1. A.I.Radio Show Extended with Sir Patrick Moore Last Tuesday's AIRS (Astronomy Ireland Radio Show, May 22) was extended to 60 minutes and includes the interview with Sir Patrick Moore, and his co-presenter Chris Lintott which Ben Emmett recorded at Sir Patrick's home in Selsey, England on the occasion of the party for the 50th anniversary of BBC's "THE SKY NIGHT" (see here www.astronomy.ie/tsan.html ) As ever you can download the show at www.astronomy.ie/AIRS Remember to tune in EVERY Tuesday at 8pm and listen live on the internet (or 103.2FM in the Dublin area). If you miss the show (or want to get a copy) you can download it, usually within an hour of the end of the show. 2. BIG BANG LECTURE The Royal Irish Academy have sent us details of an exciting lecture they will be holding in Dublin in association with the Irish Times. Tickets are free and are sure to be allocated quickly so book quickly at www.ria.ie if you can get to this Dublin event: Academy Times/DIAS Joint Public Lecture "Deciphering the Big Bang" Nobel Laureate Dr John Mather 6:30pm on Tuesday 12th June 2007, Burke Theatre (downstairs in the Arts Block), TCD John Mather won the 2006 Nobel Prize for physics for his work on COBE in the early '90s. He is the senior project scientist on the James Webb Space Telescope, which will replace the Hubble Space Telescope in 2013 (www.jwst.nasa.gov) Dr Mather's talk is a history of the Universe in a nutshell, from the Big Bang to now, and on to the future - John Mather will tell the story of how we got here, how the Universe began with a Big Bang, how it could have produced an Earth where sentient beings can live, and how those beings are discovering their history. Mather was Project Scientist for NASA's Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) satellite, which measured the spectrum of the heat radiation from the Big Bang, discovered hot and cold spots in that radiation, and hunted for the first objects that formed after the great explosion. He will explain Einstein's biggest mistake, show how Edwin Hubble discovered the expansion of the Universe, how the COBE mission was built, and how the COBE data support the Big Bang theory. He will also show NASA's plans for the next great telescope in space, the James Webb Space Telescope. It will look even farther back in time than the Hubble Space Telescope, and will look inside the dusty cocoons where stars and planets are being born today. Tickets are free, but must be booked online at - www.ria.ie Organiser: Academy Times/DIAS Lecture Title: "Deciphering the Big Bang" Lecture Venue: Edmund Burke Theatre, Trinity College Dublin. Date: Tuesday 12th June 2007 Time: 6:30pm Admission: Book Online at www.ria.ie Astronomy Ireland Society · Magazine · Telescopes www.astronomy.ie Tel (01) 847 0777