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

Halewood Visitors Centre - 0151 448 0960

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

I arrived at about 19:00 with Geoff Regan and his 12 inch Dobsonian reflector. We had also brought the Liverpool Astronomical Society's laptop PC and PC projector. Cathy and Darren, the Knowsley Rangers, had already opened the building. One of our newest members, Chai Gadepalli, had agreed to bring along the LAS 8 inch Dobsonian reflector.

The fairly clear skies also encouraged Jim Stacey to set up his 5 inch Maksutov telescope and Brendan Martin to set up his 10 inch Dobsonian reflector. This has digital encoders on the altitude and azimuth axes, enabling it to be quickly pointed to within a fraction of a degree of several thousand objects. Dave Bentley also set up his 85 mm refractor. Another instrument set up was Jim Lawler's 25 x 100 binoculars.

Although it was very cold, there was very little wind to trouble us. What troubled some of us was the very bright gibbous Moon that rose higher and higher as the evening progressed. This made Deep Sky objects, such as the Ring Nebula in Lyra, very pale and washed out. However, one good thing about the Moon is that it looks spectacular in just about any telescope. Geoff Regan's 4.5 inch f4 reflector showed the Moon really well, until it's "front window" dewed up. This problem was quickly fixed by Jim Stacey's 12 volt Dew Gun. The dew, however, soon returned. I also set up my 3 inch f4 reflector on the same tabletop. However, as this is a conventional Newtonian, it has no front window that quickly dews up.

Since our last visit, in November 2005, the Car Park had been resurfaced. This should make it a lot easier to set up big telescopes, such as the three 20 inch Dobsonian Reflectors that we are currently building - first light expected in 2007.

At about 20:10, Geoff Regan started to do an illustrated talk/Astro Software Demo in the Visitors' Centre. Also, at about this time, we were joined by 3 Community Safety Officers. They seemed to enjoy looking through our telescopes and lingered for over half an hour.

The number of visitors was estimated to be about 50. Added to the 9 LAS members and 2 Rangers this gave a total body count of about 60.

At about 21:05, Geoff finished his talk. We started to pack up about 30 minutes later and finally left just before 22:00.

Jim Stacey was able to take some photos of this event which can be seen below:-

The next Sidewalk event will be at Leasowe Lighthouse, Wirral, on Fri 26 January 2007.

Dave Owen

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