A report from Michael O' Connell, Midlands Astronomy Club (MAC), Tullamore
Number of telescopes and binoculars: 3
Number of amateur participants: 3
Number of public observing (best estimate): 50
"To kick off the 100 Hours of Astronomy the Midlands Astronomy Club (MAC) has decided to be adventurous and hold two separate observing sessions, the first of which was held in Scoil Diarmada National School, Castledermot, Co. Kildare on Friday 3rd April.
In keeping with our dreadful record with Irish weather the Friday night was 100% clouded over, to make matters worse, for the previous two days in Castledermot the skies had been crystal clear. Regardless of the weather we had promised to show up and give some talks but we were expecting a poor showing from the locals. Boy, were we wrong!!!
Although the event was not due to kick off until 8pm, from about 7:30pm onwards we had people arriving until about 8:15pm. By that time we had approx 50 people, far better than we could have expected considering the weather.
The plan for the night consisted of creating a number of display stands and setting up laptops where visitors could play with some astronomy software and a give a series of short talks. The display stands showed information about telescopes, the development of the ISS and general information on astronomy issues and hands-on demos with 9 laptops set-up running copies of Stellarium, Virtual Moon Atlas and Celestia so that visitors could sample these applications. All of the applications available to demo on the night were put onto CD and handed out to visitors along with the clubs newsletter and a copy of the April edition of Sky Maps.
Michael OтАЩConnell gave an interesting talk on shooting stars and had different samples of Meteorites which were handed around to much interest of those that attended. We were also very lucky that two of the teachers and the school principle were in attendance and genuinely seemed interested and impressed by the displays and talks presented. Who knows maybe this might lead to further opportunities to present astronomy to the school.
My thanks to Declan, who helped me set-up all the display stands and to Darren and Michael for talking to the visitors and providing their assistance especially when they travelled so far. All-in-all a successful nightтАЩs outreach event especially considering the poor weather."
To see more photos from the event click here.
