1. Venus - Moon Watches Nationwide to Include
Saturn and Naked Eye Comet
In celebration of the International Year
of Astronomy, Astronomy Ireland is setting up powerful
telescopes around the country for you to witness our
next event, the Moon passing very close to Venus in evening
skies, which is so spectacular it won't occur again for 3
years.
The planet Venus, which has lit up our
evening skies for the past months will soon disappear from them completely,
leaving this Watch as your last chance to view this beautiful planet blazing
beside the Moon until 2012. Venus' disk will
show a huge crescent like you have never seen before.
The Moon will be a thin crescent just
below Venus, making an extremely eye-catching spectacle to the naked eye, rather
like it did on December 1st when people jammed all our phone lines asking what
the super bright 'star' was near the Moon - See report and photos here
The new naked eye Comet Lulin (see
finder charts in our Feb
and March magazine) will also make an appearance and is currently
brightening in magnitude as it approaches a fly by of Earth. Incredibly, it will
be right next to Regulus, the brightest star in Leo, making it easy to locate at
each Watch.
Saturn will also be visible in the night
sky for this event, and is currently nearly ringless due to its axial tilt, a
sight you will not see again for 30 years.
With so much happening on this night,
this is an unmissable event and we will have high powered telescopes set up
across Ireland to let you view this amazing spectacle.
With 15 locations (so far), call or
email if you want a Watch in your town? This is Astronomy Ireland's
biggest event ever. We will be there with information and magazines for sale
even if it's cloudy, so come along regardless of the weather at
7pm.
Check out www.astronomy.ie or call our head office (01)
847 0777 for more details.
Astronomy Ireland
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Club AND Ireland's Only Astronomy Magazine
www.astronomy.ie
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Telescope Shop
Tel (01) 847 0777
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