Comet Bradfield is a fine sight right now in the cameras of the SOHO spacecraft. To see the latest images from SOHO click http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/data/realtime-images.html then click on the "LASCO C3" picture (or one of the links below it if you want a bigger or smaller picture). In yesterday's email I predicted it would become visible at the bottom of the LASCO C3 camera's image around 6pm Thursday. In fact it was about 9pm (I forgot to add the hour for summer time so the prediction was really only 2 hours out, not bad as the comet moves only a tiny amount in 2 hours). I am still predicting 8am Tuesday April 20 for the head of the comet to disappear from the LASCO C3 camera's field of view. There is now a nice animation of the predicted path of Comet Bradfield as it will be seen by SOHO at: http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/pickoftheweek/ and run the movie! Note how the comet's tail will swing wildly around so that it always points away from the Sun. Mercury is in inferior conjunction (April 17 at 2am BST) so it's not as easy to see as the animation suggests. A slight curve can already be seen in the comet's tail (as at 2pm BST Friday), and the tail is by no means fully in to the camera's field of view yet. Our contacts on the SOHO team tell us they are taking special exposures and will make a special movie once the fly past of the Sun is over. You can see 'standard movies' already at: http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/data/realtime/mpeg/ Early risers may be able to see the Comet on the limit of naked-eye visibility from the morning of April 23 next week, but the rest of us can marvel at the SOHO pictures as they unfold. 2. COMET NEAT & MOON ECLIPSE MAY 4 Another comet, Comet NEAT (C/2001 Q4) is on its way. It's a much bigger comet and should easily be visible to the naked-eye from the date of our Star-B-Q (May 7) onwards, and in EVENING skies too. There is an article and star map showing its position in the May issue of our colour monthly magazine "Astronomy & Space" that is going in the post to members today - all others should go to www.astronomy.ie/sub and subscribe or post 5euro to P.O.Box 2888, Dublin 5 (or call if using credit card) and ask for the "May issue", which also has full details of the last evening Total eclipse of the Moon (on May 4 just 3 days before Star-B-Q) until 2007! Please order your copy TODAY and be ready for two treats in May - comet NEAT *may* rival Comet Hale-Bopp! 3. A nova has been discovered in Ophiuchus that can be seen from Ireland 12 degrees up in the south before dawn (4am BST is best time to look). It is just half a degree above the 9th magnitude globular star cluster NGC 6401. At only mag. 10.2 so far so it's perhaps one for the more advanced observers amongst you, details can be forwarded on request or see chart: http://www.aavso.org/cgi-bin/searchcharts3.pl?name=N%20OPH%2004 4. A DOUBLE SHADOW TRANSIT of Jupiter's moons Io and Europe is visible from Ireland tonight from approx 9:50pm to 10:02pm BST. You'll need a telescope to see this, and you have a vast selection to choose from at our Shop don't forget (we're open tomorrow and every Saturday don't forget). See page 29 for details of this shadow transit event and others like it every month that you can see once you get one of our telescopes. --- David Moore, Chairman, Astronomy Ireland (www.astronomy.ie) Please support your national astronomy society and ONLY buy your Telescopes, Books, CD-ROMs etc. from OUR Astronomy Shop www.astronomy.ie/map.html Tel (01) 847 0777 six days a week (delivery nationwide)