1. Our Star-B-Q was held on Saturday May 7 under incredibly dark skies in the Wicklow mountains - I had forgotten just how dark the sky was down there! Skies were almost perfectly cloud-free. As well as Jupiter and Saturn we got to see all the targets expected - galaxies, star clusters, the comet, and more. The International Space Station flew over (twice!). Hot food was served from the barbecue all night long with tea, coffee and soft drinks. Emlyn Jones and I gave talks in the Hall. Eamonn O'Fearchain did a live webcam demo on a big projector screen. Tony Ryan gave his naked eye guide to the night sky. We had about a dozen BIG scopes (mostly 11-inch Celestrons - all bought from our Shop) brought along by their owners from several counties around Ireland. Everyone got their FREE Hubble Space Telescope DVD and a special leaflet by David Grennan about what to see in the sky. A report with photos will appear in the magazine in due course. If you were there, please reply to this email with your comments. Tell us what you liked or anything you think we should do? Thanks to all the volunteers from AI who helped make the event a great success. The next Star-B-Q is on August 26 and you can book at the special rate of 30euro (25euro for under 16s) this month. Prices will rise thereafter as we expect large crowds in August so please book online here: www.astronomy.ie/sbqaug05.html 2. Everyone is welcome to come to "Looking Inside the Stars" our Public Lecture tonight (Mon May 9) in Dublin City University (Henry Grattan Building, Lecture hall CG12) at 8pm. Dr. Simon Jeffrey will travel down from Armagh Observatory to explain how it is possible to listen to stars 'ringing' in space and how this allows us to actually look inside stars! His last talk was brilliantly illustrated so I for one am looking forward to tonight's talk eagerly. For AI members outside the Leinster area who cannot get to the to the lectures a DVD will be made available by the end of the week for 5euro (plus 5euro post and packing). Admission to the lecture is 5euro which you can pay at the door (3euro to members who bring the May issue of our magazine with them). Even more details at www.astronomy.ie/lecture0505.html 3. The International Space Station will be visible crossing the sky every night this week (until Sunday May 15). On board are Sergei Krikalev and John Phillips who arrived late last month for their 6 month tour of duty. If you haven't seen ISS before it is extremely bright, and passes over in just a couple of minutes, but at a different time each evening. So there's no mistaking it if you go out at the right time and look high in the South. To get the time to see ISS call our Newsline after 12 noon each day for the time to watch that evening: 1550-111-442 (calls cost 95c/min, in U.K. dial 09001-88-1950 at 60p/min) - David Moore, Chairman, Astronomy Ireland info@astronomy.ie www.astronomy.ie Tel (01) 847 0777 Visit our Shop to see huge range of telescopes on offer