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@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@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