1. Venus - Moon Watches Nationwide to Include Saturn and Naked Eye Comet In celebration of the International Year of Astronomy, Astronomy Ireland is setting up powerful telescopes around the country for you to witness our next event, the Moon passing very close to Venus in evening skies, which is so spectacular it won't occur again for 3 years. The planet Venus, which has lit up our evening skies for the past months will soon disappear from them completely, leaving this Watch as your last chance to view this beautiful planet blazing beside the Moon until 2012. Venus' disk will show a huge crescent like you have never seen before. The Moon will be a thin crescent just below Venus, making an extremely eye-catching spectacle to the naked eye, rather like it did on December 1st when people jammed all our phone lines asking what the super bright 'star' was near the Moon - See report and photos here The new naked eye Comet Lulin (see finder charts in our Feb and March magazine) will also make an appearance and is currently brightening in magnitude as it approaches a fly by of Earth. Incredibly, it will be right next to Regulus, the brightest star in Leo, making it easy to locate at each Watch. Saturn will also be visible in the night sky for this event, and is currently nearly ringless due to its axial tilt, a sight you will not see again for 30 years. With so much happening on this night, this is an unmissable event and we will have high powered telescopes set up across Ireland to let you view this amazing spectacle. We have Venus - Moon - Saturn - Comet Watches starting at 7pm on February 27th in the following locations: Carlow Clare Cork Donegal Down Dublin Limerick Louth Mayo Mullingar Portlaoise Sligo Tipperary Waterford Wexford With 15 locations (so far), call or email if you want a Watch in your town? This is Astronomy Ireland's biggest event ever. We will be there with information and magazines for sale even if it's cloudy, so come along regardless of the weather at 7pm. Check out www.astronomy.ie or call our head office (01) 847 0777 for more details. Astronomy Ireland The world's most popular Astronomy Club AND Ireland's Only Astronomy Magazine www.astronomy.ie Call Our Telescope Shop Tel (01) 847 0777 Mon-Sat ( subscribe / unsubscribe here )