1. Comet LINEAR This new comet (see photo, details and chart on page 38 of March issue) has been an easy sight from dark skies away from streetlights over the past week. I've seen a short tail half a degree long in 10x50 binoculars on trips outside the city lights and estimate the comet is around magnitude 7.5. A group of us will be heading up the Wicklow mountains this evening if it stays clear (while out comet hunting we've been viewing Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn - the latter being stunning at 500x magnification in a Celestron telescope recently! See Sky Diary pages for more info). The comet is dead easy to find: as soon as it gets dark (about 7pm) just look a dozen degrees to the right of Venus and slightly higher, that's about two field of view of our 10x50 binoculars which many of you have bought from our Shop. There you will see the fairly bright star Algenib (which is the lower left star of the Square of Pegasus). Tonight the comet is just 1.5 degrees below this star, well within the 7 degree wide field of our 10x50 binoculars. At first all you will see is a small fuzzy patch but let your eyes get used to the dark for at least a quarter of an hour and use averted vision and you should be able to see a tail. The darker your skies the better the view. And the comet should brighten a little in the next few weeks. This is a slow-moving comet at present so it remains within 2 degrees of Algenib all weekend. Very few 'binocular comets' are ever this easy to find so don't waste this opportunity to see what will become a fine naked eye sight in May perhaps as bright as Comet Hale-Bopp was in 1997 as explained in the March issue of our magazine (though only from the southern hemisphere). We only have a few more weeks to see this Comet LINEAR so do send any reports of sightings to us at observe@astronomy.ie So far, no one in Ireland has reported seeing this comet yet so do let us know if you try. You can order the March issue for 5euro incl P&P by selecting "current issue" and saying in the comment box that you "want the March issue" at: www.astronomy.ie/sub or print that form and post a cheque. Or join the club for 12 issues a year for 40euro. 2. NASA speaker March 8 There are only just over 2 weeks to go until Dr Stuart Smith of NASA's Ames Research Centre in California gives our March Public Lecture in Dublin City University about "Heading to Mars". Dr Smith is in Ireland to set up a laboratory to collaborate on further studies of the effect of weightlessness on the human body particularly on long duration missions like NASA's new manned mission to Mars. The lecture is open to all on Monday March 8th at 8pm in the Henry Grattan Building (beside The Helix) in Dublin City University. All welcome. Tickets are 5euro (3euro to paid up members) and should be purchased in advance from our Astronomy Shop in Artane or by posting cheque/postal order/bank draft to: P.O.Box 2888, Dublin 5. Please bring as many friends as possible for what should be an extremely interesting talk. And get your tickets soon as last year's NASA lecture was sold out with standing room only. ===== David Moore BSc FRAS, at Ireland's Biggest Telescope Shop. Tel (01) 847 0777. www.astronomy.ie info@astronomy.ie Click last line to change subscription options & see old messages: