1. Star-B-Q: Today is your last chance to book at the reduced rate for our fantastic barbecue under the stars. See previous emails and www.astronomy.ie/sbq for details of Star-B-Q which will take place on Sept. 8 in the highest village in Ireland, Roundwood, Co. Wicklow. Lots of people from all around Ireland have already booked but if you, or anyone you know, would like a reduced rate ticket then today (July 31) is your last chance! We have already assembled the biggest collection of powerful telescopes ever in the society's history, so it should be a humdinger of an event. Jupiter and Mars are the main planets on view along with galaxies, star clusters, gas clouds and all the other wonders of the universe in a very dark sky away from city lights. Talks, demos, laser tour, food and refreshments are all included in the ticket price of just 30euro.

2. I.S.S. - Shuttle Chase! (new SMS service): The International Space Station will be visible in our skies starting on Friday (until August 19) looking like a very bright 'star' to the naked eye every evening. Then next week just after midnight on Tuesday night the Space Shuttle Endeavour will be launched and it will be visible in our skies chasing ISS for a couple of days until they dock making the biggest man made craft ever assembled in space! This is similar to what happened in June and a record number of you called our premium rate Newsline (1550-111-442 calls cost 95c/min) to get the time to watch each evening and the latest news about the programme. Proceeds from this help us promote interest in astronomy nationwide. For more on ISS see the monthly ISS column in our magazine and visit www.astronomy.ie/iss.html

TEXT service anyone? This time round we are toying with the idea of introducing a SMS based service. Would you be interested in receiving a text on your mobile phone giving the time to see ISS that night? Should we send it out early in the day, or say one hour before ISS/Shuttle is due to pass over, thereby reminding you closer to the time? How much do you think we should charge per text? 50cent? 1euro? more? less? This is just some 'market research' at this stage, so by replying to this email you are not committing to subscribe to a SMS service, but we would value your comments greatly.

3. Perseid Meteor Shower: We've already had a few reports of people seeing Perseid shooting stars so just a reminder that one of the best meteor showers of the year peaks on the night of August 12, bur remember you can see significant numbers for several days before/after Aug. 12 and even a few a couple of weeks before/after. See David Grennan's write up of the Perseids on page 27 of our August magazine (still available by post on www.astronomy.ie/sub). On maximum night you should see a dozen more meteors than normal.

4. Printing Leaflets: From time to time the society prints leaflets like membership forms and we are seeking a printer who can do this at minimal cost for us. Do you work in this business or know anyone who does who can give us reasonable or reduced rates?

5. Comet + Jupiter: Just a reminder for those of you with telescopes, or thinking of getting a scope this month: Comet LINEAR is still 7th-8th magnitude which is about 10 times brighter than we expected (see our July magazine page 28 for star map showing its position). This is the last week to see the comet before it gets too low for us. Jupiter puts on a stunning show every evening as the brightest 'star' in the Southern sky each evening. Owners of even small telescopes can see its moons and their events: from the table on page 26 of our August magazine don't miss Ganymede going behind Jupiter Wed at 10:09pm, Europa vanishing into Jupiter's shadow on Friday at 12:19am, and Io going behind Jupiter at 9:32pm on Sunday. Lots more events for the rest of August are in the magazine. Owners of larger scopes can watch out for the Great Red Spot crossing the centre of the planet this week on Tuesday, Friday and Sunday - see the table of exact times on page 26 of our August magazine. There's a lot to see so get your scope out in any clear periods this week. Tell us what you see at observe@astronomy.ie for our monthly magazine report.

6. Nationwide Lectures: Don't forget European Space Agency author Stuart Clark will be giving lectures for the society in Cork, Galway and Dublin in a few days time so book your tickets for "The Day the Sun Attacked the Earth" at www.astronomy.ie/stuartclarklectures.html today!