Don't worry guys,
my luxury car has VIP services for two extra persons! :roll: :roll: :roll:

cache.wists.com/thumbnails/c/de/cdec004f...32101703b706dd8-orig

Have a nice flight!

Dear friends,
Finally the above VIP services enjoyed by Michael O & Dave G.
I don't know what happened to the other two

Well four awesome days and three excellent dark nights -clouded only
by our Milky Way is a past.

Two photos from daylight activities:
www.astronomia.org.gr/Coppermine/display...hp?album=5&pos=0
&
www.astronomia.org.gr/Coppermine/display...hp?album=5&pos=3

Thanks to Michael O, Dave G, Dave L & Frank for being with us
these days.
John Murphy your absence was felt

Oh what an experience!!!

Clear Skies with friends to all of you!

ps. Left things:
1) A very nice NASA hat - I keep it...
2) A white sleeveless undervest - I keep it even I haven't tattoo on my arm
3) A grey color underwear - I keep it too...
4) An electronic shaving machine - I'll think in future...
5) We haven't checked all cars yet!

3) A grey color underwear - I keep it too...

Yiannis,
Didn't think you were in to that sort of thing....

Sounds like a good time was had - I look forward to seeing pictures and reports from all involved.
Weather here has been apalling

Good Morning Ireland!

Sad a moment it was when we had to say good bye and fairwell to our 4 new friends Michael, Frank, Dave L & Dave G.

We all had a great time and enjoyed the nature, the sky and talking under the stars - and under the hot Sun, too!

All amateur astronomers share the same passion for (g)astronomy and life and we were all made of the same stardust (I don't know about
astrologers).
For us, meeting you it was a real pleasure, and I hope to meet again. In Novosibirsk for sure!

John, we expect to meet population II (Ben et all) sometime!

Photos coming soon.
........
ps. Left things:
6) A very nice green ball, in the shape of an elliptical galaxy, with a shamrock stamp! Found in Leonidas's car.
I don't think you could ever manage to get it back!

*soft Voice* Good Morning

What can I say!!!
The generosity of our Greek friends was simply staggering!, very well organised, food, drink, transport, great company, all you could ask for !!!
I was stunned to see that almost everyone had fluent english, I couldn't even say hi in Greek :oops:
We were collected from the airport on Wednesday and brought to the hotel, then we were brought to an observatory on a hill in Athens where we had an amazing view of the city and of the Acropolis !!
You see it on TV but to see it for real is something else :shock:

On Thursday morning we were brought up to Parnon, a fantastic scenic 3 hour drive, the site itself is a perfect high altitude location with a natural spring nearby, without which it would have been impossible to stay up there.

The views of the sky there are amazing, the Sagittarius and Scorpius milkyway view alone is worth the trip, it makes the milkyway in Cygnus look quite feeble, we really loose out by not seeing it properly from Ireland (wait until you see some of the pictures the lads got of it!!!)
The star clouds were easy to see and were amazing in binoculars. The lagoon and trifid nebulae were fab and M22 was much better then M13, best I've ever seen it. The guys there were extremely generous with their telescopes and we all got fantastic high power views of many objects in the sky. We had 3 clear nights, the first day it was cloudy with lightening but it then cleared as it got dark. On Friday night we noticed flashes in the north eastern sky which was completely clear, we found out that there were clouds below us (we were at an altitude of ~1400 meters) and that a massive thunder storm was underway, it went on for a few hours and was flashing every 10-20 seconds, simply amazing. We also saw the ISS pass over and countless meteors, more then I've see in the past 3 years here. One striking thing I noticed was the night-time horizon, atmospheric extinction is no where near as bad as it is here.
On Saturday night we all noticed what looked like dark thin clouds on the southern horizon only to be told it was a forest fire 40km away, the smoke drifted further away and the sky cleared, an event which was a complete novility for us.
The range of scopes there was fab, 20, 18, 15 inch dobs and numerous other SCTs, dobs and refractors.
I certainly packed way too much clothes, next time I'll bring alot less and bring a much bigger tent. Daytime site temperatures were in the high 20s and night-time to me seemed like the low teens, daytime Athens temperatures were in the high 30s !. We went for a swim on the way back on Sunday, I'm now a member of the same club as John Murphy as I ended up stumbling on something with tiny spikes and am near done with getting them out of my feet I didn't feel them at all and only noticed them when I saw them.
The beach was fantastic and Greece is now right up there with Spain in my list of holiday destinations.
Many thanks to Leonidas, Christina, Vagelis, Yiannis, Stella, Kiriyaki, Stefanos, George + family, Dora, Stelios, Adonis (sorry for bad spellings :oops: ) and everyone else who's names currently eludes me, you all made us feel very welcome and thanks for bearing my sad attempts at trying to pronounce Greek worlds, I have a memory like a sieve at times.

You guys should all be getting paid by the Greek tourism board, you did a fantastic job. !
I only wish we could repay you by having you at an observing session here in Ireland and showing you the sites, but given the totally unpredictable bad weather here it would be a star free trip. See you all again in Novosibirsk.
MANY MANY THANKS!!!

See you all again in Novosibirsk.

Dave et al,

Please accept my sincere apologies for not being there! I stayed home so as to do some imaging but the haze which has appeared out of nowhere the past five to six days made a mess of my plans and added to my regret at not being with you atop Mt Parnon.

I am delighted to learn that you had a great time ... not too much of a surprise knowing that Mt Parnon is like paradise to us.

With the exception of Dave Grennan who cannot make it to Novo, I will see the three of you in a few weeks and hopefully we can make up for the lost time and opportunity from this past weekend.

I think that in a few years I will have more Irish friends than Greek friends.We was all very lucky with the weather.And we was all very sad yesterday at the airport.I founded that small Irish football in my car,if you need it just came over my place in Athens to get it.
Thank you for visiting us,see you in Novosibirsk
ena-dio-tria!

A very BIG thank you to all our Greek friends for looking after us so well! It was a wonderful experience! Not only did we have 3 beautiful clear nights but we also made some amazing friends. We were really well looked after and your generosity was incredible. The whole weekend was so well organised and we really appreciate the efforts you all made to make us feel welcome and to make your stay comfortable. If any of you ever want to visit Ireland, please contact us and we will do our best to make your time in Ireland an enjoyable one.

THANK YOU!

Yiannis

There is something wrong with the first picture. All I can see to the left of the table is a big white glow! :wink:

I'd say when the guys landed back at Dublin Airport they felt right at home. Clouds, clouds, clouds and torrential rain.......Ah the Irish Summer. You've got to love it. :roll:

1) A very nice NASA hat - I keep it...
2) A white sleeveless undervest - I keep it even I haven't tattoo on my arm
3) A grey color underwear - I keep it too...
4) An electronic shaving machine - I'll think in future...
5) We haven't checked all cars yet!

Ah, that explains alot!
My bag got torn and some items must have fallen out. I only discovered the tear in the bag when I arrived at the airport. Main thing there is the electric razor. I'll send you a pm about this.

A very nice green ball, in the shape of an elliptical galaxy, with a shamrock stamp! Found in Leonidas's car.

I expect to see the start of the Greek rugby team ...although don't start playing with the ball near the telescopes...

Don't worry guys,
my luxury car has VIP services for two extra persons! :roll: :roll: :roll:

cache.wists.com/thumbnails/c/de/cdec004f...32101703b706dd8-orig

Have a nice flight!
...
Dear friends,
Finally the above VIP services enjoyed by Michael O & Dave G.
I don't know what happened to the other two

I think they fell out somewhere along the way along with the razor!

BTW, I think you have the best car. MUCH better than the Punto!

BTW, I think you have the best car. MUCH better than the Punto!

Michael,
It was only one car -mine, which was the Chairman's limo and three luggage vans for the security staff and those large suitcases

Hi All (and especially our new Greek friends)

If I began to try and express the generousity of our Greek hosts I would fail miserably. I have never before been made feel so welcome in all my life. So to all my new greek friends, to Vagelis, Yiannis, Leon, Katarina, Stella, Stafanos, Georges, Dora, Stelios, Adonis, Dimitris. (and all others). I'm sure you will forgive me if I save a very special thank you to the lovely Kiriakee (Frau Cula) (spelling?).. So all I can do is say the biggest thank you for your kindness, for the lovely food, for making such a big effort to speak to us in english, but most importantly of all ,for your friendship which is something I will always treasure.

Σας ευχαριστώ για όλα. Θα σας θυμηθώ όλοι για πάντα.

I hope to get to look at some photos this evening and will post these as soon as possible.

As for the astronomy, I will never forget that sky, to see the ground lit by the milky way is something every one needs to see at some point. As Mt Parnon is at Latitude 37degrees north, you get to see a lot more of the southern milky way in Sagittarius and Scorpius. The entire constellation of Scorpius is quite a sight to see. Wonderful as the astronomy was, the company of all those wonderful people is what I will remember most of Mt. Parnon July 2008.

I do hope you all will come to Ireland sometime soon so we can at least begin to return the kindness.

Vagelis/Yiannis/Leon: As a last favour would it be possible to send the guys email addresses please as I stupidly forgot to ask for these before we left. If possible please send to dave (at) webtreatz (dot) com

ena-dio-tria!

Just to share the 'private' joke here. The beautiful Katarina is an avid photographer, before she would take a shot, she would say ena-dio-tria(crespi) (one-two-three-cheers). I suggested that when the eclipse is about to be total in Novo, Katarina might be heard ti say the same thing

Please accept my sincere apologies for not being there!

Dear Friends (and Anthony)

Only kidding my friend. Although I will not be able to travel to Novo, I have no doubt that we will get to meet you in the not too distant future. Maybe you will come to Ireland with all the rest of the gang (hint, hint)

Here are some photos from the trip

www.astroshot.com/Greece-2008/index.html

I also took an image of the Milky Way in Sagittarius.
Hutech Modified 300d, Astrotrac (thanks Frank!); 338sec + 388sec exposures (total 12 mins) combined in Photoshop; ISO400; Canon 100-400mm L Lens @ 100mm focal length for this image.
Minimal processing done of these images. By and large, this is how it appeared on the LCD screen after taking the exposure.

www.astroshot.com/Greece-2008/2008-07-05-Milky-Way.jpg (750kb)

ena-dio-tria!

more like
ena-dio-tria - feta

Here are some of my photos

astronomia.org.gr/Coppermine/thumbnails.php?album=5

(files starting with: Parnon_July_2008 ... ...)

Hey Geeks!
Uh..
I mean..
GREEKS!

You guys are THE BEST!

The lads have already said it all
but I'd still like to say I can not get over your hospitality!
I'm with Dave L here,
I think you are working for the Greek tourist board on the sly.


I had a fantastic time.
Thank you all sooooo much!

All I can say really is that my house is yours.
Please, please do come over sometime soon!
I'd love to take ye around West Clare and show ye the sights.
(maybe if we are lucky the skies will be good in the Burren)

Again
THANK YOU ALL SOOO MUCH!
Yiamas!

Some pictures from the fantastic observing site that is Mt. Parnon:
www.frankryanjr.com/parnon_2008.htm

The beautiful Katarina is an avid photographer, before she would take a shot, she would say ena-dio-tria(crespi) (one-two-three-cheers).

Dave,
the name is not Katarina but Christina
ena-dio-triiiiia-cheeeese (but the cheese is feta)

Guys, we thank you all for your flattering remarks but we
just did our best -as Greeks is in our blood- for our guests!

I'm really happy watching the white glow -your faces on the photos!
At least we were at the airport on time even I did everything
(souvlakia-beers-talking- to keep you in Athens

Frank really nice photos of Milky Way :shock:
(As you know I'm a well experienced astrophotographer )

Farewell to all cu @ Novo!
(Even our Star is not a carbon one, I'll be there!)

Thank you all for your kind words! But it was really a pleasure meeting all of you, DaveG, DaveL, Frank & Mike! Sharing things is all that counts!
Excellent images Frank! Weldone!

One more thing: It is not Catrianna, nor Katrina, it's just Christina, remember?

Superb reports guys and many thanks to all our friends in Greece for hosting the Irish groups.

Frank, that sound you heard is my jaw hitting the floor ... your Milky Way pictures are incredible and if ever an ad was needed for buying an Astrotrac then your photos are one. Well done!!!!!

atb,

John

Some pictures from the fantastic observing site that is Mt. Parnon:
www.frankryanjr.com/parnon_2008.htm

Very nice work Frank.
Keep it up!