ASTRONOMY IRELAND MAILING LIST - www.astronomy.ie (The all-Ireland astronomy Club, Magazine and Shop) --------------------------------------------------- 1. WE NEED YOUR HELP !!! If you are in the Dublin area and free any time today (Thursday) from 10am to 10pm for an hour or more perhaps you would be able to help us post out our magazine. We do not have as many volunteers as usual this month so any extra hands in our office/Shop in Artane would be very welcome. Please reply to this email or just drop in! 2. AIRS The AI Radio Show was transmitted on Tuesday at 8pm. If you missed it you can hear the repeat on Thursday at 11am on Dublin City Anna Livia 103.2 FM. We hope to have the show online at our website www.astronomy.ie by the weekend. Please email us NOW if you tuned in? radio@astronomy.ie 3. COMET ASAS ON THE NET On Sept. 9 a small comet was found by an automated telescope system (ASAS). Comet ASAS (C/2004 R2) will pass very close to the Sun Oct. 7 (0.11au) and may reach magnitude +2. It wouldn't be of great interest except for the fact that you can just about see it on the net at the SOHO website. Look at http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/data/realtime-images.html and click on "LASCO C3". The comet is a small streak to the lower right of the blotted-out Sun's disk. It will move towards the top centre of the image as the days pass as this plot shows: http://ares.nrl.navy.mil/sungrazer/images/R2_K4_1r.gif It's nowhere near as good as the recent Comet Bradfield and perhaps only our more experienced readers will see it? Click on the "REAL TIME MOVIES" link at the bottom of the above SOHO page (http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/data/realtime/mpeg/) and the motion is quite noticeable. Comet LINEAR (C/2003 K4) is also shown in the above plot but it's very much fainter and extremely difficult to spot. I can just about detect it. 4. NEXT PUBLIC LECTURE: "Hunting for Exploding Planets" by UK's top amateur astronomer Guy Hurst (a B.A.A. President) Details at http://www.astronomy.ie/lecture0410.html Please book seats NOW by replying to this email or at the webpage above. This is a major lecture in association with the British Council so DO NOT MISS IT! Please help us post our magazine Thursday! - David Moore, Chairman, Astronomy Ireland. www.astronomy.ie Please order our "ECLIPSE ISSUE" (October) magazine NOW and be ready for the last TOTAL ECLIPSE OF THE MOON (Oct. 28) for over 2 years! Only 5euro including postage! Click http://www.astronomy.ie/sub or post to P.O.BOX 2888, DUBLIN 5. Astronomy Shop: Tel (01) 847 0777 Mon-Sat for ALL your astronomical needs: HALF PRICE BOOK SALE now on http://www.astronomy.ie/dm/booksale.rtf -----------------------------------------