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I am the Co Louth co-ordinator for Astronomy Ireland, Ireland's largest astronomy organisation. Events are organised at national and occasionally, local level. National events include the bi-annual Star-B-Q, which had 500 in attendance last August. Basically, this gathering sees the largest collection of some of the country's biggest telescopes on hand for people to observe some of the wonders of the night sky. In addition, an informative slideshow by Astronomy Ireland chairman David Moore,and a barbeque is held.
Other benifits of membership include:
2003: In late 2003, two aurora displays occured and surprisingly the weather was fine for both events. On 28th October 2003, reports emerged that a major solar flare had erupted from the sun. It was expected that the associated Coronal Mass Ejection would hit the Earth's atmosphere some 24 hours later, with aurora displays possible. However, as these are merely predictions, just like weather forecasts, the experts often get it wrong. Thankfully, they were right and on 29 October there was a most memorable display, which lasted some 6 hours. The previous display was on 6 April 2000 and I assumed it would be at least another 4 years or so before another display would be visible. However, only three weeks later, on 20th November, another brilliant Aurora display took place over Ireland and indeed much of the Northern Hemisphere. Photographs of both events, taken by me, using my Olympus C-740 digital camera, are on the attached page. The October shots were taken from The Navy Bank in Dundalk, with the Castletown River and Cooley Mountains providing the backdrop. The November pictures were taken from Seabank, some 6 miles South of Dundalk. Please click here to VIEW MY AURORA PHOTOS SLIDESHOW
2004: At local level, 2004 was ruined by inclement Irish weather. Our event to watch the lunar eclipse at sunset on May 4th 2004 was abruptly halted when the heavens opened at 9pm, just when the eclipse was due to commence! Up to 70 people had turned out but only dark rain clouds were visible in the skies above.
On June 8th the first transit of the sun by Venus since 1882 was ruined by cloud and onshore sea fog at our viewing location at Blackrock. The low cloud did lift further inland, at about 12 noon, with only 15 minutes of the transit remaining. Reports indicate that observers at the Dundalk DKIT, only a mile further inland got brief views just as the transit ended.
The aurora display of Sunday 7th November 2004, which was visible from some parts of the country was not visible in the NE - AGAIN due to cloudy skies!
2005: We started the new year with a Comet watch on 7th January. The target was Comet Macholz (click for some backround info.) Again the weather proved the spoiler, with one of the winter's worst storms occuring that night. More luck was had the following week on Jan 13th, when the event was held at the Millenium Statue, Blackrock. Although there was plenty of cloud, sufficient gaps occured to allow the comet to be viewed.
Next up was our Saturn Watch on 4th March. A report on same can be viewed by clicking Here
9:00 pm Friday April 15 2005 was the starting time for our Moon Watch. About 20 people turned up, but unfortunately I was on my own and had only the one telescope. Skies were clear and everyone was impressed by the views of the moon. I also took the opertunity to let people see Saturn, althought conditions at our heavily light poluted location were far from ideal.
At 11.24 on Wednesday 22 June 2005 the moon rose above the Irish Sea, in what was one of the most beautiful sights imaginable. The skies were 100% clear and the moon looked like a golden orange balloon hovering above the horizon. While no event was planned, several people were present at Blackrock to view the event, which saw the moon at it's lowest altitude for 19years and give the ILLUSION that it was very big.
11pm Monday 4th July 2005 saw us meet at the Millenium Statue on Blackrock's seafront. About 20 people attended our "Comet Crash" watch. NASA's Deep Impact Probe had crashed into Comet Temple 1 earlier in the day and we hoped to see the comet but unfortunately clouds extending from the West covered the Western sky. Full report Here.
2007: 1st March 2007 seen us meet at the DKIT for the first time. Author, historian and astronomer, Anthony Murphy provided an interesting insight into the links between various historical sites across Louth & Meath and the night skies. 43 people attended..
On Saturday 3rd March 2007 we met at the Millenium Statue on Blackrock's seafront for the total eclipse of the moon which commenced at 9.30pm. About 120 people attended during the night, which was our largest crowd to date. Unlike many previous occasions the weather was perfect. Thanks to Pat Bellew for supplying an additional telescope which we really needed on the night. It was a long but fruitful night with us finishing up at 1am, just as the cloud started to extend in from the south!.
I hope to continue to organize some telescope evenings in the Louth area for those interested. If you have an interest in astronomy, please contact me by clicking here. As my webmastering skills improve, I hope to keep this webpage up to date so please bookmark it and do come back.
One point I would like to stress at this point. People often have a reluctance about getting involved in astronomy organisations because they precieve them as for the scientifically minded only. Not so. If you have ever gazed at the stars in the night sky and would like to learn the basics, that's what we are about. Indeed, I would regard myself as a VERY amateur astronomer with lots to learn!
I have come across many interesting astronomy sites on the internet and I am including links to the best of them below - simply click on the underlined references.
In addition to the above links, there are many excellant free astronomy software programs / PC planetariums available on the web. These enable the user to input location details and then produce realtime charts of the night sky, showing the positions of the stars, planets, moon, star clusters, etc.
I have numerous of these on my own PC and when time permits, I will evaluate them and report back with my recommendations on this page.
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