1. Rosetta was postponed well before launch this morning when a piece of insulation on the Ariane 5 was noted to be missing. A new panel will be fitted but it takes the glue 36 hours to set/cure so a new launch date will not be set until early next week. ESA's website is easy to remember and is excellent (you can see a photo of the problem spot on the rocket, watch the launch live, click on video clips about the mission etc): www.esa.int/rosetta A website deserving of a billion euro space mission and a 7 billion km journey. This morning RTE Radio 1 had Fred Kennedy, head of Captec in North Dublin, interviewed on Morning Ireland from Kourou in French Guiana: http://www.rte.ie/news/2004/0227/morningireland/morningireland8a.smil I assume Leo Enright will be covering the launch live on TG4 next week as well. We'll keep you posted. 2. Today at 2pm NASA/ESA released the latest picture taken by the Cassini spacecraft on Feb. 9 when it was 70 million km from Saturn (half Earth's distance from the Sun). Detail in the rings and planet's cloud tops can be seen. Cassini will enter orbit about Saturn on July 1. Again there is Irish involvement (see our Easter Monday Lecture "Ireland in Space" on our website below). See the Cassini pictures at: http://ciclops.org/ 3. We received this notice from our friends at Armagh Observatory Armagh Observatory Future Events In the period leading up to Easter, the Armagh Observatory is hosting, or co-hosting as part of other events, two Public Lectures (both in the Rotunda Lecture Theatre, St Patrick's Trian, Armagh) and two Tours of the Armagh Observatory and the Armagh Observatory Grounds and Astropark. The Public Lectures are as follows: 1. Wednesday, 17 March 2004 (St. Patrick's Day) at 7:30pm "Patrick, Comets and Christianity" by Professor Mike Baillie (Queen's University Belfast). 2. Thursday, 1 April 2004 at 8:00pm "Mars: New Opportunities and Challenges for European Space Science" by Michael McKay (European Space Agency, ESTEC, The Netherlands) The Tours of the Armagh Observatory and the Armagh Observatory Grounds and Astropark are on Wednesday 17 March 2004 and Saturday 3 April 2004. Please note that advance booking is necessary in order to guarantee a place on any of these tours, although all who turn up on the day will be accommodated if possible. Tours of the Observatory will last approximately 45 minutes; tours of the Observatory Grounds and Astropark will last a similar amount of time. * Tours on Wednesday 17 March will be provided at: 11:00, 12:00, 14:00, 15:00 and 16:00 * Tours on Saturday 3 April will be provided at: 14:00, 15:00 and 16:00 In order to obtain tickets for any of these events, please write, telephone or send an e-mail to: Mrs Aileen McKee, Armagh Observatory, College Hill, Armagh, BT61 9DG; Tel: 028-3752-2928; Fax: 028-3752-7174; e-mail: ambn@arm.ac.uk. 4. Weekend Observing: No major aurora is now expected from the Thursday morning X-class flare on that new sunspot 564 (see our email archive below if you're new to this list), but do observe the sunspot itself by projection or using AstroSolar filters (available from our Shop). Saturn and Jupiter are amazing sights in a telescope right now. Even binoculars will show Jupiter is approaching Chi Leonis this weekend. Saturn is very close to the Moon Monday night. The Moon occults a double star tonight, and will be a glorious sight high up each night this weekend. See magazine for details of all this. We have also had a report about Eta Geminorum fading (I can email details to variable star fans). So get those telescopes out observing and wrap up well so the cold does not put you off. Support Astronomy Ireland and join online at: www.astronomy.ie/sub ===== David Moore BSc FRAS, at Ireland's BIGGEST Telescope Shop. Tel (01) 847 0777. www.astronomy.ie info@astronomy.ie Click last line to change subscription options & see old messages: