Just had a TV news crew in our Shop filming for a report on the sale of the Observatory at Markree Castle just outside Sligo town. You should be able to see the story on the TV News on RTE 1 at 6pm, and check out the 9pm News also. Network 2 news at 11:25pm may also carry it. For those of you not up on Ireland's proud astronomical heritage, in 1830 Edward Cooper of Markree Castle acquired a 13.5-inch lens and had it mounted in a huge telescope in an observatory in the grounds of the Castle. It was then the biggest refractor IN THE WORLD. He added other instruments including a 4-inch 'comet seeker' in a little tower attached to the side of the main telescope enclosure. In 1851 the annual meeting of the Royal Astronomical Society recorded Markree as the "most richly furnished private observatory in the world". In 1848 the only asteroid ever found from Ireland, 9 Metis, was discovered by Cooper's able assistant Andrew Graham. Cooper died in 1863 but the observatory remained in use until 1902. The 14-inch was sold to Hong Kong in the 1930's and survives to this day in Manila in the Philippines Islands. Curiously I was invited to give a dinner-lecture in Markree Castle (now a Hotel) a couple of weeks ago and visited the remains of the observatory while there. It has been converted into a private residence and this is presumably how it is to be sold. Also co-incidentally, our Easter Monday speaker Prof Susan McKenna-Lawlor wrote a history of astronomy in Ireland (now sadly out of print) so we might ask her about all the famous observatories that sprung up in 19th-century Ireland. And of course, the tradition continues today with excellent astronomical research being done in universities and institutes the length and breadth of Ireland (witness the ASGI/IOPI astronomy weekend in Armagh last weekend), and Astronomy Ireland is the biggest astronomy club in the world relative to population, so there must be something astronomical in Irish genes! After all, Ireland did 'invent' astronomy - Newgrange predates the pyramids at Giza by 600 years. Enjoy the news report and hopefully we'll see you all at the Easter Monday lecture in D.C.U. which, by the way, takes place at 8pm in case I didn't make that clear in the last email. See http://www.astronomy.ie/lecture0404.html for details. By the way, that aurora predicted for last night or today does not seem to have started (as at 3pm today). The ejection from the Sun may miss Earth completely but check the sky tonight just in case. Don't forget to TEXT your NAME and LOCATION to 086-081 99 86 as soon as you see anything, and email a report to observe@astronomy.ie P.S. Patrick Moore's SKY AT NIGHT television show is repeated this Saturday 10 April, at 12.45pm, on BBC Two. It's about the Mars rovers and orbiters. Or watch online at www.bbc.co.uk/skyatnight David Moore, Chairman, Astronomy Ireland: JOIN ONLINE: www.astronomy.ie/sub Ireland's only telescope shop: www.astronomy.ie/map.html Tel: (01) 847 0777