Hi Leon,
If possible, why not come along to the SAC club meeting in Limerick when you're over.

Hi Leon.
Welcome!

Dave is right!
Why not come along to our meeting?

Or,
(if Dave is up for it)
We could take a trip to Lisdoonvarna for the night
for a bit of observing?!

If it's not possible to do it at your Aunts there is a spot called
Fanore not far away we could set up.

(or its this crazy or what?)

ohhhh, now this is a good idea ! , do you have free time in your schedulke for this Leon ? preferably a friday or saturday night,

I have allways free time for observing!You can call me on my mobill ore send me your phone number so I can call You at Friday from my Aunts place.

OK June it is.

I've booked my flight with Air France. Schedule as follows:
5th June:
DUB - Paris CDG on flight AF5011 arrive at 13:10
Paris CDG - ATH on flight AF1832 arrive at 18:15

9th June:
ATH - Paris CDG on flight AF1533 Depart at 14:55
Paris CDG - DUB on flight AF5010 Depart at 18:45

I managed to get the flight free (business class all the way - heh ) just had to pay taxes.

Frank - you still going in June??

John,wellcame in Greece!We are sure that you will enjoy your staying in Greece.

Cheers Leon,

Oh I'll enjoy it alright, even if it kills me (ouzo).
I've never been on the Greek mainland and it's been 18 years since I was last on Greek soil (Crete, May 1990 - Honeymoon, still serving my sentence).

OK so who's up for the July sessions so far?

Just reading all of this further. Leon, I would also be pleased to meet up on May 1st. We should firm up somewhere to meet Leon and show our Greek friend how we Irish have a good time:)

Having good time means to me a cloudness night under the dark sky with good friends (and good beer).I will call David on Friday,so we can make plans for Friday ore Saturday.

:arrow: News:
1 Irish friend for June, 2 for July and 1 for August so far (hey, where is the rest?)

John, you are welcome!
See you on Thursday 5 June at Athens Intl Airport!

Leon,
Lets hope for some good skies this weekend

John, you are welcome!
See you on Thursday 5 June at Athens Intl Airport!

I am so looking forward to this - Thanks Vagelis.
Anyone else coming in June??? come on when are you going to get another offer like this?

:arrow: News:
Tolis Christou is coming to Greece for the August 28-31 observing session.

Wel, how did it go last night? We are all ears. Any observations, Leon and Dave?

Wel, how did it go last night?

How did it go!?

Unreal!

For weeks we have had the worst weather then yesterday
the skies clear!

Dave and I took a spin to Lisdoon and met up with Leon and his relation.
(Sorry Leon, I forget his name!)

I was hoping to get some shots of the Dolmen so I suggested we
take the 20min spin into the Burren to see what the parking situaton was
like.
From what I remembered there was none really just a bit of a 'lay by'
at the side of the narrow road.
But thanks to the Clare County Council there is now a huge flat
gravel carpark just off the road.
Easily the best observing site in the country.
Lads, this is the Burren - there is ZERO houses for miles let alone a town.

So we helped Dave set up the Obsessionator and got to work.
(I might let Dave give the list of targets we saw here as I couldnt be bothered! :twisted: )

Highlight for me was getting a chance to photograph the Dolmen
against fantastic skies and also the view of Saturn through the 20'' er again.
Maybe its because there is lots of rock around in the burren but the
seeing was amazing and it really was like a cassini photo!

We had a great time with Leon hearing all about the club and the
various activities.
We even got to learn how to pronounce Anthony's second name!!



Well Leon,
hope you had a good time and I'm looking forward to meeting up again in Siberia!

Hey Leon,
here is that photo...

What a great night, the sky is pitch black there, as good as Doonbeg itself.
The photo above seriously exaggerates the sky glow visible there, the one to the left might be Ennistymon and the one to the right is Lisdoonvarna, these were all but invisible when there was no cloud. There was a small glow to the north east were we think lies Galway city, and to the south east was Ennis and Limerick, but these were small glows that had no appreciable effect on the sky.

We had a good look at the usual set of globular clusters in Hercules and Ophiuchus, and a run through some galaxies in Ursa major and Leo.
We had a look at the tiny 6 arc second disk on Mars, some dark features + the polar cap were visible, Saturn was imply stunning and at 500x went through good seeing where it looked like a photograph. At the start of the night the mirror was turbulent but within an hours it had settled down you could literally dive right into those globular clusters.

The viewing highlights for me were the bigger globular clusters at 500x, the spiral arms of M51 (cant get enough of that one) and Saturn and its many many moons.

Leon, it was great meeting you and many thanks for the book, I hope you enjoyed yourself and saw much of your check list, we'll meet again in Greece and Russia for sure.

We packed up at around 3am when the clouds rolled in, this site is fantastic, the perfect observing site, no houses, no tree or mountains, the carpack is compacted gravel and is very big and well off the road which was fairly quiet at that time of the night. The club is going to start using this site for its observing sessions.

If you want to see the site go to 53 degrees,2mins 51.54sec north, 9degrees 8mins 28.8west in google earth and you'll see the start of the building of this carpark (I'm not absolutely sure of the location but it does look like the best fit in my minds eye).

So you had a good time Frank, Dave and Leon!
This is a historical photograph, the 1st irish-greek meeting, and I hope many more will follow!
I am glad you guys sorted it out for a small trip and an observation with Leon, that was excellent!
And this new observing site discovery was a cherry on the pie.

PS: Leon, I am a little jealous of you. The biggest apperture I have put my eyes on is just a 18" Obsession-ator.
PS2: Me and Anthony are waiting for a full formal report from you, too!

Dave/Frank.

I understand Leon will be in Dublin on May 1st. Co-incidentally were (ai) having a telescope night in the phoenix park on that night. If Leon has no other plans I'd be happy to meet Leon and bring him along and maybe even a beer or two afterwards:) Can you pass this invite onto leon please as I don't know how to contact otherwise.

Hey Dave,

My handy no is 00306974463730.

His mobile there is the best way Dave.

Well, I went on the aer lingus site today and finally got around to booking the flights, same as Michael, I'll be seeing you all in Greece in July

Excellent Dave!
That makes 3 of you allready, coming in July: Michael, Dave and Bernadette

PS: From time to time I make some little minor changes and adittions to the initial post
www.irishastronomy.org/boards/viewtopic....rder=asc&start=0
This is to sum up latest news and updates.

Aerlingus did have a "include surfboard,skis etc" options but no 20" telescope option, so unfortunately I cant bring the scope, its only 8 weeks away, I cant wait !!!

Don't you worry Dave. I promise to you that we will have a 20" ATM dobsonian at Parnon in July! So you can bring your ski/surfboard instead.
(... unless it's against the Seenie restrictions!) :shock:

No kidding, the beach is 1 1/4 hr distance from the observing site, and some people WILL go for swimming. I never do, I prefer to stay all weekend under the pine trees, but ... who knows.
Seriously, you guys can bring swimming suits, if you wish.