Despite the dire weather forecasts my advice to "watch anyway" paid off, at least for some of you. If you watched continuously from 2am to 6am as I advised (checking every half hour really isn't enough in atrocious weather like last night) you would probably have glimpsed the eclipse from Ireland. I did (Dublin) and so did John Hoare in Kildare and Kevin Sheahan in Wicklow who sent in the first reports so far. John seemed to have the best of it. From Kildare town he had frequent glimpses of the Moon moving in to the Earth's shadow from 2:25am to 2:55am. He noted that the edge of the Earth's shadow was "sharply defined" and the area in shadow "was barely visible". Clouds parted again at 3:45am, during Totality. The eclipsed Moon was so dim he left the town for the Curragh racecourse where he had "repeated glimpses" until 4:30am when clouds and rain closed in. He reported some interesting lighting effects on the eclipsed Moon which will appear in our magazine report in due course and he estimated the Danjon rating as between 1 and 2 (see magazine for explanation). Kevin Sheahan in SW county Wicklow only had "a few glimpses of the umbra eating away at the Moon between 2:30am and 3:00am." Spurred on by all the TEXT messages from John Hoare reporting his sightings in Kildare I headed off in that direction near the end of Totality, having seen nothing from Dublin. Storm had abated and conditions were OK for driving. Near the M50 exit for Dunsink Observatory the clouds broke and I got glimpses of the Moon 10 minutes after Totality (around 5am) from outside the Observatory appropriately enough. The top of the Moon had emerged into sunlight and the cusps of the short arc were pointing down. I got one more brief glimpse and then a good view of the Moon at 6am when it was once again a Full Moon. Well worth the effort given the wait we'll have for the next one in March 2007. We got several other TEXT messages to the number we gave out in the last email but just to report cloud cover and rain. Thanks for those anyway. If anyone else got a glimpse of any part of the eclipse please email observe@astronomy.ie as soon as possible so we can compile a full report of the eclipse as seen from Ireland for our magazine. The eclipse was seen from half the planet remember and I'm sure the net is full of lovely photos. Here's one from regular contributors to our magazine from Austria: http://www.astrostudio.at/images/a/axkjgolr.jpg Quick plug for our next two major events: Leinster Nov. 8: "Photographing the Planets" We're bringing in Damian Peach from the UK, one of the world's best planet photographers. Book seats now for Monday November 8 in D.C.U. at 8pm. See www.astronomy.ie only 5euro (3euro members and concessions). All-Ireland Nov. 13-14: Astro-Expo 2004 "The Dublin Astronomy Weekend" for EVERYONE in Ireland. 2 days of brilliant lectures, huge exhibition, and the AI annual dinner. ESA's top astronaut, Stephen Hawking's Astronomy Ireland student, and Sir Isaac Newton to name a few! Have dinner with them all at the highly reduced rate if you book now. Weekend pass to the entire event ONLY 20euro! See www.astronomy.ie for details including accommodation list for majority of our members who live outside Dublin. Regards and clear skies, ===== David Moore BSc FRAS, Chairman, Astronomy Ireland, P.O.Box 2888, Dublin 5. Editor, "Astronomy & Space" magazine. ASTRONOMY SHOP: open until 6pm Mon.-Sat. Tel (01) 847 0777. Fax (01) 847 0771. www.astronomy.ie (Subscribe to AI's FREE emailing list) info@astronomy.ie