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
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.
You can also watch it from space via the
SOHO spacecraft online at
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!
We've just added a picture of rock star
Brian May with David Moore and Ben Emmett!
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