From: TerryMosel@aol.com
Date: Sun, 6 Apr 2003 16:38:43 EDT
Subject: 2 Bril nights, Sky at Night, Aurora

Hi all,

Fantastic! Two very successful IAA observing events, on Friday night at 
Carnfunnock, and Sat night at Castle Espie, the latter being 100% clear!

We had a good crowd at each event, and thanks to all IAA members who turned 
up, with a wide selection of telescopes and binocs. The total aperture 
available, especially on the Sat night, was over 80 inches! And thanks also 
to Mark & Cathy McCluney, and Robert Hill, respectively, for doing the 
excellent Planetarium presentations on those two evenings.

Friday night had some cloud, but all saw everything there was to see, 
including an ISS pass.

Saturday night was one of the best ever, with Mercury easily spotted with the 
unaided eye, an ISS pass, an Iridium flare, about 14 other satellites, many 
quite bright  (there's so much stuff up there, it's spooky!), and excellent 
views of the crescent moon, earthshine, Jupiter (including a transit and 
shadow transit of Io), Saturn, and the usual deep sky gems.

That's a 100% observing success rate at each event at these two venues for 
the 7 (or 8?) events we have held there - is this a record???? All went home 
very happy. The one downer was that Ken Doyle lost a pair of Pentax 
binoculars at Carnfunnock - if anyone knows anything about a pair being 
found, please let me know.

The Sky at Night tonight should be interesting, with Sir P talking to Colin 
Pillinger, creater and designer of the Beagle Lander, soon, we hope, to 
search for signs of life on Mars. It's at 01.00 on Monday morning, BBC1. 

And there's another another low-level aurora alert, so keep an eye on the N 
horizon just in case.

Clear Skies,

Terry Moseley

Last Revised: 2003 April 7th WWW contact: webmaster@star.arm.ac.uk

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