Hi all

The weather looks good for the early part of the week, the Lyrids peak on 22-23rd, does anyone have an plans to observe the event? It's week night alas and that might put people off.

Paul

Hi Paul where we're you thinking of observing, val

Hi Val

I'm in contact with Ben Sugarman, about a site, he knows just about every back road in Wicklow and has some choice locations.

I suggested, if there were no scopes involved, just naked eye, binos or camera that we could try the upper lake in Glendalough. The barrier will be down, there is parking for three or four cars by the barriers and others could be parked on the road. There would be the choice of the car park itself or possibly moving down to the lakeside, both give a good expanse of sky, the light pollution will not be too bad as Wicklow Town is about 20 kilometres away, Laragh is a bit closer and shouldn't pose too much of a hindrance.

Paul

Hi Val

I don't know how far you have travel, if the Sugarloaf is more convenient that's fine.

Paul

hi paul
yea i ,d be up to going up to the sugarloaf if thats ok just to bring the bino,s and a flask of coffee and hopefully a clear sky .
what evening were ye thinking of going up wednesday or thursday cause wednesday would suit me better as i,m busy thursday night.
val

Hi Val

Sorry for the change of location, we're heading down the Glendalough direction, Ben knows a site down there we are going to check out, if it doesn't pan out we're going down to the upper lake.
Wednesday night is the night we're going down, I hope you can make it. Haven't got a time yet, most likely nine o'clock or around that time, just in case the first site doesn't work out.

Paul

Hi Paul 9 o clock sounds ok I,ll pm my number in case of a change of site or time thanks val

Hi Val

Just talking to Ben, he has identified a site up at Glenmalure that offers a great all round view with no light pollution. We can meet up at the pub in Laragh at nine if that suits.

Is there anyone else interested?

Paul

Hi Paul,

I might be free but can let you know during the day on Wednesday.

The car park by the Shay Elliott memorial on the road from Laragh to Glenmalure is high up and pretty accessible for a good few cars. It should be on the OSI viewer roughly at the location marked by the cross when you click on the link below.

John

maps.osi.ie/publicviewer/#V1,712939,692205,4,10

HI all, I started observing at about 10pm last night.
Seen about 30 meteors in total.
Those, emanating from the radiant were short in duration and white in colour, about 25 or so , peak time 3am to 3.20am at least 10 or more
The rest seemed to come from ursa major heading towards vega, and were much brighter and yellow in colour and 2 /3 sec long. took nearly 300 images, and only managed to capture a few , in short 288 images all muck .
Packed up at 5am as dawn approached.
Im looking forward to another all nighter tonight, Clear and transparent Sky's to all.
Alan

Nice report, we're heading out this evening and are looking forward to a great night.

Probably fall asleep in work tomorrow.

Paul

Yep worth watching.
My meteor cameras have started picking them up.

Great report Al ... that is real dedication to plan a meteor watch of that duration.

Ben, Val, Paul and myself set up last night at a forestry parking area close to Drumgoff, where the road that climbs out of Glenmalure begins to plateau. We arrived about 10pm with nayer a cloud in the sky and it remained like that until we packed up around 2am.

Lots of satellites, a smattering of meteors -- with Paul capturing a rather nice one on camera -- and plenty of celestial sights to sweep up. Ben showed us comet Lovejoy which is still a fine sight. We also picked off objects like M81/M82, M13, Saturn after the witching hour, satellites, some Leo galaxies, Jupiter, satellites, a handful of clusters, the Moon and Venus ... did I mention satellites? Boy, it was M50 rush-hour up there.

For me, it was great share the evening with the guys and just generally shoot the breeze while admiring the sky wheeling above our heads. I think we did more unaided eye observing than anything else, just getting familiar with the star patterns again under a dark sky. The transparency wasn't good enough to really appreciate the galaxies we saw but seeing the bustle of billions of stars at mind-boggling distances in the eyepiece really stirred the imagination.

Many thanks guys for organizing and to Ben who guided us back on to the main road home where I fell asleep having fallen in love with the hobby again.

John

Not much to add to that John, it was a great site that Ben discovered, lovely views to the north, east and south, the west wasn't too bad, just a few trees. It lies by the side of the road, though there were only three cars that passed us by, I would like to go back sometime later in the year, as I can imagine the Milky Way arching high overhead and diving south into Sagittarius would be stunning. It would be a great location for winter too, if it weren't for the roads, being that high up you are guaranteed ice on the surface, and I for one, would not like to be travelling back down that hill on any icy road, it was bad enough trying to avoid the cat that sat on the side of the road and watched us pass by. I guess we could always book into the Glenmalure Lodge for the night.

I haven't reviewed my images yet, like Al I believe that it is a case of three hundred images and one useful. The meteor that I managed to capture was a sporadic, it fizzed towards the eastern horizon, passing into Scorpius, with Saturn close by, it was a star trail image of Saturn rising that I was attempting at the time.

As regards the Lyrids, I only managed to see one really exceptional meteor, it shot overhead in the direction of Leo, there were one or two minor examples, the seeing was a contributing factor.

It was great craic with the lads, there were deep philosophical discussions such as Father Ted, The Simpsons and Spitting Image.

It was just great to be out in such good company and I look forward to doing ti again.

Thanks guys.

Paul

Alright lads had a good night Don,t know why I brought my scope had a better time looking with the binoculars and talking from father Ted to only fools and horses to occasionally hear "you missed that one ".
I thought Ben was bringing us on a mystery tour of wicklow but it turned out a good spot afterwards with only three cars to annoy us.
Thanks for good night by the way Paul I thought I heard a certain musical instruments when we were leaving sounded like banjos

That last line will confuse a few people.