Friday 29 February 2008

Lectures, TV, COSMOS 2008, SkyGuide

 

Hi all,

1. Monday 3 March, 20.00. EAAS Lecture "The W5 of Irish Astronomy" by Terry Moseley (Irish Astronomical Association). Lecture Theatre, Ballyclare High School, George Avenue (off Rashee Road), Ballyclare, Co. Antrim. All welcome.

2. Monday 3 March, Channel 4, 21.00 - 22.00: "STEPHEN HAWKING: "Master of the Universe". First of two programmes.

3. Tuesday 4 March, BBC2, 21.00 - 21.50:  "HORIZON: "Are we alone in the Universe"

4. Wednesday 5 March, 19.30: Irish Astronomical Association Public Lecture: Change of programme, speaker Seanie Morris, talk entitled "Cosmic Dust: Is that all we are?". The Bell lecture Theatre, Physics Building, Queen's University, Belfast. Admission free, including light refreshments. All welcome.

   The IAA lecture programme is held in association with the School of Mathematics and Physics at Queen's University Belfast. See: www.irishastro.org

5. COSMOS 2008: April 4 - 6. Hosted by the Tullamore Astro Society: Ireland's second longest running Star Party takes place at Annaharvey Equestrian Centre, Tullamore, Co Offaly.  Preliminary details are on the TAS website: www.tullamoreastronomy.com, with more going up soon. Speakers so far confirmed include: Dr David Asher, Dr Miruna Popescu (both from Armagh Observatory), Mr Trevor O'Donoghue (Kerry Astronomy Club), Mr Pat O'Neill (Irish Astronomical Association), Prof John Zarnecki (Open University), and a TAS speaker tba. It runs from Friday evening to Sunday afternoon, and is always a great event.

6. SDAS 2008 Sky Guide: John Flannery has produced a FREE 20-page guide to the night sky for 2008 for Ireland. The booklet is a 1.15Mb pdf that can be downloaded by right-clicking on the following link and selecting "Save As": http://www.southdublinastronomy.org/w/images/6/6c/Sky_guide_2008.pdf
    The almanac gives a month-by-month summary of planetary phenomena, detailed notes on the Sun, Moon, visible comets, meteor showers, eclipses, minor planets, variable stars, space missions in 2008, and much more. He notes that the meteor shower notes and space mission details originally appeared in the IAS's Sky-High magazine (see www.irishastrosoc.org for details). Thanks to John for this fine & free gesture.

Clear Skies,

Terry Moseley

Wednesday 20 February 2008

Lectures, Eclipse, Planetarium Event, Seminars, ASGI

 

Hi all,

EVENT AT ARMAGH: The Director of Armagh Observatory, Professor Mark Bailey, has asked me to publicise this event:

1. Wed 20 February: A special "Meet the Astronomers at Armagh" event during the day: (see http://star.arm.ac.uk/publicevents/2008/meetastronomers.html).
   This event is free and open to all.  For tickets please contact Mrs Aileen McKee by e-mail at ambn@arm.ac.uk  or telephone the Observatory: 028-3752-2928. For general information see the website: http://star.arm.ac.uk/ .

2. Wed 20 February: IAA PUBLIC LECTURE:  7.30 p.m. Prof Chris Dainty, NUIG: "The prospect of Adaptive Optics for Small Telescopes". The Bell lecture Theatre, Physics Building, Queen's University, Belfast.  Prof Dainty is one of the world's leading experts on adaptive optics, and we are delighted and honoured to have him lecture to us. Adaptive optics enable photos exceeding the quality of those of the Hubble Space Telescope to be taken by certain telescopes on Earth. Prof Dainty will describe how it will soon be possible to use this technique on the larger size of amateur telescopes - an amazing prospect. Don't miss this! Admission free, including light refreshments. All welcome.

   The IAA lecture programme is held in association with the School of Mathematics and Physics at Queen's University Belfast. See: www.irishastro.org

3. TOTAL LUNAR ECLIPSE, 21 February, 03.26. That's Wednesday night / Thursday morning! This eclipse will be visible throughout Ireland, weather permitting.

   In a Total Lunar Eclipse the Full Moon passes into the shadow of the Earth and dims very considerably and changes colour, but usually remains faintly visible, lit by sunlight refracted through the Earth’s atmosphere. The atmosphere scatters blue light more than red, so that most of the light that reaches the lunar surface is red in colour. Observers will therefore see a Moon that may be anything from brick-coloured, through orange, rust-coloured, or even blood red. Sometimes it has a dark greyish hue, depending on atmospheric conditions.

In these islands the eclipse is visible at a rather unsociable hour! It begins at 00.35 when the Moon enters the penumbra, the lightest, outer part of the Earth’s shadow, and after 15 minutes or so you may notice the Moon start to take on a slight yellowish hue. At 01.42 the Moon starts to enter the dark core of the Earth’s shadow, the umbra. At 03.01 the Moon will be completely within the umbra – which marks the start of the ‘total’ phase of the eclipse, when any colour starts to become most noticeable. Mid-eclipse is at 03.26 and the total phase ends at 03.52. The Moon leaves the umbra at 05.09 and the eclipse ends when the Moon leaves the penumbra at 06.17.

   The Moon will pass well to the South of the centre of the Earth's shadow, so the S edge (actually the SSW edge) of the Moon will not appear so dark, as it will be closer to the edge of the shadow. Conversely, the NNE edge of the Moon will appear darkest.

   During the eclipse the Moon lies in the constellation of Leo. During mid-eclipse Regulus will lie to the upper right of the Moon and Saturn will lie to the left.

This eclipse should be a spectacular sight and the whole event can be observed without optical aid, although binoculars or a wide-field telescope will also give interesting views.

  If you get any good images send them to the IAA website: www.irishastro.org

4. IYPE LECTURES, 20 & 21 February: As part of 'International Year of Planet Earth', Prof. Richard Fortey  is giving lectures in Dublin and Belfast, as follows: "A History of Biodiversity - “A history of life on Earth”.

Dublin: Wednesday 20th February 2008 at 18:00, Trinity College Dublin (Burke Theatre), Belfast: Thursday 21st February 2008 at 19:00, W5, Odyssey Complex:

SYNOPSIS: The origins of life lie in the deep oceans and this lecture will trace the ups and downs of its evolution – the blossoming of biodiversity at various times and the catastrophic extinctions of life at others. It will also deal with some of the personalities involved in unravelling this fascinating story.

Richard Fortey is the successful author of books such as The Hidden Landscape; Life – An Unauthorised Biography; and The Earth: An Intimate History. Richard was the curator of Palaeontology at London’s celebrated Natural History Museum and President of the Geological Society of London on the occasion of its bicentenary (2007).   Free tickets for the Belfast event can be obtained by telephoning the Geological Survey (90388462). They can e-mail (or post) the tickets.  It should be a  fascinating talk.

5. Sat 8 March: ARMAGH PLANETARIUM 40TH BIRTHDAY CELEBRATIONS:

   All members of the Irish Astronomical Association are invited to the following event:

"The year 2008 is an auspicious occasion for Armagh Planetarium as it marks our 40th Birthday! We would like to invite you to Armagh Planetarium on Saturday 8th March from 9:30 – 14:00  where you will be treated to a premiere of our new full-dome show, produced in collaboration with Evans & Sutherland-Spitz and Goto.  It will be special preview of "Mars Invaders" Armagh's first full-dome production show, which is not available for general view until the IPS meeting in Chicago in summer 2008.  We will also have short presentations from our special guests.  They include Prof Carl Murray from Queen Mary College London who is involved in the Cassini probe, Dr. Mike McKay from ESOC Germany who is ESA's flight controller.  Also Terence Murtagh who is involved with Evans and Sutherland and their Digistar 3 projection system and Dr. Mark Doherty from ESRIN in Italy who is an Earth Observation scientist.
   This is a great opportunity to hear experts talking about their field and is not to be missed!
   Other local astronomy groups are being invited so if you wish to attend we need to know asap as its a first come served basis.  If you are interested please give your name to Naomi at naomi@armaghplanet.com or by calling 3751 2939. Thanks, Naomi Francey.

6. ASGI: The spring ASGI meeting will be a 1-day meeting to be held at Armagh on Friday March 14 (10 am - 4pm).  There will be contributed talks varying from dust and jets in galaxies, to ISM studies and starless cores, to pre-main sequence and evolved stars.
   There will also be an invited talk by Prof. Janet Drew (University of Hertfordshire). She will present the recent initial data release of the INT H-alpha survey of the galactic plane IPHAS - which can now be used by
the community. IPHAS will map the structure of our Milky Way and assist in finding many many new young and evolved stars, exotic objects (like PNe, LBVs, symbiotics), as well as extremely red objects.

N.B.: This is a professional level meeting, and probably too advanced for the average amateur. However, members of the Irish Astronomical Association, and other affiliated societies, can attend if they wish, but please let the organisers know so they can gauge numbers. Email Jorick Vink at jsv@arm.ac.uk, or Aileen McKee at ambn@arm.ac.uk, or ring 028-3752-2928.

7. PROFESSIONAL SEMINARS: If you are interested you should regularly check "local" seminar pages: For the Dublin area there appears to be a general listing: http://www.tcd.ie/Physics/Astrophysics/colloquium.php In future all Dublin institutes may advertise their seminars there.
For the Belfast area/QUB: http://star.pst.qub.ac.uk/seminars.shtml

BTW, I know that some of you are still getting multiple copies of these - apologies: I'm still trying to remove duplicate names!

Clear Skies

Terry Moseley

Tuesday 12 February 2008

Shuttle & ISS, Lectures, IYPE, Total Lunar Eclipse, Name a Scope

 

Hi all,

1. Shuttle and ISS. The space shuttle Atlantis is now docked with the ISS on its 10-day mission, delivering the Columbus laboratory to the ISS. The Columbus laboratory is a European Space Agency module, and will be used by astronauts to carry out experiments in a weightless environment.

  The combined spacecraft (i.e. they appear just as one bright starlike object) are currently easily visible to the unaided eye as they make a series of evening passes over Ireland. At their best, they are comparable to Jupiter in brightness, and are often the brightest objects in the night sky, apart from the Moon. You'll need a good telescope, with accurate and rapid computerised tracking, to see the detail of the ISS and attached Shuttle, but it's an amazing sight if you can manage it! See www.heavens-above.com for details of passes for your own location. Also Iridium Flares, and lots more besides.

   ESA astronauts Leopold Eyharts from France and Hans Schlegel from Germany are aboard Atlantis and will help commission the laboratory. Former fighter pilot Eyharts will then live on the ISS for the next three months. See: http://sci.esa.inthttp://www.nasa.gov

2. EVENTS AT ARMAGH: Director of Armagh Observatory, Professor Mark Bailey, has asked me to publicise two astronomy events in February:

A. 19 February. Armagh Observatory Public Lecture "The Life Story of a Star: from Birth to Death", 8.00pm, by Professor John Landstreet, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada. Rotunda Lecture Theatre, St. Patrick's Trian, Armagh, followed by tea and coffee.
    This public lecture is being given as part of the Observatory's Science in the Community programme, and is associated with an International Workshop on the Spectroscopy and Spectropolarimetry of A and B-type Stars being held at Armagh Observatory from 18-22 February 2008. 

   Synopsis: Most people who look up at the stars know that these are bodies much like our own Sun. But how are stars produced? Do they live forever? If not, what happens to them? This illustrated talk will answer some of these questions by describing how astronomers have come to understand the life stories of single stars, from the time they are born out of giant gas clouds somewhere in our Milky Way galaxy, through mature middle age, until finally they collapse to become tiny remnants of their former selves, possibly even a black hole.
   The lecture is free of charge, but owing to limitations of space, numbers may be limited. To obtain tickets,  please write, telephone or 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.

(see http://star.arm.ac.uk/publicevents/2008/landstreet.html and http://star.arm.ac.uk/press/2008/Landstreet_pr2.html);

B. A special "Meet the Astronomers at Armagh" event during the day on Wednesday 20th February (see http://star.arm.ac.uk/publicevents/2008/meetastronomers.html).
   These events are free and open to all.  For tickets please contact Mrs Aileen McKee by e-mail at ambn@arm.ac.uk or telephone the Observatory: 028-3752-2928. For general information see the website: http://star.arm.ac.uk/ .

3. 20 February: IAA PUBLIC LECTURE: Wednesday 20 February, 7.30 p.m. Prof Chris Dainty, NUIG: "The prospect of Adaptive Optics for Small Telescopes". The Bell lecture Theatre, Physics Building, Queen's University, Belfast.  Prof Dainty is one of the world's leading experts on adaptive optics, and we are delighted and honoured to have him lecture to us. Adaptive optics enable photos exceeding the quality of those of the Hubble Space Telescope to be taken by certain telescopes on Earth. Prof Dainty will describe how it will soon be possible to use this technique on the larger size of amateur telescopes - an amazing prospect. Don't miss this! Admission free, including light refreshments. All welcome.

   The IAA lecture programme is held in association with the School of Mathematics and Physics at Queen's University Belfast. See: www.irishastro.org

4. TOTAL LUNAR ECLIPSE, 21 February, 03.26. This eclipse will be visible throughout Ireland, weather permitting.

   In a Total Lunar Eclipse (TLE) the Full Moon passes into the shadow of the Earth and dims very considerably and changes colour, but usually remains faintly visible, lit by sunlight refracted through the Earth’s atmosphere. The atmosphere scatters blue light more than red, so that most of the light that reaches the lunar surface is red in colour. Observers will therefore see a Moon that may be anything from brick-coloured, through orange, rust-coloured, or even blood red. Sometimes it has a dark greyish hue, depending on atmospheric conditions.

In these islands the eclipse is visible at a rather unsociable hour! It begins at 00.35 when the Moon enters the penumbra, the lightest, outer part of the Earth’s shadow, and after 15 minutes or so you may notice the Moon start to take on a slight yellowish hue. At 01.42 the Moon starts to enter the dark core of the Earth’s shadow, the umbra. At 03.01 the Moon will be completely within the umbra – which marks the start of the ‘total’ phase of the eclipse, when any colour starts to become most noticeable. Mid-eclipse is at 03.26 and the total phase ends at 03.52. The Moon leaves the umbra at 05.09 and the eclipse ends when the Moon leaves the penumbra at 06.17.

   The Moon will pass well to the South of the centre of the Earth's shadow, so the S edge (actually the SSW edge) of the Moon will not appear so dark, as it will be closer to the edge of the shadow. Conversely, the NNE edge of the Moon will appear darkest.

   During the eclipse the Moon lies in the constellation of Leo. During mid-eclipse Regulus will lie to the upper right of the Moon and Saturn will lie to the left.

This eclipse should be a spectacular sight and the whole event can be observed without optical aid, although binoculars or a wide-field telescope will also give interesting views.

N.B. But contrary to information being promulgated by a well-known astronomical organisation based in Dublin, this is NOT "the last Total Eclipse of the Moon we will see from Ireland for 8 years." The maximum phase of the TLE of 21 December, 2010, will be visible throughout Ireland. The following table gives the altitude of the Moon in degrees for major cities across Ireland for the start of the total phase, and for mid-totality, i.e. maximum eclipse:

TOTAL LUNAR ECLIPSE, 21/12/2010

CITY            START TOT.        MID TOT.

Belfast               7.8                    3.6

Derry/L'derry      8.6                    4.4

Dublin                7.3                    3.0

Cork                  7.8                    3.2

Galway              8.7                    4.2

Limerick             8.2                    3.7

Waterford           7.2                    2.8

Thus even for Waterford, the least favoured of those locations, the Moon will be more than 5 lunar diameters above the horizon at maximum eclipse. And in Derry/Londonderry, ALL of the total phase is visible. It may not be ideal, but at least it IS visible throughout Ireland! Just to get the facts right.....

5. IYPE LECTURE, 21 February: As part of 'International Year of Planet Earth', Prof. Richard Forte is giving a lecture at W5 on Thursday 21 Feb at 7 PM. The title is:  “A history of life on Earth”. Free tickets can be obtained by telephoning the Ordnance Survey (90388462). They can e-mail (or post) the tickets.  It should be a  fascinating talk.
6. NASA WANTS A NAME: Would you like to name the next great space telescope? Here's your chance: NASA is inviting members of the general public to suggest a new name for 'GLAST' the Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope before it launches in mid-2008. See: http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008/08feb_namethattelescope.htm?list724598

Clear skies,

Terry Moseley.

Tuesday 5 February 2008

Beatles in space, Shuttle Launch, ISS

 

Hi all,

1. "Across The Universe": To celebrate the 50th anniversary of NASA, and other anniversaries, NASA is broadcasting the Beatles' famous song of exactly 40 years ago, to Polaris, 431 Light Years away. There's nothing wrong with a publicity stunt, but this one seems rather misdirected. Literally. Even ignoring the fact that the inhabitants of any other planetary system are rather unlikely to speak English (and even some here who do speak it didn't understand all the lyrics!), why Polaris? There is absolutely no evidence of a planetary system around that star. It's not even a Sun-like star. In fact it's a Cepheid variable, albeit with a very small amplitude. But as far as we know, the amplitude of variability was greater in the past, which means that, even if there are earth-type planets around it, it's highly unlikely that life could have evolved to an intelligent stage, or could have survived long enough, to pick up the signal now (or in 431 years).

   And as it's 431 light years away the signal will be incredibly faint by the time it gets there, making it very unlikely that it could be picked up there. And if by some incredibly remote chance it is picked up by intelligent life there, and they send a signal back, it will be so unbelievably faint by the time it gets back to Earth that we may not be able to pick it up! Quite apart from the fact that it will be at least 862 years before any reply could be received.

   There are lots of stars in the galaxy known to have planetary systems, and quite a few that are a lot closer than Polaris. So why not send it to one of those instead? The signal would be stronger when it arrives there, the return signal would be stronger too, and we wouldn't have to wait nearly so long for any reply.

   All in all, it seems a totally daft choice. And worst of all, it's politically incorrect. The worst example of hemispherism that you could possibly imagine!

2. SHUTTLE LAUNCH: SHUTTLE ATLANTIS LAUNCH COUNTDOWN BEGINS.
Two months after their launch had to be postponed by fuel sensor troubles, the seven astronauts of the crew of Atlantis have returned to the Kennedy Space Centre for another launch attempt. Countdown has begun for a planned liftoff on Thursday. The primary mission aim is to attach the European Space Agency's Columbus research lab to the space station. The module represents Europe's first manned module in orbit and promises to open a new era of international research with Japanese lab modules scheduled to follow in March and April.

See: http://spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/sts122/status.html
3. The ISS is currently making  very bright evening passes over Ireland, and if the Shuttle launches on schedule on thursday, we should be able to see it too, as it closes in on the ISS for docking. See www.heavens-above.com for all the details and predictions for your own location.

Clear skies,

Terry Moseley

Monday 4 February 2008

Lectures, Shuttle launch, Astrofest, Star Party, Petition

 

Hi all,

1. 5 February: EAAS Lecture, at Ballyclare High School, George Avenue (off Rashee Road), Ballyclare, Co. Antrim commencing at 8PM. Title: "Tree-rings provide clues to ancient cosmic events", by Professor Mike Baillie.

2. 6 February:  IAA PUBLIC LECTURE: Wednesday 6 February, 7.30 p.m. Dr Aaron Golden, NUIG: "Periodic Radio Flares from Brown Dwarfs: the missing link between planets and pulsars?" The Bell lecture Theatre, Physics Building, Queen's University, Belfast. Admission free, including light refreshments. All welcome.

   The IAA lecture programme is held in association with the School of Mathematics and Physics at Queen's University Belfast. See: www.irishastro.org

3. 7 February: Shuttle Launch. At 1945 GMT, the space shuttle Atlantis is set to launch on a 10-day mission to deliver the Columbus laboratory to the International Space Station (ISS). The Columbus laboratory is a European Space Agency module for the ISS and will be used by astronauts to carry out experiments in a weightless environment.

   ESA astronauts Leopold Eyharts from France and Hans Schlegel from Germany will be aboard Atlantis and will help commission the laboratory. Former fighter pilot Eyharts will then live on the ISS for the next three months. See: http://sci.esa.inthttp://www.nasa.gov

4. 8-9 FEBRUARY: ASTROFEST, KENSINGTON CONFERENCE AND EVENTS CENTRE, LONDON

The 2008 Astrofest, hosted by Astronomy Now magazine, runs from 8 to 9 February, in the Kensington Conference and Events Centre in west London. Leading figures in astronomy and space science will speak on topics ranging from extrasolar planets to the MESSENGER spacecraft encounter with Mercury. Veteran astronomer and television presenter Sir Patrick Moore will close the conference with a look back at the last 80 years of advances in astronomy. See: http://www.astronomynow.com/astrofest

5. 11 February, 8 p.m., Astronomy Ireland Public Lecture "LISA - Gravitational Wave Mission", Physics Building, Trinity College Dublin (map on website), Admission: 5 Euro.  Tickets are available at the door, or on www.astronomy.ie

6. 16 February: IAS Star Party in Wicklow National Park, Saturday February 16th, 8pm - 10pm
The park will provide two guides to help park cars. In the event of rain the park are offering Sunday February 17th as an alternate. The location is the Upper Lake Car Park Glendalough, Wicklow National Park. That is further up from the Round Tower to those who are not sure. The Park will negotiate with the council to get the car parking free like last time. See: http://www.irishastronomy.org/

7. 18 FEBRUARY: last date for E-PETITION ON STFC CUTS.

More than 15000 people have so far signed the e-petition to the UK Prime Minister, initiated by physics postgraduate student William Panduro Vazquez of Imperial College London, which calls on the Government to reverse the £80m of cuts announced in the budget of the Science and Technology Facilities Council. The petition closes on 18 February. See: http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Physics-Funding/

8. 19 February. Armagh Observatory Public Lecture "The Life Story of a Star: from Birth to Death", 8.00pm, by Professor John Landstreet, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada. Rotunda Lecture Theatre, St. Patrick's Trian, Armagh, followed by tea and coffee.
    This public lecture is being given as part of the Observatory's Science in the Community programme, and is associated with an International Workshop on the Spectroscopy and Spectropolarimetry of A and B-type Stars being held at Armagh Observatory from 18-22 February 2008. 

   Synopsis: Most people who look up at the stars know that these are bodies much like our own Sun. But how are stars produced? Do they live forever? If not, what happens to them? This illustrated talk will answer some of these questions by describing how astronomers have come to understand the life stories of single stars, from the time they are born out of giant gas clouds somewhere in our Milky Way galaxy, through mature middle age, until finally they collapse to become tiny remnants of their former selves, possibly even a black hole.
   The lecture is free of charge, but owing to limitations of space, numbers may be limited. To obtain tickets,  please write, telephone or 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.

Clear Skies,

Terry Moseley