1. COMET+SATURN WATCHES NATION-WIDE Astronomy Ireland will be holding no less than 11 Comet Watches all around Ireland on Thursday January 13 to view the new Comet Machholz. As well as giving the general public a view of the brightest comet in several years, donations will be collected in aid of the Irish Red Cross Asia Disaster Fund. There will be telescopes and binoculars at each event kindly brought along by members of Astronomy Ireland for everyone to use to support this worthy cause. As well as the comet the planet Saturn is closest to Earth this week and will be in the news on Friday when the Huygens probe performs the most distant spacecraft landing ever attempted in history on Saturn's moon Titan. One of the highlights of the 3 billion dollar Cassini mission to Saturn, and the subject of our February Lecture by its chief UK scientist. Go to http://www.astronomy.ie/lecture0502.html and book now to get the facts 'straight from the horse's mouth'! At each Comet Watch the telescopes will easily show Saturn with its beautiful rings and also the moon Titan. Comet Machholz remains visible to the naked eye (very rare for a comet). Last night I estimated it to be magnitude 4.0 with a 1 degree tail even from the brightly lit suburbs of Dublin. Bring your own binoculars and we'll show you how to locate the comet. The comet's head is now being estimated at half a million kilometres wide and the tail is several million km long. Comet Machholz will remain on view throughout January and in to February. Although it is nearest the Sun on Jan. 24 light from the Moon will interfere after Thursday so January 13 is perhaps the very best date to see the comet. Here is the latest list of venues from our website www.astronomy.ie. Pick the Comet+Saturn Watch nearest you and go along to support the Tsunami Appeal: *Comet Watch locations nationwide* Dublin - Phoenix Park, car park at Papal Cross - Tom Finnegan (086) 8105155 Co. Clare - Kilmihil - Angus Sealy (087) 2308428 Castlebar - Ballyvarry N.S - Paul Gannon (087) 2595400 Co. Donegal - Letterkenny - Seamus Byron (087) 2203312 Cork - EVTC Ltd, Carrigaline Industrial Park - Martin Lynch (087) 2404104*Note Venue Change* Co. Tipperary - Clonmel, Mountain Road viewing point - Ray Parle (052)21892 Carlow - Killerig Golf Club - Gerry Moloney (087) 9184000 Dundalk - Derek Watters (086) 0806908 Waterford - Ballygunner School - Liam Walsh (087)2329130 Wexford - Community Centre, Rosslare Strand - Oliver Gargan (086)3592956 Co. Roscommon - Boyle, Horseman Viewing Point - Betty Meyler 086 8341218 *** All start at 8pm and EVERYONE is welcome *** (A.I. members reading this may like to offer help to each of the above Co-Ordinators on the night.) 2. TITAN LANDING ON BBC 2 Conor O'Brien pointed out that "the Titan mission is being covered live on BBC2 on Friday night. 'Stardate: Mission to Titan' on Fri 14 Jan, 23:30 - 00:30. Live coverage from Mission Control in Germany of today's attempt to land Europe's Huygens probe on Titan, one of Saturn's moons, described as the most earth-like object in the solar system." 3. DEEP IMPACT carries hundreds of AI members' names to Comet Tempel 1! NASA's comet collision mission 'DEEP IMPACT' (see Jan 2004 and February 2005 issues of A&S magazine) was successfully launched Wednesday evening as you may have seen in the news. I know lots of you took up the offer in the January 2004 issue of our magazine last year (page 11) to send your name to a comet! I entered "Astronomy Ireland" as well as my own name to the list of 500,000 now safely in space, until they hurtle in to the comet at 23,000mph on July 4 at 7am BST (daylight in Ireland so we'll not see it). http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2005-015 for more info or Wednesday's Irish Independent! Please forward this email to everyone you know so they can support the Irish Red Cross Asia Disaster Fund and see a Comet and Saturn! - David Moore, Chairman, Astronomy Ireland - your national astronomy club & magazine. Astronomy Ireland is a non-profit club for EVERYONE interested in space. www.astronomy.ie/sub to join AI and get our monthly colour magazine. Or simply post 40euro to: P.O.Box 2888, Dublin 5. Tel (01) 847 0777. Website: www.astronomy.ie