An extremely rare event will take place this
weekend:
The Space Shuttle Discovery is due to be launched Saturday
(July 1) at 8:49pm (Irish time) to the International Space Station.
Some 20 minutes after launch Discovery should fly over
Ireland and could be seen, especially from the South of Ireland, low in the
South but in daylight as the Sun will be still above the horizon.
On the next pass of the I.S.S. at 10:31pm you may see the
Shuttle chasing it across the sky, though there may be a delay of up to 10
minutes between the two.
It all depends on the launch of the Shuttle, which can
often be delayed or postponed due to weather or technical
difficulties.
We will be updating our 1550-111-442 Newsline by
12 noon tomorrow with the latest prediction AND NEWS, and also later again that
day if news warrants so do give it a call.
We'll also be able to keep you updated via the Newsline
with the even closer "space chase" of these two huge objects on Sunday when we
should be able to see both in a dark sky.
Please call each day after 12noon.
It should be an amazing spectacle so let's hope for an
on-time launch and clear skies.
Please email observe@astronomy.ie telling us what you
see (and your location) for the report we'll do for our magazine.
Please pass on the 1550-111-422 newsline to everyone you
know as we have not had time to release this story to the media
yet.
Astronomy Ireland
August 26 - "Star-B-Q" Ireland's biggest annual telescope
event. Book now at www.astronomy.ie