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Posted by Child of the Space Age on August 25, 2003 at 14:26:39:
 I was trying to take photos of Mars last night with the digital camera and it reminded me of my father telling me how they used to go looking for Sputnik down past McGowans garage ??? I guess there was a lot less light pollution back then as it's quite difficult to see satellites and stars now in the middle of Castlebar, it's a shame that such a view as the magnificent and majestic night sky is drowned out by light pollution (maybe Johnny Mee can have a word with his fellow councillors about how we can introduce simple measures to protect our view of the heavens - apparently we can have a well lit urban environment, with cheaper lighting costs and less light pollution see the following websites - http://www.darksky.org/ or http://www.dark-skies.org/main.shtm ). I was wondering if any of the other contributors to the board have any stories relating to past celestial events - I can remember the excitement around Halley's comet visit in 1986 and the dissapointment at how poor it looked, more recently Hale-Bopp was impresive as you could see the tail streaming off into the ether. Mars will rise over the rooftops by about 9.30 in the evening, but you'll need to wait until about 10.30 to see it well. It will be a very bright orangey-red object in the southeast, far outshining anything else (unless there happens to be a plane around with its landing lights on, which will move noticeably).
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