Sorry for late notice of the Geminids below but we've been snowed under with Christmas Telescopes orders, the Christmas Lecture etc. We have a new webpage about gift ideas from our very well-stocked Shop in Artane (delivery to anywhere in Ireland). IT'S IRELAND'S BIGGEST TELESCOPE SHOP and almost everyone gets their telescopes here. See http://www.astronomy.ie/Telescopes_&Gift%20ideas_.html and also http://www.astronomy.ie/Christmas%20Gift%20ideas.html for other ideas for gifts and special offers this Christmas. Get your Astronomy Ireland Polo/Sweat/T-shirt or a game of Astronomy Monopoly, Patrick Moore's Yearbook 2004, or Carl Sagan's 7-DVD boxed set, as well as discounts (to members) on many telescopes. We have thousands of products IN STOCK for you all year round. It's all on the above webpages or call the Shop staff at (01) 847 0777 Monday to Saturday up to 6pm. Remember that buying from our Shop helps us to help you by giving us the resources to promote astronomy in Ireland to the heady heights we have already achieved. So please support our Shop. GEMINIDS: Tonight (Saturday Dec. 13) is the peak of the Geminid meteor shower. Even though the Moon is in the sky I urge you to watch for an hour at least as the Geminid shower is good at producing bright meteors and fireballs. I've had spectacular views on nights of a Full Moon from city suburbs. The radiant is in Gemini of course, near Castor, so all Geminids should appear to point back to that location, but you can of course see Geminids in any part of the sky. Keep a count of how many you see and record how long you view the shower then email these details and any comments to observe@astronomy.ie with your name and address so we can include you in any report we produce for the magazine. NEW YEAR LECTURE TICKETS Tickets are now available for our very special New Year Public Lecture in D.C.U. on January 12. Please book now as this is an extra special speaker coming in from abroad - the Director of Science from Paris office of the European Space Agency, Prof David Southwood. He is probably one of the most important people in the world of space exploration and we hope you will want to hear what he has to say. E.S.A. is fast catching up with NASA when it comes to space exploration. There are probes on their way to Mars, Saturn, the Moon, and soon Venus and a comet. ESA shares the Hubble Space Telescope with NASA, and has many other missions like this. Prof Southwood will describe all of these. He gave a similar fascinating lecture about what the future holds in Armagh in August about which we published an article in Ireland's astronomy magazine "Astronomy & Space". You can see a copy of this article online at http://www.astronomy.ie/nextlecture.html along with lots of details of the talk including how to book tickets (which you should do before Christmas). Please support Astronomy Ireland this Christmas and sign up new member (www.astronomy.ie/sub) or get a quality telescope or gift from our Shop. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. ===== 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 AI's Events emailing list) Email: info@astronomy.ie P.S. We have a limited number of places for our beginners evening classes starting Jan. 20 in D.C.U. See http://www.astronomy.ie/eveningclass.html and book as soon as you can please to avoid disappointment as happened with our October classes that sold out.