MORETON

ASTRONOMY EVENING

FRIDAY 14 JANUARY 2005 7:30 PM - 9:30 PM

Members of the Liverpool Astronomical Society, (founded in 1881), will display several telescopes for viewing the Moon and Saturn, 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:-

Wirral Ranger Service - 0151 678 5488

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

I arrived with Geoff Regan, his 12 inch and my 16 inch Dobsonian reflectors at about 19:10. Graham and Pam Roberts were first to arrive at 18:00, followed, half an hour later, by Dave Thomson. Dave Thomson soon had the TROK 30 Dobsonian assembled and, although there was a fair amount of cloud, we were hopeful of getting some decent breaks to allow us to see the waxing cresent Moon and the planet Saturn.

While Geoff did 5 slide shows in the lighthouse for about 150 people, I was able to enlist the help of a few visitors to enable me, Jim Lawler and Lew Brown to assemble the 16 inch. The wind was quite blustery and the 16 was kicked about 10 to 20 degrees at times as its cloth tube cover acted as a sail. However, some very good views of Saturn, the Moon and the Orion Nebula, M42, were obtained with my 25mm eyepiece. I was too busy to look for some higher power eyepieces and did not even have time to look through the TROK 30 scope.

I was quite pleased with the performance of my 3 inch f4 reflector, using a 15x eyepiece, that gave good views of the Moon, the Pleiades and Comet Macholz 2004 Q2, in Perseus.

Chris Banks was just outside the 16 inch turning circle with his 8.5 inch reflector and Jim Stacey was kept busy with his 5 inch Maksutov scope. The only other telescope that i can recall being used was Dave Bentley's 85mm refractor.

Graham Roberts managed to sell 21 LAS booklets and, as usual, the Friends of Leasowe Lighthouse had set up their tea/coffee bar inside.

We finally left the lighthouse at about 22:30 as we were eager to see the special tv programme that was being bradcast at 23:30 on the landing of the Huyghens probe on Saturn's moon Titan.

The total number of visitors was estimated to be about 200. If only they could, somehow, make the inside of the lighthouse a bit bigger!?

Jim Stacey and Dave Thomson were able to take a few photos that can be seen below.

Our next Sidewalk Astronomy Event is on Fri 4 Mar 2005, at Pickerings Pasture, near Widnes.

HOW TO FIND LEASOWE LIGHTHOUSE - Maps from www.multimap.com

LEASOWE LIGHTHOUSE MAP 1

LEASOWE LIGHTHOUSE MAP 2

LEASOWE LIGHTHOUSE MAP 3