Hi all,
Please note: send all correspondence to me only at: terrymosel@aol.com
1. PUBLIC ASTRONOMY EVENT, Saturday 15 February, for N. I. Science Festival, at Belfast Girls Model School, 35 Dunowen Gardens, Belfast BT14 6NQ (off the Oldpark Road).
This major event is being run as part as the NISF. We will have public shows in our Stardome. Observing (if clear), telescope displays, meteorites, etc. Book through the NISF website. More details in next bulletin.
2. IAA Lecture, TUESDAY 18 February, 7.30 p.m., Larmor Lecture Theatre, Physics building, QUB: This is event is part of the N. I. Science Festival.
"Astronomy by Microscope" (What meteorites tell us about the solar system), by Professor Monica Grady of the Open University
NB: The meeting which would normally have been on Wed 19th February, has to be brought forward by one day, to TUESDAY 18th, because of room availability.
Because it's a NISF event, everyone, including IAA members, should book through the NISF website, Attendance is free, but you should book to ensure that you get a place, in case it's oversubscribed.
Synopsis:
Traditionally, astronomers study stars and planets by telescope. But we can also learn about them by using a microscope – through studying meteorites. From meteorites, we can learn about the processes and materials that shaped the Solar System and our planet. Tiny grains within meteorites have come from other stars, giving information about the stellar neighbourhood in which the Sun was born.
Meteorites are fragments of ancient material, natural objects that survive their fall to Earth from space. Some are metallic, but most are made of stone. They are the oldest objects that we have for study. Almost all meteorites are fragments from asteroids, and were formed at the birth of the Solar System, approximately 4570 million years ago. They show a compositional variation that spans a whole range of planetary materials, from completely unmelted and unfractionated stony chondrites to highly fractionated and differentiated iron meteorites. Meteorites, and components within them, carry records of all stages of Solar System history. There are also meteorites from the Moon and from Mars that give us insights to how these bodies have formed and evolved.
In her lecture, Monica will describe how the microscope is another tool that can be employed to trace stellar and planetary processes.
Biography:
Monica Grady is Professor of Planetary and Space Sciences in the School of Physical Sciences at the Open University in Milton Keynes. She obtained a degree in Chemistry and Geology from the University of Durham in 1979, and a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge in 1983. Her thesis concerned the carbon chemistry of meteorites, and she has continued this study throughout her subsequent career. Professor Grady has led major research programmes in the study of the origin and evolution of the Solar System through analysis of meteorites, the Moon, Mars, asteroids and comets. Her particular research interests are in carbon and nitrogen chemistry with additional expertise in the mineralogy of meteorites, especially of primitive meteorites and meteorites from Mars. Her work builds a bridge between the non-biological chemistry of the Galaxy and the origin of life on Earth. It also provides a framework within which the potential for life beyond Earth can be considered.
Admission free, all are welcome, provided that you have a ticket.
3 'Planetary parade' will see six planets align in rare spectacle
As usual, there's a lot of hype here. Saturn is getting low, and you need a clear view to the SW to see it. Venus, Jupiter and Mars are certainly brilliant, but Uranus and Neptune really need optical aid to be seen,
4 Venus – the Evening Star
Venus, the 'Evening Star', is now dominating our evening sky, shining brilliantly in the SW twilight. It reached its Greatest Eastern Elongation on 10 January, and it was exactly half phase on January 12. It reaches greatest brilliancy on 14 February. The magnitude is now -4.5, and the apparent diameter is 24".
5. Brilliant Jupiter dominates the dark sky!
The king of the planets is still really bright in E Taurus after its opposition on 7 December. It's mag -2.3, which makes it the second brightest planet, after Venus. It's nicely up in the Eastern sky as soon as twilight ends.
The apparent disc diameter is now gradually decreasing, but is still an impressive 43". Even a 75mm telescope will show the Great Red Spot when it's on or near the meridian. Binoculars will show the 4 big Galilean Moons, Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto, and a moderate telescope will show at least the start and end of their transits across the disc. That's because the edge of the planet is darker than the middle due to 'limb darkening', so the bright satellite shows up against the dark background. But when the satellite is near the middle of the disc, the contrast with the brighter background is much less, and it takes a big telescope and steady seeing to reveal the satellite.
However, the much darker shadows of the satellites are easy to see the whole way across the disc. Also interesting to watch, and easier to see, are the satellites entering and leaving eclipse in Jupiter's shadow, except very near opposition when this happens very close to the disc itself, as now.
At the moment, the outer Moon, Callisto, does not undergo any of these phenomena, because of the orbital tilt at present, so it always passes just above or just below the disc of Jupiter each orbit.
See NASA | Jupiter in 4k Ultra HD
6. DARK SKY NEWS From Prof. Brian Espey
I'm delighted to report that, in a great start to the New Year, Dark Sky Ireland has a mention in the draft Programme for Government, specifically through a commitment to "promote and encourage an expansion of dark sky ... national parks and reserves" (Read it here: https://lnkd.in/er94YBEy see pp57-58). We're ready to assist with this, though what is *badly* needed is legislation to protect the dark sky areas that we have from encroachment by poorly controlled light and to enable the development of new areas. Currently, light pollution is the only form of pollution which does not have legal control. Without such legislation we are in danger of losing a valuable national environmental, cultural and tourism resource. If we're going to include a DS ethos in the policies of individual govt bodies, then this is essential to ensure success.
hashtag#DarkSkyIreland hashtag#darkskies hashtag
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