1. David Southwood Lecture DVD

LECTURE REPORT: On March 16, over 200 people attended our St. Patrick's Day Public Lecture, and experienced a jaw-dropping flight across the surface of Mars. This journey took us over its mountains, through its valleys and into its craters, transforming The Red Planet from a small dot in the sky to a place more like our own planet than anyone had ever imagined. Could the dry, cold and deserted Martian surface be, in fact, a warning sign of things to come on Earth? This is the question David Southwood posed as he finished his finished his fascinating and enthralling lecture on the European Space Agency (ESA), its missions, and Ireland's place in international space exploration. His video of the flight across Mars was created using images taken during various missions to Mars by the ESA and provided a unique and exciting perspective of our neighbour. Professor Southwood was received with great enthusiasm in Trinity College and the halls were buzzing afterwards with people talking excitedly about “that breathtaking video”, and how they couldn’t believe “that Ireland does so much work in space”.

This is an amazing lecture which we highly recommend you watch. To order your copy of this lecture on DVD, for just 7euro (plus 5euro p&p) call us on (01) 847 0777 (alternatively post a cheque or postal order to: March 2009 DVD, Astronomy Ireland, PO. Box 2888, Dublin 5) or click:

ORDER HERE

Investigations continue into the fireball seen over Ireland and the UK last Saturday, April 4. It now appears likely that it terminated over the Irish Sea, however we cannot be certain of this as we have not received enough reports to accurately predict where it may have made impact with the Earth. Although we have received over 100 reports to date, in 1999 when predicting the course of a meteorite subsequently found in Carlow, we received over 400 reports which helped us achieve this. We hope to release a final update regarding the fireball early next week, however we need many more reports to do this, regretfully it appears that many people who saw it have not sent us their report. Please report your sighting to us by filling out a 'Fireball' Report form HERE, and please ask friends who saw it to do likewise.

As you are aware, Astronomy Ireland is holding a National Meeting on Saturday, April 25 at 3pm in the Science Gallery, Trinity College Dublin. This event, to inspire the promotion and development of astronomy and science in Ireland, promises to be a fun filled day for everyone. For more information about the National Meeting click HERE or email sec@astronomy.ie. We urge you to make your travel arrangements now in preparation for this meeting on April 25 as we want everyone to attend. If you plan on attending RSVP to sec@astronomy.ie.