Classes    Membership    DVD

1.  Vacancy for Sales Volunteer

Astronomy Ireland is seeking a volunteer with highly developed sales and administrative skills to work in a small team over 20 hours per week. Expenses will be covered. Please respond with a full CV and references to the Chairman, David Moore, at sec@astronomy.ie

2.  Moon Art Exhibition

Dublin artist, Frank O'Dea showcases a selection of his artwork based on the theme of the Moon, at Gallery 27 this week from Tuesday to Saturday (1pm to 5:30pm), entitled To The Moon and Back. The opening reception takes place on Thursday, September 19^th at 6pm.

The exhibition takes place 27 South Fredrick Street, Dublin 2 (just off Nassau St). More details at www.gallery27dublin.com

3.  Public Lecture: Robots in Space

Cassini engineer Dr Leah-Nani Alconel will give Astronomy Ireland's October Public Lecture Robots in Space, in which she will explain how robot spacecraft can provide important scientific data without risking the lives of human astronauts and at much lower cost.

Robots are taking over space. They've already gone to the planets, and may even go to the stars without humans ever leaving Earth. On Earth we are protected by the planet's magnetic field, but in outer space astronauts can be exposed to cosmic rays and radiation from the Sun. With big risks of damaged DNA and cancer, future human space travel to other planets very risky business.

But robots can do this dangerous exploration for us. Not only can spacecraft be protected from radiation much easier, but they are cheaper to put into space, and can survive decades travelling to other worlds in that extreme environment. One such spacecraft is the Cassini orbiter, which is currently travelling around Saturn: a planet with a dangerous environment full of ionised plasma created by both Saturn itself and its moons.

The challenges of designing, constructing and operating them remotely require years, often decades, of commitment by large numbers of highly skilled personnel. In this talk, Dr Alconel will examine the process of overcoming these challenges from historical and personal perspectives to try to understand the abilities and limitations of robotic exploration.

The October Public Lecture, Robots in Space, will take place at 8pm on Monday, October 16th, in Trinity College Dublin.

Order tickets and DVDs of the lecture HERE or by calling (01) 890 11 11

4.  Harvest Moon

The Full Moon this month is known as the Harvest Moon, and will be visible tonight and tomorrow night. For more details on the Moon and other things to see I the sky, see the centre pages of the current issue of Astronomy Ireland magazine!

5.  New Brian Cox TV Show: Science Britannica

Astronomy Ireland lecture speaker Dr Brian Cox has an exciting new TV series exploring the history of Britain’s scientists. The programme begins tonight, and you can find out more on the BBC website HERE.

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