DVD of 'Cosmic Casualties' Now Available Doug Ellison flew in from the U.K. for IYA 2009 to give one of the most fascinating lectures in the history of Astronomy Ireland on February 9th and now it is available on DVD for everyone in Ireland to own and watch. Doug took the crowd through a whirlwind tour of the highs and lows of unmanned space travel over its 50 year history, starting with the Cassini mission which was, coincidentally, the subject of our New Year lecture by Professor John Zarnecki (which is also available on DVD) Doug reminded the crowd of the problems on the Cassini mission where nobody allowed for the Titan probe's frequency changing due to Doppler effects which would have meant no pictures or data would have been received. Also, someone forgot to turn on one of the radio transmitters but fortunately Earth based receivers were upgraded in time. Apparently even giving the world's greatest scientists two billion dollars doesn't guarantee perfection. He then went on to describe the Galileo mission to Jupiter, where the giant communication dish failed to fully open and the 130,000bps (bits per second) of data was diminished to a paltry 10 bps, reducing the information received by a factor of over 10,000. Engineers, through their ingenuity, compressed data and focused cameras on smaller areas and managed to get back nearly all (70%) of data. Also discussed were the Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, who have been trekking across the face of Mars for over 5 years despite being given life spans of only 3 months. Doug has personally viewed all 200,000 photos sent back from these rovers and delighted in wowing the audience with the panoramic views of Mars that have been taken over the years, using special software for his presentation. Doug's knowledge was encyclopaedic and his enthusiasm for all these missions was infectious, which the crowd shared, laughing and ultimately delivering a thunderous round of applause. Doug was interviewed on Phantom FM today, and you can hear him here We are delighted to make the DVD of this lecture available to everyone in Ireland to make this a truly national event. ORDER DVDs HERE 2. An Post Astronomy Ireland are helping An Post promote their astronomy themed writer's competition for primary schools around the country called the 'What's the Story?' challenge. They would welcome contact from schools which are interested by March 6th and you can contact them at (01) 7058400 or www.anpost.ie/educationawards 3. Comet Breaks Naked Eye Visibility Barrier Martin McKenna from County Derry reports seeing Comet Lulin with the naked eye last weekend. As explained in our last email the comet will be brightest at the end of this month and we want you to email your own sightings to observe@astronomy.ie so we can record them for posterity in our magazine. For a star map and full details of viewing Comet Lulin subscribe to our magazine here. Remember, there is loads to see this month: Venus now at its best for 3 years, Saturn now at its best for 30 years, Naked Eye Comet Lulin, and countless deep sky objects visible in these long dark winter nights, so get out observing every clear night. For FREE advice on what to see please call our Telescope Shop on (01) 847 0777 (full time staff are available to advise you six days a week!) and see the Sky Diary pages of our magazine every month. Astronomy Ireland www.astronomy.ie Tel (01) 847 0777