1. BBC 1 TV broadcasts Sir Patrick Moore's next SKY AT NIGHT on the subject of "Dark Matter" on Sunday night March 2/3 (technically Monday morning) at 1:45am so you may have missed it by the time you read this. However, you can watch the repeat this Saturday March 8 at 12:45pm on BBC 2. Here's advance notice for you: the next Sky at Night is on Sunday night March 30/31 on BBC 1 (no doubt at some time around midnight). 2. Sir Patrick, an honorary life member of Astronomy Ireland, celebrates his 80th birthday on Tuesday March 4th. We sent him a card on your behalf. We have also set up a page on our website to celebrate his birthday this week. There is an excellent biography of the great man. Go to http://www.astronomy.ie and click on the link at the top of the page now, you may see a familiar face (how young we were). 3. The next meeting of Astronomy Ireland in Dublin is coming up soon on Monday March 10th when Eamonn Ansbro presents the first results from his 36-inch telescope and observatories at Kingsland, Co. Roscommon. Eamonn has invested a reputed 500,000 Euro on the facilities at Kingsland and I have already seen some impressive planetary images. So do come along to: The Main Lecture Hall (CG86) in the Henry Grattan Building Dublin City University (map on our website) at 8:00pm Monday March 10 for "First Results from the Kingsland Observatories" by Eamonn Ansbro. All welcome - bring a friend! For members who cannot get to Dublin we videotape these talks and make them available on our website a few days later. Check out the "webcasts" on the sidebar of our homepage at http://www.astronomy.ie (Advance notice: Our April 14 meeting will be given by Brian Harvey on "The last voyage of Columbia) 4. STAR-B-Q, Ireland's biggest annual gathering of amateur astronomers, takes place on April 25 this year, but remember you can get tickets at the reduced rate of just 15 Euro until March 31st. Assuming there are any left that is because booking has been heavier than ever before following the booking form enclosed with the March issue of Astronomy & Space magazine that went out in mid February. See page 44 of the March issue for details. We should have a webpage about STAR-B-Q up soon, but don't wait for that, book this week if you can, by post or telephone our Shop staff. 5. And finally, in observing news, yet another decent comet is brightening in evening skies - C/2002 Y1 Juels-Holvorcem. It's brighter than expected at about magnitude 7.0. This week is moves from Cepheus into Lacerta, so it's about 15 degrees from Deneb. Details will be in the April issue of A&S out in 2 weeks time. The Moon will become a problem in the coming week so view over the next few nights if you can. (You can get details at http://encke.jpl.nasa.gov/ in the meantime). Don't forget to send any observations in to observe@astronomy.ie for our new "Observers Log" column edited by Anthony Murphy (see page 33 of the March issue). Click on http://www.astronomy.ie/pmoore.html now. ===== David Moore BSc FRAS, Chairman, Astronomy Ireland, P.O.Box 2888, Dublin 5. Editor, "Astronomy & Space" magazine. ASTRONOMY SHOP: open Mon.-Fri. 9:30am-5:30pm and Sat. noon-6pm. Tel (01) 847 0777. Fax (01) 847 0771. WWW: http://www.astronomy.ie (Subscribe FREE to AI's Events emailing list) Email: info@astronomy.ie __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - forms, calculators, tips, more http://taxes.yahoo.com/