We won a telescope!

Last week at the opening of Irish Science and Technology week, we won Celestron NexStar 102SLT Star Locator telescope for participation in the competition. The competition has been extended again which means the main prize (a trip to Chile to see the VLT in operation) won't be awarded for another few months. The telescope was presented to us by the Mayor of Galway, Declan McDonnell, Noel Treacy TD, and Prof. Mike Redfern, one of the competiton organisers.

We havn't been able to use it yet due to the bad weather in Ireland (lots of flooding), but we have it set up and ready for when the skies clear!

Opening of the Science and Technology week 2009

We have received an email from Prof. Mike Redfern (NUI Galway) saying that we are being awarded a substantial- and mysterious!- prize for our involvement in the Faulkes telescope challenge! Prof. Redfern says that it is for our "excellent" work, and for continuing with the project.

We will be attending the opening of the Science and Technology week on Sunday at 11am, where we be presented with our prize and photographed.

We are ecstatic over here! Hearing that all our work over the past few months is being recognized and honoured like this is...indescribable. Thank you to everyone who helped us on our project and gave us feed back on the blog.