Saturday 4 September 2010

First IAA Lecture, IMO, MAC, BSP, WSP, ISS, Moon Night, Mercury, Jupiter‏

Hi all,

1. The opening IAA Lecture of the new season will be on Wed 22 September, in the Bell Lecture Theatre, QUB, It will be given by Prof Alan Fitzsimmons of the Astrophysics Department at QUB. Title tba soon. See www.irishastro.org

2. IMO Conference: The virtually final programme of talks and posters for the International Meteor Conference on Sep 16 - 19 at Armagh is now available at
http://www.imo.net/imc2010/schedule.php. It is a busy but exciting schedule with nearly 60 contributions.
Would all IAA members who intend to go to any part of this event please email me back right away for details of VERY favourable special attendance rates!

3. MAC Lecture - Mr. John Lally, MAC Vice-Chairperson will present a talk entitled "The Moon and the Lunar 100" on Tuesday Sep 7, in the Presbyterian Hall, Church Street, Tullamore at 8:00pm. All are welcome and admission is €2.00.

4. Burren Star Party - Shannonside Astronomy Club (SAC) will host their second Burren Star Party on Saturday Sep 11 at the Burren Coastal Hotel in Ballyvaughan, Co. Clare. See www.shannonsideastronomyclub.com/sac_burren_starparty.htm

5. Whirlpool Star Party - Final details are almost ready for Ireland's longest running star party, on the weekend of October 8th to 10th in Dooley's Hotel, Birr, Co Offaly.

6. ISS - The ISS can currently be seen until Sep 12 in the evenings, sometimes passing twice in the one night. See www.heavens-above.com for predictions for your location.

7. Sep 18: International Observe the Moon night - The IAA hopes to run an observing session just outside Holywood, Co Down. Other clubs may be doing something similar. See www.observethemoonnight.org/

8. Mercury will at greatest western elongation on Sep 19 and will be visible as a 'morning star' in the east during the second half of the month. Look about 45 minutes before local sunrise, slightly to the South of where the brightest part of the dawn twilight appears. On the 19th it is mag -0.3; it then brightens as it moves towards Superior Conjunction and therefore shows more of its illuminated disc towards Earth, and by Sep 30 it is mag -1.1.

9. Jupiter will be at opposition on Sep 21 and is well placed for observation all this month. It now rises in the evening twilight and by month’s end it will rise just before sunset. It lies in Pisces, at mag -2.9. It is also at conjunction with Uranus on the 18th; much fainter Uranus will lie less than a degree to the North of Jupiter. Jupiter’s South Equatorial Belt is still 'missing'. The four Galilean moons are visible in a small telescope or good binoculars.

Clear skies,

Terry Moseley

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