Members of the Liverpool Astronomical Society, (founded in 1881), will display several telescopes for viewing the Moon, Mars, Saturn and other objects in the night sky, if clear. There will also be an illustrated talk on astronomy. ***** This event is free, and is open to all members of the public.

For more information contact:-

Ainsdale Discovery Centre - 01704 570173

Liverpool Astronomical Society

Geoff Regan, Observatory Director - 0151 292 7165

Dave Owen, LAS Sidewalk Astronomers 07778 454524 *** http://angelfire.com/pokemon2/pirsig/sidewalk.html *** dowenlas@yahoo.com

EVENT REPORT - DAVE OWEN

After a week of amost continuous cloud, we were not hopeful of clear skies for this event. However, just before 18:00, Dave Thomson phoned from Ellesmere Port and mentioned that he had seen the Moon. I saw the Moon a few minutes later and by 18:15 the sky, at the LAS Leighton Observatory at Pex Hill, was 50% clear!

I arrived at Ainsdale at about 19:20, with Jim Lawler and the LAS 8 inch reflector. We decided not to bring a big scope as the weather forecast was not very good and, more importantly, Jim was using a small hatchback as his Volvo was off the road.

It took about 30 minutes to bolt together the Gazebo poles and about 5 minutes to assemble the Gazebo. Normally, the poles would already be bolted together but this means using quite a long car.

Geoff Regan used the LAS PC Projector and Laptop PC to entertain the visitors inside while Graham Roberts set up the LAS 8 inch Dobsonian.

Dave Bentley set up his 85mm Refractor and Jim Stacey set up his 5 inch Maksutov.

Gradually, the crescent Moon started to peek out from behind the clouds and by about 20:30 the 35 visitors were able to at least look at the Moon.

We started to pack up at about 21:30 and said goodbye to Rachel, the Discovery Centre Ranger at about 22:00.

Jim Stacey took some photos of this event, which are reproduced below.

HOW TO FIND AINSDALE DISCOVERY CENTRE - Maps from www.multimap.com

AINSDALE VISITORS CENTRE MAP 1

AINSDALE VISITORS CENTRE MAP 2

AINSDALE VISITORS CENTRE MAP 3