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

Hey don't forget about me!

Whats the beach like for surf!? :wink:

Hey don't forget about me!

Sory Dave! It's just that the other guys have sent me their final flight schedules.
So I pencil you in for July.
If I understand well from your post
www.irishastronomy.org/boards/viewtopic.php?p=64822#64822 this means you r coming with Air Lingus, same flight as the others?

Whats the beach like for surf!? :wink:

Come on, Frank, this is not California, this is Greece!
Surf is not allowed. Seanie's restrictions.

Vagelis wrote:

this means you r coming with Air Lingus, same flight as the others?

That's what he thinks!! :twisted: :twisted:

Be aware Vagelis that Frank is a surfing nut !! :wink: oh the stories ..
come on Frank, you can do it, make it 5!

Leon, can Frank come? Did he pass the tests?
(Leon's approoval is very important to me)

Yeah there is surf in the Med!
I've been there done that!
In fact, surfed in Crete!
AND there are feckin sharks too!
(thats another funny story for you Dave!!!!)

OK Frank, you PASS, so that we can all hear your stories at the fireplace.
Shall I pencil you in for ... let's say ... July? Can you make it? :wink:

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

Hey don't forget about me!

My buddy Grennan is coming to Greece in July? Oh man, this is awesome!!!

Dave wrote:

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

My car is going in for some heavy duty maintenance/repairs this Thursday (already failed its NCT twice!) which could end up costing me a packet so unfortunately, my flight plans for Greece are on hold untill I see what the damage is and whether I still have enough pennies left over. Fingers crossed that I can still make it.......

Mmm....pity I missed this earlier,as I'll be in Greece (Corfu, mind) from July 7th-14th with my daughter to start teaching her scuba diving, and possibly be back sometime later in the year if I can afford it.
However, any further excursions, I might be up for them.

Hi everybody,I am back in Athens now.I stayed only 1 day in Dublin,so I could not meet anyone alse.It was a fantastic observing night with Daves teleskope.Dave and Frank,thank You very much.I had never looked at the night sky with such a big teleskope.And it was dark enought out there.I had the feeling that I was observing with the Hubble teleskope.
I hope to see many of You fellows in Greece this summer.
All astronomers on Earth are sharing Saturn,Albireo,the ring nebular and all the beauty of the sky.I feeld like I was observing with my friends here in Greece.It was all about that to observ next,what eyepiece to use and so on.We have all the same interrest for astronomy,so it is easy to have a good time,even when we live far away from each other and are speaking differend languages.
Astronomy is a good way to make friends on all the world.

Leon,

Hope you enjoyed Ireland - see you in June I hope.

BTW - Any other Irish going in June or am I the only one?

Hi!
Today I made a reservation for you, John Murphy! I ‘ve sent you a pm. Athinais Hotel. See you on June 5th! Anyone else for June?

For July and August travelers, we have 2 options:

Plan A
We pick you up from Athens Airport upon your arrival, give you a lift to a hotel*, then you take some rest, and in the evening we all go out for dinner and/or a drink at downtown Athens historical center, enjoying the view of Acropolis. In the next morning, we pick you up from the hotel and we drive to the observing site. We arrive at about noon.

* A very good choice is Athinais Hotel (I heartfully recommend it) www.athinaishotel.gr/default_en.htm
It's nice and clean, situated by a metro station (subway), it’s not far from city center, and it’s very convenient for picking you up on our way to Parnon the next morning. Prices: Single room 65 euros, double or twin room 80 euros, triple room 96 euros (all prices include breakfast).
Or it could be Crystal City Hotel www.crystalcityhotelathens.com/en/index.php (not really better, just a bit more expensive). Or something else of your choice, if you find smth in the internet.

Plan B
We pick you up from Athens Airport and we drive directly to the observing site. We arrive well after midnight. No observing, because we will all be tired. We just settle ourselves in the George Pierce refuge. In the next morning we start enjoying our 4 days in heaven.

Which plan do you prefer?

Vagelis,

I am totally open to what ever you guys want to do. Heading straight to the site sounds good, though plan A - dinner and a beer sounds good too. So I will leave all decisions up to my hosts.

John,
The P-Day is coming! One week away
Scedule: as it is.
The earlier we can go to Parnon in June is Friday morning, 6th June, as it is stated in my first post "June 6-8, or July 3-7 or August 28-31" www.irishastronomy.org/boards/viewtopic.php?t=8370&start=0
There we will stay for 3 observing nights: Fri, Sat & Sun.
We will return to Athens on Monday 9th June.
So be prepared for dinner & beer for Thursday evening!
.....................................................................................
On Friday midnight we will attempt to observe & record an occultation by asteroid Astraia from Parnon Mt. Our observing site is just north of the yellow dot in Greece.
This is a great event, 97% probability in Athens, but only 16% in Parnon observing site. We will be somewhat out of the predicted occultation path, but we will try anyway. Maybe it will be visible, even though it's duration might be quite smaller.
(A lot of observers are going to try it in Greece, Austria, Germany, Czech Rep, Denmark, etc)
In case you are interested, you can do a little homework and learn how to locate the target star (to be occulted by Astraia): TYC 291-146 in Virgo.
It's very easy, can be located in any finderscope, 8.9 mag, orange coloured, ~1.6 deg south of Delta Virginis.



AAVSO mirror image with 7 deg and 1 deg FOV circles: www.astrovox.gr/forum/download.php?id=6169
Steve Preston info: www.asteroidoccultations.com/2008_06/0606_5_12820.htm

The P-Day is coming! One week away
Scedule: as it is.
The earlier we can go to Parnon in June is Friday morning, 6th June, as it is stated in my first post "June 6-8, or July 3-7 or August 28-31" www.irishastronomy.org/boards/viewtopic.php?t=8370&start=0
There we will stay for 3 observing nights: Fri, Sat & Sun.
We will return to Athens on Monday 9th June.
So be prepared for dinner & beer for Thursday evening!

I am really looking forward to this.
I hope the asteroid co-operates (16%) sounds slim, but definitely worth a look. Sometimes the best data comes from the edges of the track.

Sometimes the best data comes from the edges of the track.

Indeed!!! That's how I observed my first occultation. I was out of the main track!

And for those of you that will come to Parnon in July,
we will have very good chances to observe an occultation event by asteroid Eichsfeldia,
in the early hours of July 6: www.asteroidoccultations.com/2008_07/0706_442_12914.htm

Google Earth Path: farm4.static.flickr.com/3079/2533993146_ce9d1ed8d9_o.jpg

Lads,
does anyone have a map of Greece where Mt Parnon is pinpointed?

Lads,
does anyone have a map of Greece where Mt Parnon is pinpointed?

Dave,

A little to the left and then down ... from Athens. :mrgreen:

It is about 300 km southwest of Athens and due east of Sparta ... it is truly an impressive sight at night. The Milky Way is one huge cloud!

Dave,dont worry,we wont let You get lost in Greece.John,I am happy to meet You on Thursday.

oh I cant wait !!

Good Luck to all the guys heading over this week. Myself and PJ30something will look after this place while you lot are gone

If you don't come back with loads and loads of pics we will be very disappointed.

Psst...Thanks Anthony for babysitting them for us for a while