May 2007 - astronomy@lists.redbrick.dcu.ie

[Astronomy Ireland] NASA talk on RTE, Arctic-Mars Students, Patrick Moore x 2
by Astronomy Ireland 30 May '07

30 May '07

1. Our NASA Speaker on Pat Kenny Show (Note: This is a NATIONAL event: if you can't get to Dublin we are going to great length to make a DVD available for everyone, nationwide) Our scheduled speaker for 11 June in Trinity College Dublin, Dr Andy Breen from the University of Wales, was taken ill recently, so June's lecture will instead be given by NASA Sun-specialist Dr Peter Gallagher, who's lecture is entitled "The Heliosphere - Living inside the Sun's Atmosphere". Dr Gallagher will describe how the Earth and the other planets orbit inside the Sun's outer atmosphere, the Heliosphere, and that we are a lot more influenced by this temperamental gas bubble than we think. Further details, ticket booking and DVD orders are on our webpage now - www.astronomy.ie PLEASE BOOK EARLY as Dr Gallagher will be interviewed on RTE RADIO 1's Pat Kenny Show that morning (10am-12pm) and this always creates huge interest! 2. Student Mars/Arctic Mission This item may be of interest to third-level students - ESA is running a competition, the winner of which will spend two weeks in Svalbard, Norway, at the Artic Mars Analogue Svalbard Expedition. The trip will last from 12 to 26 August 2007. The mission involves studying the interaction between rocks, water and primitive life in one of the most Mars-like environments on Earth, and to test life-detection instruments that will be sent to the red planet. For more details go to - www.esa.int/esaHS/SEMXC99RR1F_education_0.html 3. Patrick Moore on AIRS and BBC! On the A.I.Radio Show last night (May 29) Ben Emmett played the second enthralling part of his interview with Sir Patrick Moore at his home in the south of England last month on the occasion of the 50th Anniversary of his BBC Sky At Night programme. It's a fascinating interview which you can download from our website if you don't already download the A.I.Radio Show every week. Log on to www.astronomy.ie/AIRS and download the MP3. Part 1 of the interview is there also. Speaking of the Sky At Night, the next show is on BBC 1 TV on Monday night/Tuesday (June 4/5) morning at 12:45am and deals with the new Earth-like planet announced in April (the cover story of our June magazine which you can still get for 5euro www.astronomy.ie/sub) Astronomy Ireland "The world's most popular astronomy club" Society · Magazine · Telescopes www.astronomy.ie Tel (01) 847 0777

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[Astronomy Ireland] Patrick Moore on AIRS, Nobel Laureate speaks in Dublin
by Astronomy Ireland 25 May '07

25 May '07

1. A.I.Radio Show Extended with Sir Patrick Moore Last Tuesday's AIRS (Astronomy Ireland Radio Show, May 22) was extended to 60 minutes and includes the interview with Sir Patrick Moore, and his co-presenter Chris Lintott which Ben Emmett recorded at Sir Patrick's home in Selsey, England on the occasion of the party for the 50th anniversary of BBC's "THE SKY NIGHT" (see here www.astronomy.ie/tsan.html ) As ever you can download the show at www.astronomy.ie/AIRS Remember to tune in EVERY Tuesday at 8pm and listen live on the internet (or 103.2FM in the Dublin area). If you miss the show (or want to get a copy) you can download it, usually within an hour of the end of the show. 2. BIG BANG LECTURE The Royal Irish Academy have sent us details of an exciting lecture they will be holding in Dublin in association with the Irish Times. Tickets are free and are sure to be allocated quickly so book quickly at www.ria.ie if you can get to this Dublin event: Academy Times/DIAS Joint Public Lecture "Deciphering the Big Bang" Nobel Laureate Dr John Mather 6:30pm on Tuesday 12th June 2007, Burke Theatre (downstairs in the Arts Block), TCD John Mather won the 2006 Nobel Prize for physics for his work on COBE in the early '90s. He is the senior project scientist on the James Webb Space Telescope, which will replace the Hubble Space Telescope in 2013 (www.jwst.nasa.gov) Dr Mather's talk is a history of the Universe in a nutshell, from the Big Bang to now, and on to the future - John Mather will tell the story of how we got here, how the Universe began with a Big Bang, how it could have produced an Earth where sentient beings can live, and how those beings are discovering their history. Mather was Project Scientist for NASA's Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) satellite, which measured the spectrum of the heat radiation from the Big Bang, discovered hot and cold spots in that radiation, and hunted for the first objects that formed after the great explosion. He will explain Einstein's biggest mistake, show how Edwin Hubble discovered the expansion of the Universe, how the COBE mission was built, and how the COBE data support the Big Bang theory. He will also show NASA's plans for the next great telescope in space, the James Webb Space Telescope. It will look even farther back in time than the Hubble Space Telescope, and will look inside the dusty cocoons where stars and planets are being born today. Tickets are free, but must be booked online at - www.ria.ie Organiser: Academy Times/DIAS Lecture Title: "Deciphering the Big Bang" Lecture Venue: Edmund Burke Theatre, Trinity College Dublin. Date: Tuesday 12th June 2007 Time: 6:30pm Admission: Book Online at www.ria.ie Astronomy Ireland Society · Magazine · Telescopes www.astronomy.ie Tel (01) 847 0777

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[Astronomy Ireland] Irish Pictures of the Night Sky
by AI Exec Secretary 10 May '07

10 May '07

PUBLIC LECTURE Stunning Images with Amateur Equipment The availability of inexpensive digital cameras has enabled amateurs with only modest telescopes to take pictures of the night sky that 15 years ago would have been the envy of professional observatories. See for example the picture which was taken from Dublin city by clicking here: http://webtreatz.com:80/images/zoom/gremlin/viewsize/lrgb_final.jpg It is an image of M13, a 'globular cluster' of about a million stars, and was taken from a back garden in Raheny in Dublin city by David Grennan using amateur equipment, but would have been the state-of -the-art for professional observatories only 15 years ago. Astronomy Ireland's May public lecture is by David Grennan and Jed Glover, who are two of Ireland's leaders in amateur astro-photography, and will give a layman's guide on how combine ordinary digital cameras and clever-but-simple software tricks to achieve stunning images of the heavens, along with showing off many of the breathtaking images of nebulae, star clusters and distant galaxies they have taken themselves from suburban gardens. This is a talk for everyone who appreciates the aesthetic beauty of the skies. It will also show how commonly available commercial equipment can potentially be used by everybody to take stunning images of the cosmos. For those of you unable to make it to the lecture, a DVD of the talk can be booked online now at - www.astronomy.ie/lectureDVD.html Bookings: www.astronomy.ie or (01) 847 07 77 Organiser: Astronomy Ireland Lecture Title: "Digital Deep Sky Astrophotography" Lecture Venue: Physics Building, Trinity College Dublin. Date: Monday, 14 May 2007 Time: 8:00pm Admission: 5euro (3euro concessions) ALL WELCOME Astronomy Ireland Society · Magazine · Telescopes www.astronomy.ie Tel (01) 847 0777

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[Astronomy Ireland] Star-B-Q LAST CALL, Sunspot, Galway Lecture(Limerick, Cork, Armagh too), TSAN 50th
by Astronomy Ireland 05 May '07

05 May '07

1. "Star-B-Q" Last Call! (starts 8pm May 5th) This is THE annual event for everyone in Ireland to travel to in order to look through the biggest portable telescope in Ireland - the 53cm (21-inch) Millennium Telescope which collects 6,000 times more light than your eye. There will be a host of other very large telescopes there also aimed at the wonders of the universe. No matter where you live in Ireland, once a year you should travel to Star-B-Q for Ireland's biggest annual telescope gathering. Already about 300 people have booked places, a record, but we can cater for hundreds more, but please book quickly! Some of the sights you will see in the telescopes: Saturn - with its rings seen close-up, a stunning sight, see also its moons and cloud belts Venus - see its disk 17 arc across and 66% sunlit Gliese 581 - a faint star invisible to the naked eye but easily seen in the giant telescopes. Home of the first Earth-sized planet announced last week. Open Clusters - like the Wild Duck cluster containing hundreds of new young stars - see why it got its name Globular Clusters - like the Great Cluster in Hercules (M13), a million ancient stars in one view Planetary Nebula - like the Ring Nebula, an old dying star that has "shuffled off its mortal coil" Galaxies - like M51 the Whirlpool Galaxy. Vast star cities of almost a million million stars whose light has taken millions of years to get here Supernova Remnants, Double Stars, and more Then there is Ireland's most powerful hand held laser shooting a beam 60km in to the sky for all to see as we point out the stars and teach you the star patterns and constellations. Bring your binoculars and we'll show how to find a number of objects invisible to the naked eye to prove how useful binoculars are for astronomy. The evening kicks off at 8pm with an introduction and then short talks and demonstrations through the night in the huge GAA Hall. There will be a display of telescopes by our Astronomy Shop, the main sponsors of the event, who will be launching the new Full Colour Celestron Telescope Catalogue for 2007 at the event showing all the new models being released this year. The first batch of these Catalogues in Europe have been flown in specially for the Star-B-Q by Celestron. Everyone at Star-B-Q will get a free printed catalogue but you can also download a copy online now at www.astronomy.ie\CelestronTelescopeCatalog2007.pdf And remember for these telescopes our Astronomy Shop guarantees to match or beat any price you see elsewhere (anywhere in the world!) - just call (01) 847 0777 Monday to Saturday. And don't forget the hot food and refreshments from the professionally catered barbecue to make this the perfect evening out under the stars at Ireland's highest village 1,000 feet (300 metres) above sea level with pitch black skies. All proceeds go to help run Astronomy Ireland. Everyone is welcome and we hope you will all bring every single one of your friends and family for an evening they will never forget. Tickets include food and refreshments, all talks, demos, A&S magazine, Sky Diary leaflet: 40euro per Adult, 30euro for Under 16s. ALL WELCOME. More details, maps to Roundwood GAA grounds, pictures of some of the celestial targets, and online booking (closes 6pm May 5th) are at: www.astronomy.ie ALL WELCOME - don't miss Ireland's biggest annual telescope event. 2. Sunspot A large sunspot crossed the centre of the Sun during the week. Declan Fox from Balbriggan sent this image of it taken on April 30 at 7pm with his 8-inch Celestron telescope. www.astronomy.ie/DFoxSunspot.jpg You can also watch it from space via the SOHO spacecraft online at http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/data/realtime-update.html The spot is larger than the Earth and should be visible for a few more days. BE VERY CAREFUL WHEN VIEWING THE SUN! NEVER LOOK AT IT DIRECTLY WITH A TELESCOPE OR BINOCULARS. YOU WILL BE BLINDED! Instead you can CAREFULLY project an image through a SMALL telescope or binoculars on to a white card held well away from the eyepiece. Or, buy AstroSolar filter sheets from our Astronomy Shop which is guaranteed to filter out all the harmful UV and IR light and let through just a safe amount of visible light. A 20cm x 29cm sheet costs less than 30euro and can be posted to you. Call (01) 847 0777 Monday to Saturday for this option and for advice. 3. Galway Lecture by David Malin Prof Mike Redfern (NUI Galway) sent the following invitation to this free lecture by David Malin who takes stunning pictures of the universe using large professional telescopes. We have heard David Malin speak in the past and we highly recommend this lecture to you - a visual feast. If you are in the Galway area be sure to book your place via the email address below (for Limerick, Cork and Armagh we have no booking details yet, more when we get them. No Dublin venue in case you're wondering). World Renowned Astro-Photographer to Speak at NUI Galway The most famous Astro-photographer in the world, Professor David Malin of Anglo-Australian Observatory (AAO), and the RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia, is to deliver a unique lecture at the Centre for Astronomy, NUI Galway on Monday, 14th May at 7pm in the O'Flaherty Theatre. The event, which is a unique opportunity to meet the David Malin, will have the theme David Malin - The Man Who Colours Stars: talks on Capturing Ancient Light Announcing the event the Director of the Centre for Astronomy at NUI Galway, Prof. Michael Redfern said: "This talk is a unique opportunity to meet one of the world's great astro-photographers. He was the person that made us all realise that the stars, galaxies and nebulae are not in black and white, but are in glorious colour. The wonderful images that we get nowadays, from Hubble, for example, owe everything to his pioneering work." Professor Malin said: "In this talk I will briefly review the history of astronomical imaging and the profound effect it has had on our knowledge of the universe. I will also discuss the art and science of colour photography in astronomy and how the vivid colours of clouds of gas and dust can be at the same time be real and yet invisible through the telescope. I will also describe ways in which the subtle colours of the brightest stars can be captured with simple photographic techniques." Photographs created by David Malin can be found in many popular astronomy books and magazines, and are displayed in museums and planetaria throughout the world. Previews of his work can be seen on www.davidmalin.com This event is free and open to the public and as interest is expected to be high pre-booking is essential. Please email malintalk(a)gmail.com to book seats. The visit is part of a tour that starts in the Armagh Planetarium and will go on to Limerick University and to the Blackrock Planetarium & Science Centre, Cork. Prof. Michael Redfern, Centre for Astronomy, NUI Galway 091 - 492717 or Email: mike.redfern(a)nuigalway.ie Malin trained as a chemist and originally worked in England as microscopist. In 1975 he moved to Sydney to take up a job with the AAO. Whilst working at the AAO, Malin developed several photographic processing techniques to maximise the ability to extract faint and low contrast detail from the non-linear response and high densities of photographic plates. These techniques were initially devised to enhance the scientific return from photography, but Malin is now best known for the series of three-colour wide field images of deep space objects which have been widely published as posters and in books around the world. Most professional astronomical photographs are monochromatic, if colour pictures are required, three images are needed. During his career at the AAO, Malin made about 150 three-colour images of deep sky objects mostly using the 4m Anglo-Australian Telescope and plates from the 1.2m UK Schmidt Telescope. 4. BBC Sky At Night 50th Anniversary Don't forget to watch BBC TV this weekend for the two shows celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Sky At Night with Sir Patrick Moore. Especially the second show on Sunday where you might see some of us at the party in Sir Patrick Moore's home in England! www.astronomy.ie/tsan.html We've just added a picture of rock star Brian May with David Moore and Ben Emmett! Astronomy Ireland Society · Magazine · Telescopes www.astronomy.ie Tel (01) 847 0777

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[Astronomy Ireland] AI at BBC Sky At Night 50th Party !!!
by Astronomy Ireland 04 May '07

04 May '07

Sky At Night 50th Party & TV Show Astronomy Ireland was privileged to be invited to the BBC's party to celebrate and record the 50th anniversary programme of The Sky At Night last week, and we have set up a webpage to celebrate the event. Seven of us went to Sir Patrick Moore's home in Selsey (South of England) for the event and spent 2 days there at a party we will never forget. In the crowd were astronauts, celebrities, and famous amateur and professional astronomers - see the photos online. It was an enormous honour for the society to be invited and we presented Patrick with a specially designed card and a gift of his favourite tipple for which he acquired a taste during his stay in Ireland as Armagh Planetarium Director in the 1960s. Sir Patrick is an Honorary Life Member of Astronomy Ireland and he has given several public lectures the society in the past, as well as writing the occasional article. He has been a great friend to the society and we heartily congratulate him on 50 years on TV and wish him continued success in the future. A full report will appear in our magazine (www.astronomy.ie/sub) but a webpage to whet your appetite has been set up at: www.astronomy.ie (it's the second item, after the Star-B-Q notice) You can see the 50th anniversary programme on BBC 1 TV on Sunday at 11:10pm May 6 (repeats are listed on the webpage). Don't miss it and watch out for familiar faces! Astronomy Ireland Society · Magazine · Telescopes www.astronomy.ie Tel (01) 847 0777

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