Christmas Gifts <http://www.astronomy.ie/gifts> Membership <http://www.astronomy.ie/sub/index.html> DVD <http://www.astronomy.ie/lectureDVD.php> 1. Christmas Lecture: ESA Missions: Present and Future Earlier today, the European Space Agency's latest mission, Swarm, launched successfully from Russia to place a trio of satellites in orbit around Earth. Swarm will measure our planet's magnetic field to explore how it works and to see if Earth's magnetic field is 'flipping'. It will also try to determine if the Sun's effect on the magnetic field has any influence on the planet's climate. Swarm isn't the only mission being undertaken by the ESA, of course. A new mission called Gaia is due to launch later this year and will measure with great accuracy the location of stars in our galaxy, giving us a more complete picture of the Milky Way and galactic structure. Professor Alvaro Giménez Cañete is the Director of Science and Robotics at the European Space Agency, and will he will deliver Astronomy Ireland's special Christmas Lecture on December 9th in Trinity College Dublin. His directorate has a multi-billion euro budget to operate the ESA's science programme and its robotic exploration. Professor Cañete is one of the most important people in Europe's presence in space, of which Ireland is a part. We are extremely lucky to have him come to Ireland to give this special lecture, so make sure you book your tickets soon as this will be a very popular lecture! For more information and to book tickets, please click HERE <http://www.astronomy.ie/lecture201312.php> . 2. BBC Horizon Special about Comet ISON Northern Irish astronomer and comet expert Professor Alan Fitzsimmons will appear on the BBC’s Horizon programme this weekend. In Comet of the Century: A Horizon Special on BBC 2 at 9.15pm tomorrow night (Saturday 23rd November), Professor Fitzsimmons will be explaining why Comet ISON is so important to science, and how it might appear to sky watchers in early December. Our own magazine editor, David Moore, gave a Comet ISON viewing guide talk at our recent Astro-Expo, which you can order on DVD HERE <http://www.astronomy.ie/dvd> . We also have a dozen pages of comet background and diagrams in the December issue of Astronomy Ireland magazine. You can order the magazine online HERE <http://astronomy.ie/join> or pick up a copy of it in Dunnes Stores next week. Astronomy Ireland The world's most popular astronomy club www.astronomy.ie ( subscribe / unsubscribe <http://lists.redbrick.dcu.ie/mailman/listinfo/astronomy> ) _____ No virus found in this message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 2013.0.3426 / Virus Database: 3629/6857 - Release Date: 11/22/13