Hope everyone has been enjoying the clear spells some of these evenings and having a peek at Mars which I noticed late last night shining brightly high up in the southern sky. Some fine pictures have been snapped of the planet by members of the Irish Federation of Astronomical Societies (IFAS) and posted to their site at www.irishastronomy.org

Astrofest in Galway (12th to 13th of February)
Galway Astronomy Club’s Astrofest kicks off tomorrow night (Friday, 12th) at 7:30pm in the Westwood House Hotel with two speakers penciled in for the evening while a full day of lectures will be held on the Saturday. The quality of lectures is always excellent and the event is an opportunity to meet fellow amateur astronomers from around the country. Some trade stands will also be in attendance. More details can be found at http://galwayastronomyclub.ie/ and http://galwayastronomyclub.blogspot.com/

Other sky events
Venus and Jupiter almost embrace on Valentine’s Day when the pair lie less than half a degree apart very low above the west-southwest skyline just 30 minutes after sunset. A 15-hour old slender crescent Moon might be spotted nearby but you may have to slowly scan the horizon with binoculars (wait until 30 minutes after sunset to start looking lest you accidentally sweep up the Sun while scanning the sky.)

The Moon passes through the outer edges of the Pleiades star cluster in Taurus on the evening of February 21st — more details in our Sky-Guide 2010 booklet which can be downloaded from www.irishastronomy.org

The Sun is currently sporting an elongated spot group and it is very impressive. More details and photos at www.spaceweather.com

The brighest asteroid Vesta reaches opposition on February 18th in Leo when it will be an easily binocular object shining at magnitude 6.1. Vesta was the fourth minor planet discovered and lies in the main asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. The DAWN spacecraft is currently en-route to encounter Vesta in July 2011 ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dawn_(spacecraft) ) where it will spend a year studying the rocky body. DAWN then heads for Ceres, the largest asteroid, arriving there in February 2015. Sky and Telescope magazine have observing notes (including a chart) about Vesta’s opposition this month at http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/home/80433142.html

The ISS is currently making a series of MORNING passes over Ireland and predictions can be generated from www.heavens-above.com — STS 130 Endeavour is currently docked to the station. More details on the mission at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-130

Nasa’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) made it off the ground and into orbit earlier today. The mission is designed to study the Sun and it’s effects on the near-Earth environment. More details about it’s mission are at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_Dynamics_Observatory

Sunday, February 14th also marks the day Voyager 1 completed it’s famous “Portrait of the Solar System”. This led to Carl Sagan’s book Pale Blue Dot, a paean to cherish the Earth and be more kind to one another. The opening part of Sagan’s essay is at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_blue_dot and the actual sequence of photos at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_Portrait_(Voyager)

NEXT SDAS lecture, 4 March
The next SDAS lecture in Gonzaga College, Ranelagh will be given by Terry Moseley of the IAA and is held in conjunction with the IAS. The talk on the night will be how our ancestors viewed the heavens. More details will be sent out closer to the date.

NEXT IAS lecture, 15 February
The next Irish Astronomical Society lecture is on Monday, February 15th in Dunsink Observatory. No details are available yet of the speaker but more information will be posted to http://www.irishastrosoc.org/

Did you see the fireball last week?
I was stopped at the corner of Milltown Road/Clonskeagh Road in south Dublin near 6pm when the fireball shot towards the northern skyline just in front of me! There was a moment’s hesitation before I realized what it was! The greenish colour with orange sparks of material shed by the main mass of the object was very obvious. I’d estimate the centre was about as bright as Venus though I’ve seen some reports of the fireball being brighter than the Full Moon. There seems to be some debate as to whether any pieces fell to Earth. Astronomy Ireland have collated numerous reports and recently suggested that the meteorite may have landed in Donegal. It was hard to judge from my location how significant an object it was as I was in the car at the time and its possible the fireball was much brighter further north of Dublin. Still, it was a nice surprise!

If you did see the fireball then Terry Moseley ( terrymosel@aol.com ) is asking for your report to be sent to him. The following will help you jot down any details you might recall.

BRIGHT FIREBALL OVER IRELAND – LATEST:
I’ve received scores and scores of reports on the very bright fireball which was seen over a large part of Ireland on Wednesday 3rd, at about 6 p.m. Thanks to all who sent them, or forwarded them.

Reports have been received from all over the country, from Cork and Kerry to Sligo, Fermanagh, Tyrone, L/Derry and Donegal, and from Dublin to Clare.

Latest indications are that any possible meteorite fall would have been in the Northwest – possibly Donegal, West Co Derry, West Tyrone, or maybe in the sea

Since there is a possibility of a meteorite fall, the more detail we have, the better chance we have of finding it. If you saw it, or know anyone who did, please send in as much detail as possible, preferably including your best estimates of as many of the following as possible:
Exact Time
Your Location
Direction you were facing
Direction the fireball moved (e.g. Left to Right, if you know what direction you were facing) or NE to SW, or S to N, etc)
Height of the fireball above your horizon at start, highest point, and end of its visibility. You can estimate that in degrees if you have the experience, where 0 degrees is the horizon and 90 degrees is overhead. Otherwise, say something like ‘halfway (or quarter way, or whatever) from the horizon to the zenith (overhead point)
How bright was it, compared to a full moon?
For how long was it visible, in seconds?
How far across the sky did you see it travel – e.g. halfway? quarter way? Less? More?
Did you hear any sounds, like bangs, or pops, or crackling?
Did you see it break up, or any pieces fall off it?
Did you see it fade away to nothing, or did you see it disappear behind a building, or tree, or hill etc?

All the best,
John

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Congratulations to the Gonzaga College students who won prizes in the recent Young Scientists exhibition and also to students in Belvedere College who also won awards at the event.

Gonzaga pupils Ben McRedmond and Patrick O’Doherty won first prize in the Senior Group of the Technology Category for their project “Analysing social networking data to identify trends on the web”. A number of complex computer programs were created by the boys to search for key words and phrases on sites like Twitter to build an analysis of trends. It’s an exciting area of research as we become more connected via social sites and the internet. The idea of using statistical data to predict trends is well established and my first reaction on hearing of the guys work was to think of Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series which introduced the idea of psychohistory — predicting the future of humanity based on the actions of a large group of individuals. You can read more on the subject at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychohistory_(fictional) and ponder whether science fiction could some day become science fact.

The other winner in Gonzaga was Rory Hughes who came joint first in the Junior Individual section of the Technology Category for his wireless electricity controller. Well done to all the students who entered who showed the innovation and flair for science in schools around Ireland.

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The weekend of February 12/13 sees Galway Astronomy Club hosting their Astronomy Festival in the Westwood House Hotel in Galway City. An exciting programme is planned and two talks will be held on Friday, February 12th while Saturday has a full series of lectures. More details are at http://galwayastronomyclub.com/ and http://www.irishastronomy.org/cms/forum?func=view&catid=11&id=81793

Good morning and hope the recent snow wasn’t too much of an inconvenience. I was coming back from down the country late on Saturday night and at one stage I appeared to be the ONLY car on the M50 — now that’s a rarity!!! Linking motorway designations and astronomy, the open star cluster M50 is the sole entry in Messier’s catalog (http://seds.org/messier/index.html ) that lies in the winter constellation Monoceros. The Milky Way winds a path across the stellar landscape here and many celestial showpieces mark various junctions. Even a pair of binoculars will show some lovely star groups in the Unicorn, a swathe of sky often overlooked for the brighter luminaries of nearby Orion.

Thanks to everyone who got in touch about the books, etc. I’m stepping back a bit from everything to resume my college degree course at night which I had deferred for a year. I do hope to be able to do more after the summer. To be absolutely honest though, I had also reached complete burn-out and was just not enjoying the hobby of astronomy for the last couple of years what with being involved in the committee side of not just the SDAS but other clubs too.
January meeting
Because of the schools closure and the fact they are only resuming this week we have moved our January meeting to Thursday, February 4th in Gonzaga College in Ranelagh. I will send details out closer to the time about the evening’s programme.

ISS passes
The International Space Station is now making another set of excellent early evening passes over Ireland. It now often appears brighter than Jupiter, so you can’t miss it if it’s passing over in a clear sky. Full details for your location are on the free website www.heavens-above.com, along with other information such as Iridium flares, again specific to your own location.

Sky-guide
I believe the IAS Sky-High 2010 annual is now on sale but I did not see it on the shelves in Eason’s last weekend. Check out www.irishastrosoc.org for more details though.

Our own Sky-Guide 2010 is available from www.irishastronomy.org

Other events
NEXT IAA LECTURE, 13 January
The first of the Irish Astronomical Association’s public lectures of 2010 will be given by Dr Jorick Vink, of Armagh Observatory. His talk is entitled “The Most Massive Stars in The Universe”, and promises to be a fascinating subject. After all, the Sun is 328,935 times more massive than the Earth, and yet we know that there are stars maybe 50-60 times more massive than the Sun. But are there even more massive ones? And is there an upper limit? And how to these stellar heavyweights live their lives? Their lives seem to be relatively brief, but very spectacular!
It’s on WEDNESDAY 13 JANUARY, at 7.30 p.m., in the Bell Lecture Theatre, Physics Building, Queen’s University, Belfast. ADMISSION IS FREE, as always, and includes light refreshments. Everyone is welcome! Full details of the rest of the programme are on the website: www.irishastro.org

BT Young Scientist Exhibition
The annual BT Young Scientist Exhibition in the RDS in Dublin runs this year from January 12th to 16th. The event is a brilliant showcase of all areas of the sciences in our secondary schools. Do try and get along during the days when the exhibition is open to the public. More details at http://www.btyoungscientist.ie/

Meanwhile, you might like to attend some of the following events during the coming few weeks.

September 7th: The first IAS talk of their new lecture season will be held in Dunsink Observatory, Castleknock at 8pm. John O’Neill will speak about his recent trip to China to view the total solar eclipse in July.

September 14th: Astronomy Ireland talk “Searching for exoplanets: modern methods and future prospects” by Dr. Christopher Allan Watson, Astrophysics Research Centre, Queen’s University Belfast. More details at http://www.astronomy.ie/lecture200909.html

September 16th: The Royal Irish Academy will host a public lecture in conjunction with the 9th European Symposium for the Protection of the Night Sky. Well-known broadcaster and science populariser Leo Enright will give a talk titled “What is Light?” at the RIA building on Dawson Street. More details at http://ria.ie/committees/astronomy/new.html

September 17th to 19th: The 9th European Symposium for the Protection of the Night Sky will take place in the Market Place Theatre, Armagh. More details from http://www.lightpollution2009.eu

September 18th: A major exhibition collated by Deirdre Kelleghan will launch at Birr Castle, County Offaly. Titled “In the Footsteps of Galileo”, the exhibition will feature drawings and sketches of the Moon created by Irish, American, and many many more children along with lunar, solar, planetary, and deep sky sketches made by well known observers and artists such as Sir Patrick Moore, Sally Russell, Jeremey Perez, Sue French, Dan Davis, Jeff Young and many many more. More details about Deirdre’s outreach work are on her web site at http://www.deirdrekelleghan.com/
September 23rd: The IAA are delighted to announce that the opening lecture of the Irish Astronomical Association’s new season will be given by Prof Tom Ray of the Dublin Institute of Advanced Studies and the Royal Irish Academy. It is entitled “Planning Hubble’s Successor, the James Webb Space Telescope”. Prof Ray is eminently qualified to talk on this topic, as he is involved in the design of some of the instrumentation which will be going on the telescope! We have had several excellent lectures from Tom before, and we are delighted to welcome him back again. It’s on WEDNESDAY 23 SEPTEMBER, at 7.30 p.m., in the Bell Lecture Theatre, Physics Building, Queen’s University, Belfast. ADMISSION IS FREE, as always, and includes light refreshments. Everyone is welcome. Full details of the rest of the programme are on the website: www.irishastro.org

September 26th: Shannonside Astronomy Club hosts the inaugural Burren Star Party in Ballyvaughan, County Clare. More details at http://www.shannonsideastronomyclub.com/sac_burren_starparty.htm
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I am doing another bit of a clear out of the bookshelf and have attached a list of books for sale. Feel free to e-mail me if any pique the interestI may have another list to add to this in the next week or so.

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The SDAS web site www.southdublinastronomy.org has moved to a different format (WordPress I think) but I have not had time get to grips yet with putting some structure on it. Hope to get to do so shortly. [Yes it is John! But don't worry I'll post up your emails until you have time to get to it! ~albert]
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Sky Guide 2010 is about half complete at the moment and should be available for download in another month or so. If there is any aspect of the 2009 guide you would like revised or described in more detail then get in touch!

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All the best,

John
–
South Dublin Astronomical Society

FREE telescope * lunar eclipse tonight * Perseids on the 12th * More spots in astronomers eyes
MAC’s StarBQ * Competitions galore * iPhone astronomy * Out and about

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Brian Noonan of the Irish Astronomical Society contacted me on Tuesday evening about an 8.5-inch f/6 telescope he co-built in 1970 which is available FREE or for a nominal cost to anyone interested

The telescope is on a fork-mount with a worm gear drive (not motorised) and the mirror has been recently re-aluminised. The telescope is currently in County Cavan with the mirror removed and in alternate temporary storage there

If you are interested then the telescope MUST be collected by this weekend (August 8/9) or the school where it currently is will dispose of it (their ultimatum!) The mirror is in safe-keeping with a former teacher so that will survive (the mirror would not be available this weekend, but in about a fortnight’s time.)

Anyone seriously interested in acquiring this historic instrument (octagonal wooden tube styled along the lines of Herschel’s telescopes) should contact Brian Noonan on 086-1976673 in the next day or two for more detailed information.

Brian’s teacher friend also has a 4-inch Vixen achromat refractor on a Polaris mount with a Sky Sensor drive for sale (price €500 to €600 for this newer instrument).

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2009 August 06 — Penumbral Lunar Eclipse

A penumbral lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon dips into the outer, or penumbral, part of the Earth’s shadow cast in space. Often only a subtle darkening is noticed and even then, the magnitude of a penumbral eclipse needs to be at least 0.70 for anything obvious to be noticed. The magnitude of tonight’s penumbral eclipse is only 0.402. Mid-eclipse occurs at 00h 39m (01h 39m BST) tomorrow morning but even then, nothing will probably be seen by the naked-eye observer. That said, material lofted high in the atmosphere by recent volcanic eruptions may yet play a contribution in how dark tonight’s eclipse is. The very bright “star” shining close to the Moon tonight is the planet Jupiter.

Fred Espenak’s eclipse web page at http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/OH/OH2009.html has more details along with a chart.

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The dependable Perseid meteor shower peaks on August 12th this year but conditions are far from ideal as the waning gibbous Moon rises at 20h 30m. However, they are bright and fast with a number leaving brief trains so it is worth the effort to get out and observe them during the normally mild weather. Enhanced rates were noted outside the traditional peak in 2004 so there could be some surprises. There is a possibility we may pass through a ribbon of material on the morning of August 12th, leading to higher numbers of fainter meteors. The full story is on www.spaceweather.com

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Hot on the heels of Anthony Wesley’s discovery of a dark spot on Jupiter marking the site of a comet or asteroid impact (http://jupiter.samba.org/ ), a New York amateur astronomer found a bright spot in the atmosphere of Venus the same day! Scientists speculate that the bright spot could be the upwelling of material in Venus’ atmosphere while others suggest a volcanic eruption on the planet may be the cause. Astronomers have long believed Venus may still have on-going volcanic activity. More details about the discovery are at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8179067.stm

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Seanie Morris of the Midlands Astronomy Club has posted details of the group’s annual Perseid StarBQ. The annual event, running since 1992, will be held again this Saturday night, August 8th, at MAC’s observing site in Clonminch two miles outside Tullamore. This is an open invitation for friends of MAC to come and have a barbecue, camp under the stars, and have some fun. MAC will provide the barbecue and cooking implements, you just need to bring your own food and drink, and camp supplies if you intend on staying overnight … oh, and astronomy equipment, just in case!

Please e-mail Seanie Morris through tullamoreastronomy@yahoo.co.uk to let him know if you intend on coming down and directions will be provided if you have not been there before. Usual rules apply – come before dark to claim your spot on the grass and set up your tent, try not to forget anything, and children must come with a parent or guardian. It is proposed that if it this weekend’s event is canceled due to the weather then it will rollover to Saturday 15th.

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1. See http://www.gsi.ie/Education/Du+Noyer+Photography+Competition.htm for details of a Geological Survey of Ireland photo competition (closing date is October 9th, 2009)

2. The University of Ulster and Armagh Planetarium are running a competition to celebrate the achievements of Jocelyn Bell Burnell. The competition is open to all people aged 14 – 19 in the island of Ireland. For more details see the poster at: http://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B4Kok-AsJblKMzgwMTYzZGMtOTMyMS00MzRiLTk4YjktZTg0NDZkZTdiZjFm&hl=en

3. IYA2009 Photo Competition. The astronomical photography competition ‘Eye on the Sky’, is organized by the School of Physical Sciences of DCU and National Centre for Plasma Science and Technology (NCPST). In this age of easy access to digital imaging, this is an excellent project for involving general public and school children as well as astronomical amateurs. Open for submissions since the start of this year, the deadline for this competition has now been set as end of September (so as to give school classes – a special prize category – more chance to participate). Detailed information on this competition (rules for participating, available prizes) may be found from the DCU web pages (see www.astrophysics.dcu.ie ), or for further information contact Dr Laura Norci (lno@physics.dcu.ie) or Dr Evert Meurs ejameurs@gmail.com

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Programmer and amateur astronomer John Kennedy has released a new sky-charting application for the popular Apple iPhone. You can read more about the application at http://www.science.ie/EN/index.cfm/section/news/page/newsPage/news_key/1042

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Dr Jayanne English will present a talk in the Science Gallery, TCD, on August 7th. The talk is called Cosmos versus Canvas: Tensions between Art and Science in Astronomy Images, and explores how we perceive astronomical images as science or art – especially when they have been highly processed. More details on the talk can be found at http://www.science.ie/EN/index.cfm/section/events/page/eventPage/event_key/414

STAR WARS EXHIBITION: “GALACTIC TREASURES” — This exhibition, run in conjunction with “Emerald Garrison – Knights of the Empire”, runs at Armagh Planetarium from 1 to 28 August. Normal admission charges apply. See www.armaghplanet.com and www.irelandgarrison.com for more details.

Astronomy Ireland will hold a talk called “Mad about meteorites” on August 10th in TCD. More details at http://www.astronomy.ie/lecture200908.html

Astronomy Ireland’s annual StarBQ will be held on August 22nd. More details at http://www.astronomy.ie/sbq/index.html

Check out further events for IYA 2009 at http://www.astronomy2009.ie/local/
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All the best,

John