1. BILLION DOLLAR MAN LECTURE MOVED (slightly) D.C.U. (and ourselves) have been getting so many calls about our New Year Lecture tonight (Jan. 12) that they have asked us to move the Lecture a few hundred metres from the Henry Grattan Building to the Larkin Theatre which seats 3 times as many people, and in even more plush surroundings. We will start the lecture 10 minutes late at 8:10pm to allow people time to get to the new venue so don't worry. The map on our website shows that the Larkin Theatre is even closer to the multi-storey car park http://www.astronomy.ie/images/primap.gif In fact just walk out of the car park and the Larkin Theatre is the round building almost directly in front of you. Nicknamed for the size of the budgets he controls, "the billion dollar man" Prof David Southwood from the European Space Agency in Paris is expected to announce in Dublin tonight that the Beagle 2 lander is all but lost. However, Mars Express is a great success. There are dozens of other missions either in space or about to be launched or being built on Earth that Prof Southwood will also describe. I have heard Prof Southwood speak in public in the past and you are in for a treat this year at our 2004 New Year Lecture. Tickets will now be available on the door (5euro each). All welcome. This is the highlight of our 2004 Lecture programme so don't miss it! 2. MOON OCCULTS BRIGHT DOUBLE - VIDEO Check your magazine this week and you'll see Jupiter is near the Moon, Venus is near Uranus, and Mars and Saturn are on view. But one special event happens late on Tuesday night when the Moon passes in front of the bright star Gamma in Virgo (mag. 2.9). As explained on page 26 of the January issue this is a very close double star (only 0.62 arc seconds apart) that will disappear and reappear in a two-step process as first one star and then the other is covered/uncovered by the Moon's edge. Many of you have digital cameras that can shoot short video clips. You can even hand hold these at the eyepiece of a telescope to record this event. Obviously camcorder owners can do this also. It would be very interesting to record this event as even a small telescope should show it well. Those with no cameras but who do own binoculars or telescopes can watch it for themselves of course. Disappearance is at 2:11am at the left(bright) edge of the Moon, and reappearance is at 2:58am at the top (dark) side of the Moon as seen from Dublin. If you know your latitude and longitude email me and I'll send an exact prediction to you. Send reports of what you see to observe@astronomy.ie ===== David Moore BSc FRAS, Chairman, Astronomy Ireland, P.O.Box 2888, Dublin 5. Editor, "Astronomy & Space" magazine. ASTRONOMY SHOP: open until 6pm Mon.-Sat. Tel (01) 847 0777. Fax (01) 847 0771. www.astronomy.ie (Subscribe FREE to our emailing list) Email: info@astronomy.ie Please join Astronomy Ireland online and support our IRISH astronomy magazine: www.astronomy.ie/sub Please forward this notice to everyone you think might be interested.