One curiosity we omitted from the Sky Diary in the September
issue of Astronomy & Space magazine is that the planet Mars passes just 50
arc minutes from the Crab Nebula (M1) on Sept. 16/17 and will be fairly close
for several days either side.
David Grennan has created this webpage to help you locate
the supernova remnant, see
www.astronomy.ie/marscrab.html where
you will get lots more details.
It should be possible to see the planet and the Crab in the same
low power field of view so send in any sightings to
observe@astronomy.ie
Jupiter is a fantastic sight this month and several events
involving its moons are listed in the magazine so order the current issue at
www.astronomy.ie/sub where you also see
all the photos sent in this month, sightings we have received, feature articles,
all the latest pictures from space and lots more besides.
You really are missing out on lots of information and
sights to be seen if you are not getting the magazine in the post every
month.
It costs less than 4euro a month after all, so please sign up
now at
www.astronomy.ie/sub and
support us.
2. Moon
Landings Film in I.F.I.
The Irish Film Institute have a Documentary Film Festival this
month "Stranger Than Fiction". On Sunday Sept. 16 they will screen "In the
Shadow of the Moon", a film about the Apollo Moon landings with all the
surviving moon-walkers telling their own story. Sounds fascinating so check out
3.
Star-B-Q Report
Around 600 people came from all around Ireland to Wicklow for
last weekend's Star-B-Q to make it the biggest Telescope event Ireland has ever
seen. This will help raise much needed funds to help Astronomy Ireland promote
astronomy all around the country, principally by subsidising the cost our
monthly colour magazine which you should all get, so a big thank you to everyone
who came.
Leo Enright gave a superb 3-D talk on Mars as our main speaker
of the evening. A vast array of telescopes were laid out on the playing pitch
with special offers on all telescopes being made by our Shop staff (you can
still get these money off offers until the end of September. Food and
refreshments were served and skies were clear at the start of the evening when
we got to see Jupiter and some other sights. It clouded in after a while so we
are going to set the telescopes up again for ticket-holders (if you are a
ticket-holder and you did not get an email about this recently please reply now
giving the name your tickets were purchased under, and we'll send
details).