Christmas Gifts <http://www.astronomy.ie/gifts> Membership <http://www.astronomy.ie/sub/index.html> DVD <http://www.astronomy.ie/lectureDVD.php> 1. Astro-Expo Report and Photos Last weekend saw this year’s Astro-Expo take place in Trinity College Dublin. Of particular interest on the day was David Moore’s Comet ISON viewing and photography talk for the comet that is expected to be visible in our evening skies from next week. As well as a series of fascinating talks, there was a host of exhibits that visitors enjoyed, including one by John McKeon who displayed what were some of the best planetary and lunar photographs ever exhibited at the Astro-Expo. For a full report of all talks and exhibits, and to order DVDs, visit the report webpage HERE <http://www.astronomy.ie/astroexpo13report.php> . 2. International Space Station Birthday Today, November 20th, is the 15th birthday of the International Space Station, which was launched on this day in 1998. The first module of the ISS, Zarya, was launched on board a Proton rocket. Zarya provided storage, propulsion, and electrical power during the early construction stages of the ISS. The station is expected to be completed in April 2014. Brian Harvey is an established space author with many books written to date on the topic of space exploration. He writes an excellent column each month in Astronomy Ireland magazine all about the International Space Station and the ongoing missions on board the spacecraft. You can pick up a copy of Astronomy Ireland at any Dunnes Stores branch around the country, or you can order it online HERE. 3. Comet ISON Comet ISON is brightening as it approaches the Sun. It will make its closest approach next week on November 28th. The comet is currently just about visible to the naked eye in the mornings before sunrise, but is becoming quickly engulfed in the Sun’s glare. However, the comet has shown some activity over recent days to suggest that it may disintegrate, although this hasn’t appeared to happen just yet. If it survives the close approach to the Sun, it may become bright enough to be visible in daylight for a short time, and will then be visible in the evening skies. For more information on Comet ISON and a map of the sky showing where it can be found, see the November and December (on sale soon) issues of Astronomy Ireland. Let us know what you see over the coming weeks by emailing observe@astronomy.ie 4. Phishing Email You may have received a scam email (or a ‘phishing’ email) purportedly from Bank of Ireland via this email list at the weekend. If you did, please ignore it and delete it. Banking scam emails are quite common, but do not come from legitimate banks. The Friends of Astronomy Ireland newsletter regularly gets emails sent to it (some are spam emails, some are legitimate emails). All these emails are stored on the system to be either approved or discarded by an administrator. An approved email (such as this one you’re reading now) is then processed and sent out to all members of our list. Emails marked ‘discard’ get deleted. Normally, all emails except for the Friends of Astronomy Ireland email are discarded so that they don’t get released to the list. Unfortunately, due to human error, the spam email in question was accidentally marked as approved and thus released. There was no security breach of the email list, so all details still remain safe, as always. We apologise for any concern and inconvenience caused, and we thank those who contacted us to alert us of the issue. Astronomy Ireland The world's most popular astronomy club www.astronomy.ie ( subscribe / unsubscribe <http://lists.redbrick.dcu.ie/mailman/listinfo/astronomy> ) _____ No virus found in this message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 2013.0.3426 / Virus Database: 3629/6851 - Release Date: 11/20/13