Wednesday 2am Feb 16 1. ASTRONOMY IRELAND RADIO SHOW FEB. 15 ONLINE!!! Using our new system we have put an MP3 version of tonight's AI Radio Show (Ben Emmett, John Dickson & Robert Lord) online at http://www.astronomy.ie/radioshow.html It's a 3MB download but even those of you on dial-up connections said it was well worth the wait. Many of you sent details of converting to a WMA file half the size of the MP3 file but I haven't had time to check them out yet as we've been very busy with the workload generated by the Feb 14 lecture (see below) and getting the March issue of the magazine in to the post (also completed tonight) but thanks for all the advice which I hope to use soon. This now means our members all around Ireland (and everyone in the world in fact!) can hear the show within hours of it going out live. I hope to cut this delay to "minutes" in the future. 2. BIGGEST LECTURE EVER! Last night's lecture by Prof Carl Murray from Queen Mary College London was packed out with nearly 500 people. He gave a superb and very well illustrated talk on the Cassini-Huygens mission of which he is one of the 3 Europeans on the Team in charge of the camera. It really put the Cassini/Huygens images we publish in our magazine every month into context. This represents the biggest crowd we have ever had at an Astronomy Ireland lecture, beating Patrick Moore Lectures we had in the 1990s and even the crowd I addressed once at a recent Star-B-Q. We're glad you could all make it, I'm sure you weren't disappointed. A DVD is being made available for members around Ireland who could not get along, details will be in a future email. Our thanks must go to the Irish Times for promoting this lecture. For a full list of all lectures and events in 2005 see http://www.astronomy.ie/Events%202005.html A brochure of all events was also posted to all members tonight. Our next lecture is by Eamonn Ansbro who has built one of the biggest privately owned observatories in the world at his home in Roscommon. He is using it to study the asteroid belt beyond the planet Neptune and hunt for possible 10th planet orbiting the Sun, Planet X. For details and to book places see: http://www.astronomy.ie/lecture0503.html 3. NEWSLINES UPDATED OUR TELEPHONE NEWSLINE HEADLINES THIS WEEK ARE: MOON VERY CLOSE TO SEVEN SISTERS STAR CLUSTER; SATURN IS CLOSE TO MOON THIS WEEKEND; JUPITER CLOSE TO A DIM STAR; AND, COMET MACHHOLZ HIGH OVERHEAD. In particular the view of the Moon next to the Seven Sisters tonight was spectacular, as shown in the diagrams in the February issue of our magazine. There's still lots more to come this week so check the magazine or call the Newsline numbers below. The 'extra moon' of Jupiter visible this week and the Comet's excellent location will be special treats to see this week. Please call our 1550-111-442 Newsline every Monday for a new weekly message (U.K. dial 09001-88-1950). Regards and clear skies, David Moore. Chairman, Astronomy Ireland Tel: (01) 847 0777 Visit www.astronomy.ie Please support our club, magazine, and the ASTRONOMY SHOP at Unit 75, Butterly Business Park, Kilmore Road, Artane, Dublin 5. IRELAND'S BIGGEST TELESCOPE SHOP