"Adaptive Optics" is the title of Astronomy Ireland's June Public Lecture and it promises to be a humdinger for anyone who wants to know what the world's most powerful telescopes can show.

The lecture is aimed at the general public so do bring as many friends as possible.

Prof Chris Dainty from The National University of Ireland, Galway will explain the fascinating developments in this area that enables astronomers to sharpen the normally blurred images that the world's largest telescopes produce due to the distorting effect of the Earth's atmosphere. Prof Dainty is a leading authority on the subject who has come to Ireland to continue his research in this fascinating area.

Something like 2 billion euro was put in to the development of the Hubble Space Telescope and one benefit that HST has is that it is above the blurring effects of the Earth's atmosphere. However, there are ground based telescopes 20 times more powerful than Hubble that cost 20 times less (e.g. 10 metre Keck on Hawaii) and had such vast sums of money have been channelled in to developing the field of adaptive optics many people argue we would be able to see more for less money spent.

Even bigger ground based telescopes are planned for the future and they will all use adaptive optics to make them perform even more spectacularly.

The field of adaptive optics owes a lot to military spy satellite technology and today the latest systems shoot powerful lasers in to the upper atmosphere where they can light up a layer of sodium 100km above the ground providing artificial stars for the new telescopes to lock on to.

The technology of Adaptive Optics includes "rubber mirrors" that move up to a thousand times a second to remove the shimmering effects of the Earth's atmosphere.

But it's not all billion dollar science, there are amateur applications too, so come along and find out how it all works and see some of the incredible results - like the images of the black hole at the centre of our galaxy, the Milky Way! (movie www.eso.org/outreach/press-rel/pr-2002/video/vid-02-02.mpg , details www.eso.org/outreach/press-rel/pr-2002/pr-17-02.html )

IT'S FOR YOU!

This Lecture is open to everyone so we hope to see you all there next Monday, unless you live outside Leinster, in which case we will be videotaping the lecture for you and putting a small downloadable version on our website FREE (or order the high quality DVD for just 5 euro which you can keep as a service to the 70% of you that live outside Dublin).

DETAILS:

Date: Monday June 12 at 8pm

Venue: Dublin City University (Henry Grattan Building)

Admission: 5euro (3euro to members,students,under 18s, Over 65s, unwaged). ALL WELCOME

More details, maps, public transport, etc at www.astronomy.ie/lecture0606.html

( get downloadable past lectures now: www.astronomy.ie/webcast/webcast.html )

(order DVDs here: http://www.astronomy.ie/lectureDVD.html including THIS JUNE LECTURE - order now please)

Looking forward to seeing all of you in the Leinster area on Monday.

David Moore, Chairman, Astronomy Ireland.

P.S.

- Don't forget our Radio Show every Tuesday at 8pm. Download it now at www.astronomy.ie/radioshow.html

- Saturn is near the Beehive (and Mars is closing in on both of them). See magazine www.astronomy.ie/sub

- Jupiter near the Moon tonight June 8 (see magazine) and that new Earth-sized red spot is about to collide with the Great Red Spot (see July issue out next week)

- Antares very near the Moon Friday June 9 (see magazine)

- Moon occults a close double star on Saturday night (see magazine)

- Huge Summer Clearance Sale in our Shop this month - see www.astronomy.ie for list of some bargains (or reply to this email and we'll email the list)

ASTRONOMY IRELAND

- your national astronomy society (and biggest in world relative to population)

- publisher Ireland's only astronomy magazine

- the biggest telescope Shop in Ireland: tel (01) 847 0777 Monday to Saturday up to 5:30pm