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

Sefton Rangers - 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 - Due to logistical uncertainties it was not possible to take my 16 inch Dobsonian. However, Lew Brown was able to bring his 10 inch reflector to this event. This was easily the biggest scope there. I only brought my 80mm f5 refractor. Dave Bentley brought his 85mm refractor and Jim Stacey brought his new Celestron C6 Schmidt Cassegrain. I managed to persuade Yvonne West to go home and bring back her 4.5 inch reflector - she actually lives in Hightown so she returned within a few minutes.

I arrived, with Geoff Regan, at about 19:20. By 19:30, the heavy cloud cover started to break and we caught our first sight of the crescent Moon. LAS members Graham Roberts and Richard Jacques were also there when I arrived.

The sky really started to clear up just before 20:00 and looking westward, accross the Irish Sea, the sky was fairly dark. At about 20:15, disaster seemed to strike. A painfully bright security light started to shine across our telescopes from a house about 50 yards away. A few minutes later it was switched off and we were not bothered by it again.

Geoff Regan did two illustrated talks in the Visitors Centre, using the Sky for Windows planetarium program and some Powerpoint displays that he had recently compiled.

As well as Saturn, which gave a good image in Lew's telescope, even at 285x, we also had good views of the Moon, the Orion Nebula and the Pleiades star cluster.

The last of the 30 or so visitors left at about 21:45 and we then started to pack our telescopes away.

EVENT PICTURES by Jim Stacey:

Hightown 23 Mar 2007 Photos

HOW TO FIND THE ALT CENTRE - Maps from www.multimap.com

ALT CENTRE - HIGHTOWN - MAP 1

ALT CENTRE - HIGHTOWN - MAP 2

ALT CENTRE - HIGHTOWN - MAP 3