----------------------------------------------------- ASTRONOMY IRELAND MAILING LIST - www.astronomy.ie (Ireland's National Astronomy Club, Magazine and Shop) --------------3,000 members and growing-------------- 1. AURORA SUNDAY AND MONDAY NIGHTs A huge sunspot appeared on the Sun last week and has grown to the size of Jupiter! On Jan. 15th it caused two M8 and X2 class explosions that have sent material hurtling toward Earth. They are expected to cause aurora on Sunday night and Monday night (Jan. 16-17), maybe even Tuesday. Unusually, a LOW LATITUDE activity watch has been issued so a strong aurora is expected. As usual, if you see anything please immediately TEXT your name and location to 086 081 99 86 (store this in your phone permanently!) and then email a more detailed report to observe@astronomy.ie for any report we may publish in our magazine. Send photos there too! If you bought AstroSolar filter from our Shop (for your eyes, binoculars, or telescope) do take a look at this rare giant sunspot over the next few days (it will have rotated out of view by next weekend). NEVER LOOK AT THE SUN UNLESS YOU HAVE ASTROSOLAR FILTERS! An A4 size sheet costs only 29.95euro. You can also see the giant sunspot on the net at the SOHO website: http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/data/realtime/mdi_igr/512/ (click on image for larger version) To see a movie of this spot growing remarkably click: http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/data/realtime/mpeg/ then click the "512x512" or "256x256" below the "MDI" image for a large/small movie!!! 2. COMET WATCHES We had a mixture of weather at our 11 Comet Watches all around Ireland last Thursday. The Dublin Watch was the biggest with over a hundred people there. Skies were mostly clear and everyone got to see not only Comet Machholz (still a fine sight in binoculars - I saw a 1 degree tail last night from light polluted Dublin!) but also Saturn at opposition and Titan 'live' which was to be the scene of those incredible landing photos the following night (see the 3 website links under "Cassini at Saturn" on www.astronomy.ie for latest news). An amazing night! Cork was clouded out. Donegal had good skies. A fuller report will appear in our magazine in a few weeks. In total we raised around 1,000 euro for the Irish Red Cross Tsunami Appeal. Visitors were very generous, hopefully inspired by the views they had. Well done to all our volunteers nationwide. 3. INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION You can now see I.S.S. every night until January 26. On board are astronauts Leroy Chiao and Salizhan Sharipov who have been in space for 3 months and have 3 more months to go. I.S.S. looks like a very bright 'star' to the naked eye, brighter than all the real stars in the sky. It moves from right to left across the sky (West to East) usually passing high in the South. You'll only see it for a couple of minutes each night as it silently crosses the sky. The time to watch is different each evening so please call our Newsline on 1550-111-442 after 12 noon each day to get the exact time to watch that night (calls cost 95c/min, in U.K. dial 09001-88 1950 at 60p/min). It costs less than a euro/pound to hear the prediction and proceeds help us fund our organisation. This series of passes will be specially interesting because the Moon is in the evening sky. Last night 3 of us took a break from packing the February issue of our magazine for the post and watched I.S.S. pass less than one Moon diameter below the Moon at 6:43pm! An amazing sight! Anyone 16 miles South of our Shop would have seen I.S.S. pass in front of the Moon, that's roughly along a line from Greystones to Athy, and beyond. On the Newslines we'll indicate where future Moon transits are likely! Call 1550-111-442 (09001-88 1950 in U.K.) Jan 14 to 26. - David Moore, Chairman, Astronomy Ireland www.astronomy.ie NEW YEAR SALE NOW ON! Astronomy Shop: Tel (01) 847 0777 Mon-Sat for ALL your astronomical needs www.astronomy.ie/map.html www.astronomy.ie/sub to join AI and get our monthly colour magazine. Or simply post 40euro to P.O.Box 2888, Dublin 5.