1. TG4 had Leo Enright covering the expected launch of ESA's Rosetta Comet Mission live this morning around 7am. There is lots of Irish involvement with ESA's billion euro Rosetta spacecraft and lander, chief amongst them being Prof Susan McKenna-Lawlor who will be making a rare public appearance as Ireland's leading space scientist when she gives our Easter Monday Lecture on April 12 in D.C.U. We were very lucky to get her. There was a model of Rosetta and its lander at Astro-Expo last November. You may have heard in the news that the launch was eventually postponed 24 hours due to poor weather conditions. Leo has told me that he will be back on air live again on Friday morning (Feb 27) about 7:20am so do tune in. Leo was also on Morning Ireland RTE radio 1 this morning and you can still hear his piece online, emphasising all the Irish involvement in this 10 year mission to a comet at: http://www.rte.ie/news/2004/0226/morningireland/morningireland8a.smil Set your alarm clock or at least your video for TG4 and Leo in the morning! 2. From our Astronomy Shop in Artane, Dublin 5 we've been watching a new sunspot grow after it appeared on the disk a few days ago. It's now big enough to be seen with the naked-eye (protected by AstroSolar filter of course - call and we'll post a sheet to you). This morning the sunspot, numbered 564, emitted a fairly powerful X-class explosion (X1.1 flare) around 2am (Feb. 26). Solar astronomers can't say for certain yet if it will cause an aurora but if it does we would expect it tomorrow morning at the earliest but probably on Friday night so you would do well to keep an eye on the northern sky over the next couple of nights. Do text 086 081 9986 and email observe@astronomy.ie with your full name and location if you see any aurora. 3. Mars was a fantastic sight next to the Moon last night, as predicted in our February magazine and in Monday's email to you all (see archive using links on last 2 lines of each of these emails). Did you notice the colour? Whereas Mars was easily visible to the naked-eye did you take a close up look in binoculars as I suggested? The red colour of Mars next to the white of the Moon was stunning, even though Mars is 40 times dimmer then when at its closest last August. I was lucky enough (unlucky!?) to be testing a new batch of our ultra wide-angle 10x50 binoculars for sale in our Shop and noticed the dramatic colour of Mars immediately. (All 10 pair checked out perfectly - we test each one on stars at night, they are custom made for Astronomy Ireland in Germany and have superb optics that outperform brand names cost more than double the 85euro we sell them for making them the ideal binocular for astronomy in my opinion). The view of Earthshine on the crescent Moon was a superb sight in binoculars too. No one reported seeing Venus closest to the Moon on Monday, I know I was clouded out. Next up is a Jupiter next to Chi Leonis and Saturn near the Moon on Monday. 4. NASA Public Lecture takes place on Monday week March 8 in D.C.U. don't forget. Book your tickets now. Call the number below or see the website for detail. Support Astronomy Ireland and join online at: www.astronomy.ie/sub ===== David Moore BSc FRAS, at Ireland's BIGGEST Telescope Shop. Tel (01) 847 0777. www.astronomy.ie info@astronomy.ie Click last line to change subscription options & see old messages: