It’s a week for volcanoes!

Yesterday was the 30^th anniversary of the eruption of Mount St Helens in Washington State in the US. Fifty seven lives were lost when the huge pressure that had been building on the north flank of the mountain was released explosively on May 18^th, 1980. Read more at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_St._Helens

Nasa’s Cassini spacecraft made a close flyby of Saturn’s moon Enceladus yesterday and is currently sending images back to mission control. Back in 2005, Cassini found cryo-volcanoes, or geysers, of water ice erupting from fractures in the crust of Enceladus and has even flown through one of the plumes to analyse the chemistry.

And so on to our our next meeting on Thursday, May 20^th when the topic will be volcanoes in the Solar System. It’s our last talk before the summer break and you are all welcome to come along to Gonzaga College in Ranelagh on the night (8pm start.) We will also show a documentary about volcanoes on Earth.

Talk to you soon,

John

086-8181931

The moment of New

Here’s a pretty amazing photograph taken by ace French astrophotographer Thierry Legault. He managed to image the Moon on April 14^th this year at the exact moment it was New! Read more and see the image at http://www.astrosurf.com/legault/new_moon_2010april14.html

Solarfest 2010

Michael O’Connell has sent details of Solarfest 2010, a one day event in Dunsink Observatory on Saturday, June 12th where amateur and professional astronomers from Ireland will speak about the Sun and observing our nearest star. Spaces are limited to 60 people so if you are interested in attending then please mail Michael directly at [email protected]

You might also like to check out a free magazine on solar astronomy that you can download at http://solar-observer.com/

Skysketcher blog

Deirdre Kelleghan continues to put huge energy into astronomy outreach and Dee also writes a regular blog about what’s happening in astronomy and space at http://www.deirdrekelleghan.com/blog.html Do drop by and read the latest about events that may be happening countrywide or in the world of astronomy and space exploration.

Deirdre also sent details of a lunar observing project which might interest educators and amateur astronomers. Read more at http://www.eaae-astronomy.org/eratosthenes/

Observing this Saturday

Aubrey has the following post on www.irishastronomy.org – please reply to the post there if you are interested in going along on Saturday evening.

“Good evening, amateur astronomers. Is there anyone interested in having an observing session this coming Friday night 21st May at the Martello Tower in Sandymount? At the moment the weather forecast is promising clear skies on Friday night after a warm sunny afternoon. I should be there at 9pm complete with 6.2″ refractor to observe half Moon, Venus and Saturn. Aubrey.”

iPhone software

A few people were in touch about astronomy software for the iPhone. The notes here are really based on the apps Michael O’Connell previously showed me but if you have downloaded any useful iPhone software then let me know and we’ll mail the members with details.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 19th, 2010 at 13:24 and is filed under Astronomy News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.