MORETON

ASTRONOMY EVENING

FRIDAY 10 JANUARY 2003 7:30 PM - 9:30 PM

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

LEASOWE SIDEWALK EVENT FRI 10 JAN 2003

I arrived at about 18:20 with Geoff Regan and the 16 inch sidewalk scope. Dave Thomson, with his son Dave, was already there, with Leasowe Ranger Adam King. Other scopes brought were Phil Fitzpatrick’s 8 inch Celestron, Graham Arnold’s 8 inch motorized reflector, Dave Robinson’s 4 inch refractor, Jim Stacey’s 5 inch Maksutov, John Moffat’s 5 inch Maksutov, Chris Bank’s 8.5 inch f5.5 reflector as well as the TROK 30.

Dave Thomson and Jim Stacey took some photos. The Friends of Leasowe Lighthouse provided tea and coffee. We brought our own food.

The 16 inch took quite a while to set up. At one point somebody said that there were “too many people trying to help set it up”! Eventually it was set up on the first quarter Moon. A 40mm 2 inch eyepiece gave a very sharp 50x magnification. Later I switched to a 17mm eyepiece which gave about 140x magnification. Other objects viewed with the 16 inch were the Orion Nebula and Jupiter. I thought I could see a shadow transit on Jupiter but when I checked later it seems I was seeing a double shadow transit of Io and Europa. The shadows were almost coincident at about 21:30. At about this time the disk of Europa was just about to pass across Jupiter

The TROK 30 was used to mainly look at Saturn. The only view that I got through the TROK was of the Moon at about 180x. Unbeleivable!

Most of the approximately 200 visitors started to drift away after 21:00 but we didn’t pack away our scopes until after 22:30. The weather was mostly clear but after an almost cloudless day it was a bit disappointing to see so much cloud.

Other LAS members present, who I recognised, were John Simcock, Dave Bentley, Graham Roberts and his sister Pam.

Dave Owen

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

LEASOWE LIGHTHOUSE MAP 1

LEASOWE LIGHTHOUSE MAP 2

LEASOWE LIGHTHOUSE MAP 3