1. Darwin Day Thursday 12 February 2004 The Association of Irish Humanists present a lecture by Professor David McConnell, Department of Genetics, Trinity College Dublin "The Idea of Evolution - from Cosmos to Culture" The Walton Theatre, Arts Building, Trinity College Dublin, at 8.00 p.m. Admission is free. For more information see: http://www.irish-humanists.org/EventsSub/darwin04.html 2. AI 2002 New Year Lecture online Anthony Murphy gave our 2002 New Year Lecture about astronomy at Newgrange. He has posted a new page on his Mythical Ireland website containing the text of the lecture. http://www.mythicalireland.com/astronomy/ancientastronomers.html It's about 10,000 words and there's lots of nice photos. The html file is 80k, so it only takes a few moments to load, but it's well worth the wait!! 3. I.S.S. news The International Space Station finished its series of evening passes last Saturday (It will be back starting March 20 for 2 weeks). No one reported seeing the "space chase" with the Progress re-supply ship on Jan. 29-30 probably due to the poor weather. There is another chance of a "space chase" in May. We'll keep you posted. 4. Observing Jupiter was a spectacular sight rising close to the Full Moon last night. I watched it from the beach. Venus, Mars, Saturn and Jupiter are all on view each evening this week - see the Sky Diary pages of the magazine for more details. The Moon will be out of early evening skies this week so we can see the new Comet "2002 T7 LINEAR" (or Comet LINEAR for short) that is less than 1 degree to the left of the bottom left star in the Square of Pegasus all this week. There is a star map showing its path in the March issue of our magazine being posted out to members this week. The Comet is magnitude 7 or 6 and thus easily visible in binoculars from a dark sky.This is one of two bright comets due this year that could rival Hale-Bopp of 1997 and Hyakutake of 1996. The other is a Comet NEAT which we'll see in May hopefully at its best. Comet LINEAR is best seen from the southern hemisphere so enjoy it while it's a binocular object as it heads into the Sun's glare before reappearing in South skies at its best. Send reports of what you see and photographs/drawings to observe@astronomy.ie for inclusion in Ireland's only astronomy magazine "Astronomy & Space" 5. Life Lecture Tonight, everyone at our Public Lecture in D.C.U. should finally know how life got started and the likelihood of there being other life out there. It's a problem of chemistry and we have a leading Chemist explaining what we have learned to date. Don't miss it at 8pm in the Henry Grattan Building. ALL WELCOME. http://www.astronomy.ie/nextlecture.html for more details and map. At the lecture we will have a handful of the stunning CFHT 2004 Calendar we have been recommending to you this year for sale at HALF PRICE! (If you don't live in the Leinster area and cannot get along please call 01-847 0777 to reserve one at this price before they sell out) Regards and clear skies, David Moore, Astronomy Ireland info@astronomy.ie Come visit us at Ireland's Biggest Telescope Shop: www.astronomy.ie (01) 847 0777 Astronomy Ireland is seeking new members now: www.astronomy.ie/sub