As all those of you who get our magazine every month will already know, August is Eclipse month. A solar eclipse will occur on the morning of Friday August 1. We have a number of Eclipse Watches throughout the country (Carlow, Clare, Dublin, Donegal, Wexford, see our website). Although the path of totality passes through parts of Canada, the Arctic, Russia and Mongolia, about one quarter of the Sun's disk will be covered by the New Moon as seen from Ireland. Fifteen days later at Full Moon, the Moon will rise in the evening already partially eclipsed as it passes through the shadow cast by planet Earth. Mid eclipse, when the Moon will be almost totally eclipsed, occurs just after 10pm. Again, Astronomy Ireland is planning to organise a number of Public Eclipse Watches throughout the country. Keep checking www.astronomy.ie for details of locations as they become available. If you would like to hold a Watch in your area please write to sec@astronomy.ie and we will organise everything for you. We will publish a major report on this eclipse in our magazine so we want everyone who sees it to email observe@astronomy.ie but remember to heed the safety warnings in the magazine and on the website when viewing the solar eclipse.

Our August Summer Public Lecture will now be held in association with The Irish Times and Discover Science & Engineering, so it is sure to attract a lot of attention, especially as it is being delivered by none other than the President of the Royal Astronomical Society, Prof. Michael Rowan Robinson, and it is going to explain how we know how big and how old the universe it.

RAS members spend over a billion euro a year on astronomy so their President is an important figure on the world stage. Due to the foreseen demand we have booked the large Ed Burke Theatre in TCD to cope with the demand for tickets. Prof. Robinson's talk is aimed at the general public and it is a great honour to host such a prestigious speaker for our August Public Lecture. To avoid disappointment it is advisable to book Prof. Robinson's talk on how we measure the distances to star's and galaxies by going to www.astronomy.ie/lecture200808.html

Our main fundraising event of the year, our annual Barbeque-Under-The-Stars, or Star-B-Q will take place under the dark skies of Roundwood, Co. Wicklow on Saturday August 30th. Some of the largest telescopes in the country will be there for you to gaze through at the wonders of the Universe. The evening will also feature talks, workshops, craic, oh and food too of course. Remember, booking before July 31 entails a 25% discount.

Next year has been designated The International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations. 2009 will mark the 400th anniversary of Galileo first using a telescope to study the night sky. Astronomy Ireland has been quietly working behind the scenes, in conjunction with other astronomy groups, universities and the IAU, to plan a series of events throughout the country that will endeavour to get everyone on the island of Ireland to get involved in some way or in some event. A whole series of events and projects are being proposed. The success of our plans will depend to a great extent on the volunteer effort and the funding obtained. 2009 promises to be an exciting year from an astronomical point of view at least. If you would like to help by running events in your area please email director@astronomy.ie and we will send you a full colour booklet on IYA 2009.

As announced in the Sky Diary pages of our magazine the International Space Station, with three astronauts on board, has been blazing across the sky since July 18th. Thousands of you have already seen it and you can still see it until August 3rd. You can get predictions from various websites, but make sure they are updated regularly as ISS's orbit was recently boosted. Or call our Newslines, 1550-111-442 in Republic (95cent/min) or 09001-88-1950 in N.Ireland/UK (60p/min). Or, to get reminders on your mobile phone text SPACE to 57003 and never miss ISS again as we will text you the exact time to watch a couple of hours before it flies over (texts cost 1euro per day). Background details to ISS are at www.astronomy.ie/iss so please tell all your friends and get them to email observe@astronomy.ie every time they see it for the report we're doing in our magazine.

If you like and approve of our efforts to promote astronomy and science throughout Ireland and you are not already a full member of Astronomy Ireland, please support us by becoming a full member and subscribe to our 48 page full colour monthly magazine. Annual membership costs only 48 euro and you can join HERE You can also obtain more information about what we do HERE