BAA workshop in Greenock

[Bill Ward]

Had a very enjoyable day in Greenock. It was great to meet observers from all over the UK and Ireland that made the effort to attend.

Thanks to the Inverclyde Skywatchers and BAA organisers for the varied program.

Cheers,

Bill.

[Ronan Newman]

Hi Bill

Yes an excellent event and well done to the organisers, Callum, Sandra and Lyn for making it such an enjoyable day on my first visit to Scotland. 

The event was hosted by the “Inverclyde Skywatchers” Astronomy Group who actually have weekly meetings and appear to have a very strong bond among their members. Marion O’Neill gave us a short and entertaining look at the group and very inspiring look at their society. Hear Marion talking about her society and its beginnings  http://www.isw.space/audio/ISW%20one%20-%20Inverclyde%20Radio%20Prog.mp3

The first two talks were very interesting  especially the first by Natasha Jeffery which is close to my area of interest being the Sun and Space weather, the second talk was more of the deep sky talk by Annette Ferguson on Galaxies, not something I though would be to my liking but became more fascinating as she went further into her talk, two brilliant talks over all, For the second session I watched Callum Potter give a nice round up of the different types deep sky objects from easy to hard and online resources while Owen Brazell talked about Charts, Catalogues again with a nice bit about online apps and resources.

Finally well done to Gary Palmer on an excellent presentation on close up Solar Imaging and letting us handle some of his very expensive equipment he uses for his Solar shots, not to be left out Sandra Brantingam gave us a lasting impression on  the topic of STEVE (Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement) and its association to picket-fence aurora. Looking forward to the next event

Ronan Newman

[Callum Potter]

Thanks for the feedback Bill & Ronan.

A very enjoyable weekend, I thought, and much thanks goes to all who did the real organising of the event.

And it was great to meet up again with so many astro-pals.

Cheers,
Callum

[Ron Morley]

It was a very good day in a pleasant coastal location – very large ships passing by was an added bonus.  I attended the afternoon deep sky sessions. Thank you Callum and Owen for visual observing advice and how to conduct it in an organised manner.  I was not aware of the origins and difference between catalogues and lists nor the issue of object nomenclature.  Being in a semi-rural location I will give deep sky visual observing another go.  The whole day was above all else encouraging.  The current extended bout of poor observing weather can be disheartening. The presentations gave alternative strategies including solar observing and technical reading when the clouds fail to clear.  The organisation and content of the event was great.  Thank you, Ron   

[Lyn Smith]

Thanks everyone for your great feedback. I‘m so glad you enjoyed the workshop and it’s great location on the banks of the Clyde.

i thoroughly enjoyed the day too as did the members I spoke to at the end of the day.  Inverclyde Skywatchers were wonderful as was the talented Marion McNeill who I am sure could organise anything, anywhere with 5 mins notice! 
Dr Jeffrey’s talk was right up my street of course but I really enjoyed the talk by Prof Ferguson about the peripheries of galaxies; something quite new to me and I learned a lot. Always something to learn in astronomy!

[Author]

Posts