Kate Russo. We loved reminiscing Total Solar Eclipses with her. Roll on August 2017!!

The visit to Birr Castle ought to be held every year as long as we are meeting in Athlone. It was to catch up on all that Terry Moseley is doing to get the Leviathan back in action.

Now on a personal note: I did bring my 6.2" apochromatic refractor: it performed very well. Seeing Callisto's shadow on Jupiter was a huge event on Friday night.

Then on Saturday night when the skies were completely clear, Brendan, who lives in the area, joined up with me to do some serious observing. We looked at no less than 21 great spectacles. Brendan loves double stars -so we observed many: Castor @ 112X, Kappa Geminorum @ 112X, 20 Geminorum @ 40X, Izar @ 167X, Algieba @ 112X, Nu Draconis @ 40X, Porrima @ 140X, Praepes @ 225X, Tegmine @ 225X, Stf 1191 @ 112X, 24 Cancri @ 40X, Stt 186 @ 225X, Stf 1197 @ 140X, Stf 1201 @ 40X and Stf 1202 @ 167X.

The most dramatic sight we saw on Saturday night was M 44 the Beehive Star Cluster. Normally back home in Dublin with all the light pollution, I can see hundreds of stars even at 40X. But at St. Peter's Football Club, we could see myriads of extremely faint stars in the far background of M44. The 3D effect was very powerful.

Altogether Brendan and I observed for 3 hours 30 minutes on Saturday night, and we were both calling it a night at about 11.30. I suggested we observe one final thing before we pack up. Leo was at its highest point in the south. We headed south of Chort (Theta Leonis) to naked eye visible star 73 Leonis, and immediately we saw M 65 and M 66 galaxies!! There were side by side at 40X, and I could still see them both in the field of view at 112X. I have searched for these many times over the years; but I have failed time after time. These galaxies are 38 million light years away. M 65's diameter is 60,000 light years wide, and M 66 is 50,000 light years wide. Their separation is 180,000 light years apart. This was the perfect way to finish a 3.5 hour observing session. It is truly amazing what amateur astronomers can see from a very dark site.

I would like to thank in particular Seanie and Jason for the most memorable Cosmos we have attended so far in my life.

Let's do it all again next year.

Aubrey.

Had an excellent weekend. Big thanks to everyone who helped to organise the event, a lot of work clearly went in to it. The talks were all very good, impossible to single out any particular speaker! Decent observing session on the Friday night, looking forward to seeing the piece on Westmeath Matters on Irish TV. Lovely dinner and fun quiz on the Saturday night. Looking forward to reading Declan's book. What date is it next year?

I also had an excellent weekend - many thanks to all at MAC who did a fantastic job. I loved all the talks, very high quality speakers, and of course the meal, the quiz, and the rocket launching all added to the fun!

Well done all!

Here's a wee bit of fun, 3 mins of rocket launching highlights



Enjoy!

Paul.

Well done to all at MAC!
The event was very enjoyable.
Talks were great and the day was a very nice easy pace; we got plenty of time to mingle and chat with speakers and attendees.
The meal was lovely and the quiz was good fun. We even managed to come joint 3rd!
Dave and I eventually made it over to the observing site by the GAA pitch.
(we just missed you Aubery) but we did meet John and his wife who were there.

Looking forward to next year.

From Steve Richards via an email to MAC:

We had an uneventful journey back home and all is well.

I wanted to write to thank you for inviting me to take part in Cosmos 2015 and for the very warm welcome and great hospitality shown to my wife and I throughout the weekend and I hope that my talk was pitched correctly for your audience. The jovial atmosphere over the weekend was fantastic and I met and spoke with a wide range of enthusiastic astronomers with many interests and I certainly enjoyed listening to the other speakers – it was a pity that the unavoidable flight times meant that I didn’t hear all of Keith Geary’s talk. Your colleague, John Flannery, was also a great ambassador for the event and his generosity in driving us to and from the airport and many other kind gestures through the weekend were much appreciate by both of us.

The trip to Birr Castle was an outstanding success and everyone was buzzing with it on the return journey and back at the hotel - what a bonus for the speakers have that wonderful opportunity.

It was a privilege to have been involved with Cosmos 2015 and I wish you many more successful events in the future.

Kind regards,

Steve.

This is from Brian Harvey:

A short note to say thank you very much for organizing things for me on Saturday at COSMOS, for the lovely cheese basket and for the cheque, very much appreciated. A pleasure to meet you and your colleages, as well as many old friends from the astronomy world. Sorry I couldn't stay longer. Congrats on running an event like this, it's great to have the astronomy community so well served and I hope the rest of the weekend went well.

Best wishes,

Brian Harvey.

Well done to Seanie and Jason, as always when I attend Cosmos I love the relaxed pace and actualy getting a chance to mingle and chat to others, so a very well done again. The speakers were excellent as was the weather while dinner and quiz was good fun which we came 2nd

Ronan Newman

The Irish TV short film about COSMOS was on tonight on Westmeath County Matters. Can be seen again on the 30th at 3.30pm or 2nd at 4.30am Sky ch 191. Also available on www.irishtv.ie , its the 2nd film in the programme. It included clips of Emmett Mordaunt's talk about Death in Space along with interviews with him and Nick Howes. There was also an excellent bit at the observing session from Friday, with an interview with Seanie (he's a natural :) ). Check it out.

Goodness me, Seanie and Neill. Is that really me with me 6.2" apo on Irish television?

Don't I look good?

Aubrey.

Here's a direct link to the episode in question:
www.irishtv.ie/westmeath-matters-43/

And yes, once you removed the ferret on your head Aubrey, you looked the part!!

The relevant bit in the programme is from 4 mins 40 secs through to 12 mins approx.

By the way, following a committee meeting last night, COSMOS 25 with take place on the weekend of April 15th to 17th. Mark your diaries! (you too, Eamonn Ansbro!)

Seanie.

Is Sheany Morris your brother then, Seanie?