HATCHMERE - CHESHIRE
ASTRONOMY EVENING
FRI 11 JANUARY 2008 7:30 PM - 9:30 PM
Members of the Liverpool Astronomical Society, (founded in 1881), will display several telescopes for viewing 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:-
Delamere Forest Visitor Centre - 01606 889792
Liverpool Astronomical Society
Geoff Regan, Observatory Director - 0151 292 7165
Dave Owen, LAS Sidewalk Astronomers - 07778 454524
EVENT REPORT - Dave Owen - Graham Roberts was first to arrive at this venue, at about 14:30. He was able to liase with the Forestry Commission Rangers and arrange for the classroom and other parts of the Visitor Centre to be available for our use that evening.
I arrived at about 17:05, with Geoff Regan. Dave Thomson arrived, with the TROK 30 inch Dobsonian, at about 18:30. A very cloudy day was predicted to become clear between 18:00 and 21:00. Luckily for us, this actually happened!
Geoff gave three seperate talks, in the clasroom, to about 40 people. We estimated, at the end of the evening, that the total number of visitors and LAS members was about 100 to 150.
At about 19:57, several people were able to spot Mars, as the cloud gradually thinned. At about 20:45, there were about a dozen stars visible and eventually we were able to enjoy a very transparent sky that was mainly cloud free.
At about 21:07, Dave Thomson agreed to start assembling the TROK. Twenty minutes later it was fully assembled, apart from final collimation tests, using a laser pointer mounted in the eyepiece tube. The first object examined was M42, the great nebula in Orion. A small queue quickly gathered at the bottom of the, very tall, TROK ladder. Mars was another popular object with many TROK viewers. Other objects viewed with the TROK were M1, the Crab Nebula; the spiral galaxy M81 and the nearby peculiar galaxy M82. However, my favorite TROK object that evening was NGC 2392, the Eskimo Nebula. Unfortunately, I did not get anywhere near enough time to appreciate the tremendous amount of detail that this large telescope shows in this object. There were too many other people queueing at the foot of the ladder!
Other instruments for visitors to look through were two 10 inch reflectors, a 6 inch reflector, a 6 inch refractor, an 85mm refractor and two large pairs of binoculars.
By about 01:00, we decided to start dismantling the TROK. Some of us wanted to get some sleep to prepare for some telescope making about 12 hours later!
As the Moon set early, about 19:30, we were able to appreciate how dark this site really is. For example, the nebulous star cluster M44, in Cancer, was easily visible to the naked eye. We are now very keen on arranging a similar event at this venue in 2009.
EVENT PICTURES by Jim Stacey:
Delamere Forest 11 Jan 2008 Photos
HOW TO FIND DELAMERE FOREST PARK - Maps from http://maps.google.co.uk/maps
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