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Astronomy Ireland's Star-B-Q is taking place in Roundwood, Co. Wicklow, on Saturday, August 22nd. It promises to be our biggest ever with an exciting night of food, telescopes, entertainment and craic! If you book before close of business on Friday, July 31st, you can get €10 off each adult tickets.

LORD ROSSE (1800-1876)

We can now announce that the headline speaker at this year's Star-B-Q is the Third Earl of Rosse who died in 1867! He has been revived, and in full Victorian dress he will come and tell us how he built the biggest telescope in the world in Ireland in 1845; the Hubble Telescope of its day!

Not only that, but if you join Astronomy Ireland this month, you will get three months extra free membership to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the first Apollo Moon Landing!

Book your Star-B-Q tickets here.

Join Astronomy Ireland for 15 months here.

You can also call us to book tickets or to join on (01) 847 0777.

2. Space Shuttle Endeavour Returning Home

Endeavour - which was recently seen just after launch in Irish skies - has separated from the International Space Station to begin its return home. This mission (STS-127) installed the final components of the Japanese module Kibo on the ISS. One of the components is a platform that allows experiments to be directly exposed to space! Endeavour is due to land on Friday, and can be watched online on NASA TV at www.nasa.gov/ntv.

Chairman of Astronomy Ireland, David Moore, engaged in a heated and entertaining radio debate with Bart Sibrel, the man who Buzz Aldrin famously punched after being accused of never landing on the Moon! Dan Parry, author and producer of Moonshot, and our guest speaker for our special Apollo Anniversary July lecture featured on Pat Kenny. You can listen to both radio interviews (and, indeed, many more) by visiting the Astronomy Ireland media archive. You can order a DVD of Dan Parry's amazing lecture by clicking here.

4. Photocopier

Following our appeal last week nobody came to our rescue! But if you have a working photocopier that you don't need, or if your company is getting rid of one, Astronomy Ireland would be more than happy to accept it as a donation. Please email sec@astronomy.ie if you would like to help out!