Next Meeting on Tuesday 14th of September at 19:30 in T118 in ITT
Presentation and observing at Fenit National School
On the 14th of April, we arranged for outreach educator Deirdre
Kelleghan to come down to St Brendan’s National School in Fenit
Co. Kerry to give a talk to the children. Deirdre is an Irish
astronomer who enjoys doing talks on astronomy and space exploration.
She is Vice Chair for IFAS i.e. The Irish Federation of Astronomical
Societies and a member of The Saturn Observation Campaign an informal
education program run by JPL/NASA. The presentation was about
Saturn and Her Wonderful Moons as seen by Cassini, i.e. a selection
of fabulous images taken by the Cassini spacecraft that has been
in orbit around the planet Saturn since 2004.
The children of 4th, 5th and 6th class assembled in the hall
where they were treated to an awesome presentation of the latest
images from Cassini.
Some of the images, specially the 3D ones, brought gasps of wonder
and excitement from the children who were very attentive. Deirdre
supplied the children with lots of educational material and also
invited them to do drawings of Saturn so as to further enhance
their educational experience.
Kerry Astronomy Club followed up the talk by inviting all the
children, teachers and parents to return to the school later that
evening to see the planet Saturn for real. That evening in the
clear skies above Fenit on the grounds of St Brendan’s National
School there were lots of smiling faces. Many local people got
a really good look for the first time at what the dark skies of
Kerry has to offer through telescopes. Deirdre’s presentation
and Kerry Astronomy Clubs star party were also part of Global
Astronomy Month. GAM2010 is a huge undertaking by astronomers
on this planet to share the night sky and encourage everyone to
look up.
Later that evening...
Last lunar eclipse of a century
On the 31st of December 2009, we had excellent clear skies to
the "Blue Moon" of undergo a slight (8%) eclipse. The
whole of the Moon was in the Penumbral shadow of the earth but
only 8.2% of the Lunar diameter fell within the main shadow at
maximum at 19:22 as shown in this image. (See Gallery
page for image details)
The next total Lunar eclipse will occur for us at 8:17 on the
21st of next December when the Moon will be only 4 degrees above
the Horizon.
International Year of Astronomy 2009 - Free public viewing night
We held our second public event for the International Year of
Astronomy at the Tralee Aquadome carpark on Thursday 22nd of October
under mixed skies. We had persistant cloud over the hills to the
south but they cleared sufficiently to see the main attarction
of the night, Jupiter and its Moons.
Shuttle and its booster tank on the 15th of July 2009.
Approximately 18 minutes after launch from Florida STS127 and
its now detached booster tank climb from the south western horizon,
The orange colour of the tank is clearly visible to the eye and
the pair, separated by less than a degree in the sky became incredibly
bright as they passed overhead. See subsequent
image here. and the nearsky gellery
page. Both remained visible until they were well to the east.
International Year of Astronomy 2009
To coincide with the International Year of Astronomy Kerry Astronomy
Club will be doing our bit to bring the views of night sky with
all its wonders to as many members of the public as possible.
We have already visited some national schools in the area and
are planning to get to more as the year progresses.
We took part in the 100 hours of astronomy with a sucessful public
observing sessions on the 2nd of April at the Aquadome in Tralee.
Thanks to all that turned up and to the Aquadome for allowing
us use their carpark.
We had four telescopes and some binoculars and had a stady flow
of people coming to have a look at the first quarter Moon (below)
and Saturn and three of its moons.
100 Hours of Astronomy event Thursday 2nd April, 8:30pm to 11pm
Tralee Aquadome Carpark.
The Moon and Sirius
We are giving a talk at this years Samhlaiocht
arts festival at Easter on Good Friday with, weather permitting,
an observing session after.
We hope to get many other events planned and executed over the
year, so check back here for up to date information.
CONJUNCTION OF MOON, VENUS AND JUPITER DECEMBER
1st 2008
For more pics click here
Pics
by Trevor O'Donoghue
Moon on 16th September 2008
Taken through a skylux 70 mm refractor with a Canon 450D
For large version click
here
Eclipses of August 2008
Partial Lunar eclipse on the evening of the 16th August.
Fifteen days after the Solar eclipse when the Moon was full again
there was be a Partial lunar eclipse. This occurs because at this
time the angle of the Moon's orbit intersects the ecliptic at
Full and New Moon. This was a fairly deep partial eclipse with
over 80% of the Moons surface in the umbral (total) shadow. It
rose just as the Sun set at about 9pm and the deepest eclipsing
occurred at 22:10 when the moon was just a little less than 10
degrees above the east south eastern (128deg) horizon.
From where I was in West Cork the Moon was visible for most of
the eclipse with only the odd cloud interrupting the view, Picture
is not the best as I had only a zoom lens and no tripod.
..
ISS with Shuttle attached
These are images of the ISS taken on the 18:38 pass with a webcam
and a 222mm Dobsonian telescope manually tracked.
The International Space Station (ISS) is visible
from Ireland in the Evening and Morning Sky for at different times
throughout the year. Check the links below for times.
The times are available here for when it is visible
from Killarney,
Tralee
and Dublin
Live weather.
Feedback
Hi guys. In our continued effort to improve, we have two pages
for feedback, one on speir and one on our monthly meetings,
please take the time to have a look and fill them in.
They are anonymous so please be frank
..
