1. At 9pm tonight (April 13) BBC2 will screen the much heralded documentary about the life of Professor Stephen Hawking, who now holds Sir Isaac Newton's position at Cambridge University. The programme synopsis reads "Diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disorder (MND) at the age of 22, his theories on the universe have revolutionised the cosmological world. BBC Drama and BBC Science present a one-off special on the remarkable life of Stephen Hawking" http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/tvradio/programmes/hawking/ BBC: "Read the Stephen Hawking biography, find out more about the scientists and theories that were part of Stephen's life, and visit our Multimedia Tribute." http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/space/spaceguide/hawking/ Hawking's own website is at http://www.hawking.org.uk/ Our Astronomy Shop has all of Hawking's books in stock don't forget, ready for same day despatch to you, or call in and collect. 2. Veteran comet hunter William Bradfield (age 76) has discovered his 18th comet (C/2004 F4). It's only a dozen degrees from the Sun by the time you get this and it will close to 2.6 degrees on April 18 reaching perhaps 1st magnitude which means it should be visible at the SOHO site around that time: http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/data/realtime-images.html After this it pulls away from the Sun and will become visible in our evening skies at the end of April perhaps at 6th magnitude. The only problem with this comet is that it reaches its closest point to the Sun (perihelion) on April 17 and it will be just 16 million miles from the Sun, much closer than Mercury. Comet Bradfield is a relatively small comet so there is a good chance that the comet will NOT survive perihelion, something you can watch day by day on the SOHO website above. If Comet Bradfield does survive perihelion we could have 2 comets to see at our Star-B-Q in May (the other being Comet NEAT, a BIG comet that should put on a fine display as you will read in the May issue of our magazine which is being posted out to members at the end of this week - call to order a copy for 5euro if you don't subscribe). Here is a preliminary ephemeris for our more advanced readers: COMET BRADFIELD, C/2004 F4 2004 RA (2000) Dec Delta r Elong Mag Const OpLat h m o ' au au o o Apr 12 2 08.0 -00 41 1.046 0.265 15 3.8 Cet 40S Apr 13 2 06.6 -00 07 1.005 0.237 14 3.3 Cet 43S Apr 14 2 04.1 +00 41 0.963 0.212 12 2.9 Cet 46S Apr 15 2 00.3 +01 52 0.923 0.190 10 2.4 Cet 50S Apr 16 1 54.9 +03 31 0.886 0.175 8 2.1 Psc 57S Apr 17 1 48.0 +05 43 0.856 0.169 5 1.9 Psc 70S Apr 18 1 40.2 +08 23 0.837 0.173 3 1.9 Psc 64S Apr 19 1 32.3 +11 18 0.830 0.186 4 2.1 Psc 02S Apr 20 1 25.0 +14 12 0.833 0.206 7 2.5 Psc 17N Apr 21 1 18.9 +16 57 0.845 0.231 10 2.9 Psc 24N Apr 22 1 13.8 +19 28 0.862 0.258 13 3.3 Psc 28N Apr 23 1 09.7 +21 44 0.883 0.287 16 3.7 Psc 30N Apr 24 1 06.5 +23 47 0.905 0.316 18 4.0 Psc 31N Apr 25 1 04.0 +25 37 0.930 0.346 20 4.4 Psc 32N Apr 26 1 02.1 +27 16 0.955 0.375 22 4.7 Psc 33N Apr 27 1 00.6 +28 46 0.980 0.405 24 5.0 Psc 33N Apr 28 0 59.6 +30 08 1.005 0.434 25 5.3 Psc 34N Apr 29 0 58.9 +31 24 1.031 0.462 26 5.6 Psc 34N Apr 30 0 58.4 +32 33 1.056 0.491 27 5.8 Psc 34N May 01 0 58.2 +33 37 1.081 0.519 28 6.0 Psc 35N May 02 0 58.2 +34 37 1.106 0.546 30 6.2 And 35N May 03 0 58.3 +35 33 1.130 0.573 30 6.5 And 35N (If the columns of the table don't line up properly, switch to a fixed-space font like Courier.) 3. STAR-B-Q - Ireland's biggest annual astronomy gathering May 7 is the date for our annual get together with telescopes, talks, guides to the night sky by eye and binoculars PLUS our fund-raising barbecue under the stars. Today (April 13) is the last day to book at the slightly reduced rate of 20euro (see insert in your April issue of the magazine and at http://www.astronomy.ie/sbq.html where you can book online and get more details or download a booking form for friends and family). David Moore, Chairman, Astronomy Ireland: JOIN ONLINE: www.astronomy.ie/sub Ireland's only telescope shop: www.astronomy.ie/map.html Tel: (01) 847 0777