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1.  Space Chase Tonight

There will be no less than two extremely rare space chases to see in the sky over the next eight evenings, the first of which will be tonight, Oct. 22^nd.

NASA has been subcontracting the building of its rockets to commercial companies and Orbital Sciences has built the Cygnus commercial cargo craft to fly up to International Space Station with supplies. Once it is unloaded it is filled with rubbish and undocked from ISS to be burnt up in the Earth's atmosphere. Cygnus undocked today around noon (Irish time), so we will get to see it close to the ISS twice tonight!

The first (and best) pass for the space chase is at 7:24pm, when the ISS will blaze brightly and soar high across the southern sky. A later pass will happen at 8:59pm, but this one may be a bit fainter.

The next space chase takes place next Monday and Tuesday when the European Space Agency ATV will undock from the ISS.

The times the ISS is visible over Ireland are published each afternoon on www.astronomy.ie/iss along with any interesting information about space chases. Remember to let us know what you see by emailing observe@astronomy.ie

Read all the ISS sighting reports each month and internationally-renowned Irish space author Brian Harvey's monthly ISS column in our magazine, which you can order HERE.

2.  Win Tickets to Gravity Preview Screening

To celebrate the release of the epic space thriller Gravity, we’ve teamed up with Warner Bros. Pictures to offer you the opportunity to see this film ahead of anyone else. A special preview screening will take place at The Light House Cinema, Smithfield, Dublin 7 on Tuesday 5th November at 6.30pm and we have tickets to give away!

For more information and an exciting trailer for Gravity, and to enter this competition for a great prize, please visit www.astronomy.ie/gravity

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