1. REGULAR FORTNIGHTLY SPACE and ASTRONOMY WEBINAR
After a very positive reaction to our first webinar on Mars, Nick Howes and I have been asked by Space Store Live to make it a regular fortnightly feature. It will be called "Space Store Live: Nick and Terry's Astro Round-up".
It will be approximately 30 minutes long, every second Tuesday, covering whatever is topical on space and astronomy. The next one will be on Tuesday 26 May, when we'll be mainly covering the forthcoming Crew Dragon launch to the ISS.
It's a Zoom webinar, and will be
Live streamed to YouTube SpaceStore Live! Channel and Live streamed to Facebook Live. I'll post any last minute news via Twitter.
Live Link - Youtube
2. USA to launch astronauts again, on May 27, @NASA will once again launch American astronauts on American rockets from American soil! With our @SpaceX partners, @Astro_Doug and @AstroBehnken will launch to the @Space_Station on the #CrewDragon spacecraft atop a Falcon 9 rocket. Let's #LaunchAmerica. See https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/nasa-spacex-bringing-astronaut-launches-back-to-home-turf/ar-BB14qmPA?ocid=spartandhp
3. ISS visible to 29 May.
The ISS continues its series of evening passes until May 29. Full details for your location, and lots of other astronomy information, on the excellent free site www.heavens-above.com
4. Comet Swan is just visible from Ireland, but still very low down
Positions can be found on the usual websites, or try www.heavens-above com
Armagh Observatory and Planetarium
Bring the Moon to your house with the AOP Moon App
We have released the app with instructions on how to get it to work. Give it a try! (Please see video uploaded with instructions)
·
6. Personnel change at NASA
Doug Loverro, NASA's chief of human spaceflight, resigned from his post on May 18 after less than a year on the job. Loverro's resignation as Associate Administrator for NASA's Human Exploration and Operations (HEO) Mission Directorate is a stunning development.
Former NASA astronaut Ken Bowersox, has taken over HEO in an acting capacity and will therefore oversee Demo-2, the first crewed mission of SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule. Demo-2, which will send NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the International Space Station (ISS), is scheduled to lift off atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
7. BCO Remote Learning.
Our Daily Astro Challenge: Weekdays at 12.30pm
With this program we will slowly build your familiarity with the night sky through a series of increasingly complex challenges. These short, 2 minute episodes build on what you've learned in earlier sessions to take you from a novice to a real amateur astronomer in no time! These challenges have already proved to be immensely successful. You can view the back catalogue, and find new challenges every weekday. Check it out here.
ESERO Ireland Remote Workshops For Tech Week: Wednesday/Thursday at 11am.
For those of you with children in primary school, we will be running live astronomy workshops next week that focus on the topic of Light Pollution. No materials needed, just a screen and an internet connection. We'll provide links to educational resources if you're interested in building on the learning experience yourself. Further details here.
Planetarium at Home Fridays from 4pm
We are particularly excited to be bringing our planetarium experience to a remote learning platform. Guided planetarium shows are at the heart of the BCO visitor experience and we're sure you'll enjoy watching these weekly shows as much as we enjoy making them. These are a perfect family weekend activity, with two short episodes dropping every Friday evening. These videos are also supplemented with ESERO Ireland Resources for those who want to go one step further with the learning experience. The first episodes dropped already! We hope you find these programs are a good way to relax during this particularly stressful period, and that they can offer a stimulating educational activity for anyone with young people at home right now. We will have more programs coming online shortly.
8. Tim Peake's autobiography Signed copies of Tim Peake's autobiography ''Limitless'' due October, available for pre-order for £20 on Waterstone's site (unsigned would cost nearly as much).
9. Asteroid Day, 30 June UPDATE. Asteroid Day was co-founded by astrophysicist and famed musician Dr. Brian May of QUEEN; Apollo 9 Astronaut Rusty Schweickart; Filmmaker Grig Richters; and B612 President Danica Remy, to promote awareness and provide knowledge to the general public about the importance of asteroids in our solar system history, and the role they play in our solar system today. Events are scheduled leading up to 30 June, the date of the largest asteroid impact of Earth in recorded history (Tunguska).
The virtual festivities kick off with a full 34 days of Asteroid Day TV (ADTV) starting June 1st and running through July 4th. This year's ADTV will consist of asteroid-related content for all ages including academic documentaries, family learning movies, current asteroid mission highlights, origins of the planet, and much more.
From June 30th, we'll be broadcasting a brand new Asteroid Day Live from Luxembourg. (ADLIVE)—a 4-hour program featuring astronauts, asteroid experts, and other notables. Themes this year will include topics such as current missions advancing efforts to develop greater asteroid detection, tracking and deflection techniques, and space resource initiatives.
ADTV and ADLIVE Digital from Luxembourg will be available via SES signal on select local channels, online at Twitch TV, YouTube, and via the asteroidday.org. We'll be announcing details on how to tune in the last week of May.
10. International Astronomical Youth Camp in Spain, 12 July – 1 August
The International Astronomical Youth Camp (IAYC) is a three-week long summer camp aiming to promote knowledge of astronomy and related sciences in a unique international atmosphere. The IAYC is an experience unlike any other; a place for unforgettable memories and lifelong friendships. During the camp, 65 young and enthusiastic participants from all corners of the world gather in a remote location in Spain to observe and learn about some of the most spectacular skies on this Earth. Applications for the 2020 camp are being accepted until 5 April 2020.
International Astronomical Youth Camp, 12 July-1 August 2020; Baños de Montemayor, Spain
More information and application are here: www.iayc.org
11. National Astronomy Week, 14 – 22 November.
National Astronomy Week (NAW) will be held in the UK from Saturday 14 November to Sunday 22 November, to celebrate the close approach of Mars. Amateur and professional astronomers will be holding observing events during the week. Seen through a telescope magnifying about 100 times, Mars will appear as a pale orange disc, with its markings clearly visible, at a distance of 80 million km.
Although Mars is at its closest to Earth a month earlier, by November it is well up in the sky during the early evening, allowing younger schoolchildren an opportunity to get a good view of the planet. It will not be as close again until 2033. As well as Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and the Moon will be on show during National Astronomy Week. Details of observing events will be posted on the NAW website.
12. INTERESTING WEBLINKS (Disclaimer - Use of material herein from various sources does not imply approval or otherwise of the opinions, political or otherwise, of those sources). NB: If the title in the weblink does not indicate the subject matter, I give a brief simple intro before the link. I may also comment about the link afterwards.
ASTROPHYSICS
Breakthrough in studying odd stellar pulsations https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/05/200513135516.htm
Seeing the universe with strong gravitational lenses https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/05/200514143600.htm
ALMA spots huge rotating gas disc in early universe, https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/05/200520124947.htm
Studying Galactic Cosmic Rays on Earth https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/05/200519140412.htm
ALMA spots the flickering heart of the Milky Way https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/05/200522102313.htmg
Gravitational waves to sharpen view of neutron stars https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/05/200521083554.htm
No evidence of Dark Matter on the forces between nuclei https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/05/200518144910.htm
EARTH & MOON
How Cosmic rays may have shaped the handedness of life https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/05/200520191411.htm
EXOLIFE
The chances of life and intelligent life elsewhere are calculated https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/05/200518162639.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily%2Ftop_news%2Ftop_science+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Top+Science+News%29
The odds of exolife and exo-intelligence https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/05/200518162639.htm and see
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/05/200518154929.htm
EXOPLANETS
Giant telescope sees signs of planetary birth. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/05/200520084127.htm
HISTORY
SOLAR SYSTEM
What's Mars made of? https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/05/200513081755.htm
Mole on INSIGHT Lander making good progress now https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-8318607/NASAs-InSights-Mole-finally-making-steady-progress.html
ATLAS telescope confirms QUB finding of a 'cometary' Trojan asteroid https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/05/200522095508.htm
Curiosity Rover finds clues to chilly ancient Mars https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/05/200519165849.htm
SPACE
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/05/200513143805.htm
Salad seeds don't grow so well in space, https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-8322649/Salad-seeds-outer-space-grew-slower-rate-Earth-bound-counterparts.html
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-8332119/SpaceX-nine-days-away-manned-launch.html
SUN
Telescopes and Techniques
New AI detects and classifies galaxies https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/05/200512151951.htm
13. JOINING the IRISH ASTRONOMICAL ASSOCIATION. This link downloads a Word document to join the IAA. http://documents.irishastro.org.uk/iaamembership.doc
If you are a UK taxpayer, please tick the 'gift-aid' box, as that enables us to reclaim the standard rate of tax on your subscription, at no cost to you. You can also make a donation via Paypal if you wish: just click on the 'Donate' button. See also https://irishastro.org/
The Irish Astronomical Association is registered with The Charity Commission for Northern Ireland NIC 105858
DISCLAIMER: Any views expressed herein are mine, and do not necessarily represent those of the IAA.
Clear skies,
Terry Moseley
