Tonight (Friday Nov. 4) is the big night when we hope to give the general public the best views of Mars they will get for 13 years! Here in Dublin, skies are clearing and we expect clear skies tonight, at least partially, which will be enough to show the planet 'live' in the powerful telescopes we are assembling. Of course, there are 10 Mars Watches in total scattered all around Ireland in counties: Cork Carlow Clare Donegal Louth Mayo Roscommon Waterford Wexford Full details and contact numbers for directions are at: www.astronomy.ie/marswatchNov05.html WEBCAST! We hope to broadcast live images of Mars on our website from 8pm thanks to Vodafone who are sponsoring a high speed 3G link in to the internet. The webpage for this has been set up and the trial during the week went well. Click on www.astronomy.ie/marswatchNov05.html and follow the link from there. We will also process some of the webcam images and throw the best on to the website above as the evening progresses. The images you will see 'live' in the telescope will be much better than the webcast ones, and of course there is always the possibility of equipment failure, so do come along in person if at all possible. But if you're too far away or cannot make it to a Mars Watch then hopefully the webcast will be better than nothing. The images will be on our website for a few weeks after the event anyway. MEDIA We'll have an RTE camera crew filming for "Dustin's Daily News" at the event (transmission expected Nov. 16) 2FM's Newsbeat will do a piece about us at 7:30pm We have done lots of other local radio station interviews so the country is buzzing with Mars news! If you saw or see the Mars Watches mentioned in any newspapers can you please "reply" to this email giving: - newspaper name - date - page number - and any comments on the piece e.g. how big it is, did they mention our sponsor Vodafone? etc? We have to compile a report of publicity received and this will help enormously thanks. ALL MARS WATCHES START AT 8PM - PLEASE GET ALONG, THE VIEWS ARE AMAZING (even if it's cloudy you can have a chat, pick up free leaflets, and even buy a copy of our magazine) At 43million miles (69million km) Mars is closer than it will be until 2018!!! SHOP And don't forget if you have already bought a telescope from our Shop you should be out every clear night doing your own Mars Watch while it is so exceptionally close and high up - see the Sky Diary pages of the magazine for more info on this or call us. Need more eyepieces or filters to get closer or better views? Then call us for advice. Of course, if you haven't got a telescope yet then NOW is the time to get one - see the special Mars Offer on page 4 of the November issue with 115euro worth of goodies thrown in with an ideal telescope for Mars, and all other planet observing too. Or call (01) 847 0777 and discuss your needs Monday to Saturday. Or if you prefer, reply to this email with a daytime landline number and our Shop staff will call you with advice as there is a huge range in stock.