Hi all,
Ronan Newman and the Galway Astronomy Club have put together an excellent programme of lectures and observing for the 2010 Galway Astrofest. They look forward to seeing many of you there.
PROGRAMME:
Friday Feb 12th 7.30pm, two talks (free admission)
Philip Walsh: “The Drake Equation”
Professor Paul Mohr: “Cassini, Meridani nodding Ecliptic”
Will be an extensive account of astronomical work based on meridian instruments constructed in five European cathedrals, Santa Maria Novella and the Duomo in Florence, San Petronio in Bologna, Santa Maria degli Angeli in Rome, and Saint Sulplice in Paris. Measurements of the resulting solar images were useful to Cassini in enabling him to distinguish between the Ptolemaic and Keplerian systems. An additional bonus was the detection and accurate quantification of secular decline in the obliquity of the ecliptic
Observing afterwards at our Dark sky site 12 miles north of Hotel, Brigit's Garden Park see www.galwaygarden.com/
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Saturday February 13th
Dr Aaron Golden NUI Galway: “Has Earth Contaminated the Solar System? – the Case for Life on Mars”
Brian Harvey: “The Asian Space Race”
Alastair Mc Kinstry NUI Galway: "Extra Solar Planets: Climates and Atmospheres"
Dr Deidre Coffey DIAS: “Investigating Protostellar Jets with the Hubble Space Telescope after Service Mission 4”
Dr Vitaly Neustroev NUI Galway: "Amateur Astronomers and Cataclysmic Variables"
Dr Neal Trappe NUI Maynooth: "ALMA: Exploring the Cool Universe" Title TBC
Professor Alan Smith, Director of Mullard Space Science Lab, University College London UK: “Space Science: The Next 20 Years”
After Dinner talk presented by Terry Moseley IAA: "Adventures with Heavenly Bodies"
Observing again at Brigit's Garden and tour of NUI Galway Observatory and facilities.
Contact: Ronan Newman
GAC Secretary & Co-ordinator Galway AstroFest 2010
http://galwayastronomyclub.ie/
http://galwayastronomyclub.blogspot.com/
Clear skies,
Terry Moseley
IAA News by Terry Moseley
Sunday, 17 January 2010
ISS, BT YSE,
Hi all,
1. ISS: The International Space Station is now making another set of excellent early evening passes over Ireland. It now often appears brighter than Jupiter, so you can't miss it if it's passing over in a clear sky. Full details for your location are on the free website www.heavens-above.com, along with other information such as Iridium flares, again specific to your own location.
2. Fantastic Galactic Imagery and a Celestial Extravaganza at the BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition 2010, RDS, Dublin.
In its 46th year the BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition is much more than a competition; it is an unforgettable experience of a lifetime for the students who take part. The exhibition itself is the final stage in the competition which is open to all second level students from Ireland, both North and South. As well as the 500 student projects on display, there are a further four exhibition halls filled with science and technology based exhibits and entertainment, making it a thrilling event for those who enter and for general visitors too.
At this year’s event, astronomy and space science once again has star billing with the spectacular GigaGalaxyZoom images on display and a 3D Celestial Extravaganza. The European Southern Observatory’s (ESO) GigaGalaxy Zoom project connects the sky as seen by the unaided eye with that seen by amateur and professional astronomers. The project reveals three amazing, ultra-high-resolution images of the night sky that stargazers can explore in an incredible level of detail.
The GigaGalaxy Zoom project is true to the vision of International Year of Astronomy 2009 (IYA2009), which is to help people rediscover their place in the Universe through the day- and night-time sky.
The Celestial Extravaganza show merges gaming technology with the latest 3D stereo animations from the European Southern Observatory to create a cosmic voyage of discovery. Along the way the audience visit the planets of the Solar System, a myriad of beautiful and mysterious objects in the Milky Way galaxy and travel through space and back in time to observe the sheer scale and size of the universe.
The show is produced by the Northern Ireland Space Office and LearnIT3d Ltd with support from BT, the Dublin Institute of Advanced Studies and the European Southern Observatory.
The BT Young Scientist and technology Exhibition takes place at the RDS Arena and showgrounds and will be launched on Wednesday 13th January and open to primary schools on 14th, Secondary schools on 15th and the general public on the 16th. More information on the exhibition can be found at http://www.btyoungscientist.com
Clear Skies,
Terry Moseley
1. ISS: The International Space Station is now making another set of excellent early evening passes over Ireland. It now often appears brighter than Jupiter, so you can't miss it if it's passing over in a clear sky. Full details for your location are on the free website www.heavens-above.com, along with other information such as Iridium flares, again specific to your own location.
2. Fantastic Galactic Imagery and a Celestial Extravaganza at the BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition 2010, RDS, Dublin.
In its 46th year the BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition is much more than a competition; it is an unforgettable experience of a lifetime for the students who take part. The exhibition itself is the final stage in the competition which is open to all second level students from Ireland, both North and South. As well as the 500 student projects on display, there are a further four exhibition halls filled with science and technology based exhibits and entertainment, making it a thrilling event for those who enter and for general visitors too.
At this year’s event, astronomy and space science once again has star billing with the spectacular GigaGalaxyZoom images on display and a 3D Celestial Extravaganza. The European Southern Observatory’s (ESO) GigaGalaxy Zoom project connects the sky as seen by the unaided eye with that seen by amateur and professional astronomers. The project reveals three amazing, ultra-high-resolution images of the night sky that stargazers can explore in an incredible level of detail.
The GigaGalaxy Zoom project is true to the vision of International Year of Astronomy 2009 (IYA2009), which is to help people rediscover their place in the Universe through the day- and night-time sky.
The Celestial Extravaganza show merges gaming technology with the latest 3D stereo animations from the European Southern Observatory to create a cosmic voyage of discovery. Along the way the audience visit the planets of the Solar System, a myriad of beautiful and mysterious objects in the Milky Way galaxy and travel through space and back in time to observe the sheer scale and size of the universe.
The show is produced by the Northern Ireland Space Office and LearnIT3d Ltd with support from BT, the Dublin Institute of Advanced Studies and the European Southern Observatory.
The BT Young Scientist and technology Exhibition takes place at the RDS Arena and showgrounds and will be launched on Wednesday 13th January and open to primary schools on 14th, Secondary schools on 15th and the general public on the 16th. More information on the exhibition can be found at http://www.btyoungscientist.com
Clear Skies,
Terry Moseley
Wednesday, 30 December 2009
Eclipse, Decadal change, NY Party, Perihelion, Quadrantids, Next IAA lecture
Hi all,
1. PARTIAL LUNAR ECLIPSE, New Year's Eve: The last day of the Noughties (but see below) will be marked by a partial eclipse of the Moon. But don't get too excited, as it's only a small partial, with a mere 8.2% of the Southern edge of the Moon entering into the Northern edge of the Earth's main shadow, or Umbra.
The barely noticeable penumbral phase will start at 17.15, and the umbral phase begins at 18.52. Maximum eclipse occurs 19h 22m 41s. The umbral phase ends at 19.53, and the Moon will leave the penumbra at 21.30. The 'penumbra' is the Earth's outer, partial, shadow, caused by the fact that the Sun is a disc, not a point source of light.
The Moon will have almost exactly the same apparent diameter as the width of the ring of the Earth's penumbral shadow, so the umbral phase will begin just as the entire moon enters the penumbra.
The Moon will be in Gemini, just S of 3rd mag Epsilon Gem.
N.B. In spite of what you might have read in an email from another source, the shadowed portion of the Moon will not appear "black", let alone "absolutely black"!
In fact, even during mid eclipse, the shadowed portion of the Moon will not appear very dark at all - it is most likely to be a reddish or orangey grey. This is because the Earth's atmosphere refracts or bends an appreciable amount of sunlight onto the eclipsed portion of the Moon. In fact, even during the very deepest and longest of Total Lunar Eclipses, the Moon does not disappear completely, because of this refraction effect.
You can watch out for this at the next Total Lunar Eclipse visible from here, which will mark the next winter solstice: 21 December 2012!
And BTW, please help to counter the false idea circulating that this will be a 'Blue Moon' because it's the second Full Moon in a month! That erroneous description started when Sky & Telescope wrongly interpreted an old New England Farmer's Almanac as calling the 2nd FM in a month a 'Blue Moon'. They later admitted that they had got it wrong, and published a correction, but not everyone saw the retraction. A 'Blue Moon' means a very rare and unpredictable event, and it arose after the great Krakatoa eruption in 1883 blew so much fine volcanic ash into the upper atmosphere that for a while the moon did sometimes appear blue. But that was almost a one-off, and so the term means 'hardly ever'. Whereas there are actually two full moons in the same month every few years or so!
2. END OF DECADE; NAME FOR NEW DECADE. When I referred in my last email (and above) to the eclipse on New Year's Eve being on the last day of the 'Noughties', I wasn't being strictly correct. At least not if one takes the correct definition of a decade, as Brian Beesley reminded me.
Déjà vu all over again! As I pointed out ad nauseum at the time, but to no avail, the last millennium did not end on 31 December 1999, but on 31 December 2000. But I, and Brian, and a few other purists, were 'lone voices crying in the wilderness', so I more or less gave up, and gave in to all the hype, and celebrated the end of 1999 and start of 2000 along with everyone else.
So if one counts that as the start of the current decade, as almost everyone did even if incorrectly, then the end of this year will be the end of that 10 year period, or decade. But strictly speaking, counting from year 1 CE, the current decade does indeed last until 31/12/2010.
But anyway, I was referring to 'The Noughties', i.e. the years which can be said as 'Two Nought Nought Nought' through to 'Two Nought Nought Nine'. (I claim to have been the first to have suggested that term, back in 1996, and no-one has ever told me otherwise!)
So as next year will not be a 'Noughtie', what will we call the next decade? I suggested 'The Teenies', since most of the years will end in 'teen, e.g. Two Thousand and Thirteen etc. But that term does not encompass 2010, 2011, or 2012, because of the vagaries of our enumeration terminology! So I asked for alternatives for this period.
Seamus Bonner suggested 'The Tenners' for the whole period, which is very good for the first year, but only by extension can it cover the rest of the period.
Alan Watson suggested that while the Teenies is OK for the rest of the period, we simply call the next 3 years 'the Pre-Teens'. Simple, apt and accurate. But the "Pre-Teenies" doesn't roll off the tongue so easily as the best suggestion I've had yet -
It's from Donald Ferguson, who suggests the "Tweenies" (in between the Noughties and the Teenies)
So unless anyone comes up with a better idea, I'll go for The 'Tweenies' followed by the 'Teenies' from 2013. You read it here first!
3. IAA NEW YEAR PARTY: Don't forget: The Galaxy's social event of the year will take place on Saturday 2 January, with the highlight being the special private showing of "Star Trek 2009" in the Tudor Private Cinema, Comber.
Thanks once again to George Brannan, for making all the arrangements.
We will meet first for eats in McBrides, in The Square, Comber, at 5.30 (to be ready to eat at 6 p.m.), then move on to the Tudor Cinema, Drumhirk Road, just outside Comber on the A22 Comber to Killyleagh Road, at 7.30 p.m. More details of venues with full directions later.
The programme includes the meal at McBrides, plus the film, plus at the cinema you can warm up with my famous hot punch and mulled wine, reputedly the best in this arm of the galaxy. Soft drinks + tea & coffee also available, all included in the price!
The film will be followed by George's diabolical quiz (and then there's his singing in the musical round too.....), with the usual amazing selection of prizes for almost everybody! The quiz is free to enter too!
Bookings have now closed, so if you haven't already done so, you'll have to wait until 2011.
4. PERIHELION: The Earth will be at its closest point to the Sun on 3 January, at 00.09, at a distance of 147,086,033km, or 0.9832904 AU. Here in Ireland we'll be a bit further away, which must explain why it's so flippin cold!
OK, just in case any of you don't realise that I'm joking - our Northern winter is entirely due to the seasonal tilt of the Earth's axis, and nothing to do with the fairly slight changes in our distance from the Sun, from perihelion to aphelion!
5. QUADRANTIDS. The first meteor shower of 2010 is the Quadrantids, which peak at 18h on 3 January. This shower is brief, but intense, with a maximum ZHR of around 80. The ZHR, or Zenithal Hourly Rate, is the number of meteors which would be seen by an experienced observer, with the radiant in the zenith, in a perfectly clear very dark sky. In practice, observed rates are usually a good bit less than this. This year, the main problem will be an 18day old waning gibbous Moon, which will rise about 20.30. Nevertheless, it will be worth having a look, especially in the few hours between onset of darkness and moonrise. Some Quadrantids can be seen from about Jan 2 through to Jan 4-5.
The radiant lies roughly halfway between the end of the handle of the Plough, and the head of Draco, or just above a point 2/3 of the way from Vega to the end of the Plough handle.
The radiant is circumpolar from Ireland, so it never sets, and as darkness falls it will be lowish in the NNW, then it sinks a bit lower as it passes beneath the Pole, before starting to rise again in the NE.
The further North you are, the better, as the radiant will be higher in the sky at any given time during the night.
6. NEXT IAA LECTURE, 13 January: The first of the Irish Astronomical Association's public lectures of 2010 will be given by Dr Jorick Vink, of Armagh Observatory.
His talk is entitled "The Most Massive Stars in The Universe", and promises to be a fascinating subject. After all, the Sun is 328,935 times more massive than the Earth, and yet we know that there are stars maybe 50-60 times more massive than the Sun. But are there even more massive ones? And is there an upper limit? And how to these stellar heavyweights live their lives? Their lives seem to be relatively brief, but very spectacular!
It's on WEDNESDAY 13 JANUARY, at 7.30 p.m., in the Bell Lecture Theatre, Physics Building, Queen's University, Belfast. ADMISSION IS FREE, as always, and includes light refreshments. Everyone is welcome! Full details of the rest of the programme are on the website: www.irishastro.org
Finally, HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL, and welcome to the 'Tweenies'.
NB: If you wish to have your name removed from this mailing list, please just email me back saying so.
Clear skies,
Terry Moseley
1. PARTIAL LUNAR ECLIPSE, New Year's Eve: The last day of the Noughties (but see below) will be marked by a partial eclipse of the Moon. But don't get too excited, as it's only a small partial, with a mere 8.2% of the Southern edge of the Moon entering into the Northern edge of the Earth's main shadow, or Umbra.
The barely noticeable penumbral phase will start at 17.15, and the umbral phase begins at 18.52. Maximum eclipse occurs 19h 22m 41s. The umbral phase ends at 19.53, and the Moon will leave the penumbra at 21.30. The 'penumbra' is the Earth's outer, partial, shadow, caused by the fact that the Sun is a disc, not a point source of light.
The Moon will have almost exactly the same apparent diameter as the width of the ring of the Earth's penumbral shadow, so the umbral phase will begin just as the entire moon enters the penumbra.
The Moon will be in Gemini, just S of 3rd mag Epsilon Gem.
N.B. In spite of what you might have read in an email from another source, the shadowed portion of the Moon will not appear "black", let alone "absolutely black"!
In fact, even during mid eclipse, the shadowed portion of the Moon will not appear very dark at all - it is most likely to be a reddish or orangey grey. This is because the Earth's atmosphere refracts or bends an appreciable amount of sunlight onto the eclipsed portion of the Moon. In fact, even during the very deepest and longest of Total Lunar Eclipses, the Moon does not disappear completely, because of this refraction effect.
You can watch out for this at the next Total Lunar Eclipse visible from here, which will mark the next winter solstice: 21 December 2012!
And BTW, please help to counter the false idea circulating that this will be a 'Blue Moon' because it's the second Full Moon in a month! That erroneous description started when Sky & Telescope wrongly interpreted an old New England Farmer's Almanac as calling the 2nd FM in a month a 'Blue Moon'. They later admitted that they had got it wrong, and published a correction, but not everyone saw the retraction. A 'Blue Moon' means a very rare and unpredictable event, and it arose after the great Krakatoa eruption in 1883 blew so much fine volcanic ash into the upper atmosphere that for a while the moon did sometimes appear blue. But that was almost a one-off, and so the term means 'hardly ever'. Whereas there are actually two full moons in the same month every few years or so!
2. END OF DECADE; NAME FOR NEW DECADE. When I referred in my last email (and above) to the eclipse on New Year's Eve being on the last day of the 'Noughties', I wasn't being strictly correct. At least not if one takes the correct definition of a decade, as Brian Beesley reminded me.
Déjà vu all over again! As I pointed out ad nauseum at the time, but to no avail, the last millennium did not end on 31 December 1999, but on 31 December 2000. But I, and Brian, and a few other purists, were 'lone voices crying in the wilderness', so I more or less gave up, and gave in to all the hype, and celebrated the end of 1999 and start of 2000 along with everyone else.
So if one counts that as the start of the current decade, as almost everyone did even if incorrectly, then the end of this year will be the end of that 10 year period, or decade. But strictly speaking, counting from year 1 CE, the current decade does indeed last until 31/12/2010.
But anyway, I was referring to 'The Noughties', i.e. the years which can be said as 'Two Nought Nought Nought' through to 'Two Nought Nought Nine'. (I claim to have been the first to have suggested that term, back in 1996, and no-one has ever told me otherwise!)
So as next year will not be a 'Noughtie', what will we call the next decade? I suggested 'The Teenies', since most of the years will end in 'teen, e.g. Two Thousand and Thirteen etc. But that term does not encompass 2010, 2011, or 2012, because of the vagaries of our enumeration terminology! So I asked for alternatives for this period.
Seamus Bonner suggested 'The Tenners' for the whole period, which is very good for the first year, but only by extension can it cover the rest of the period.
Alan Watson suggested that while the Teenies is OK for the rest of the period, we simply call the next 3 years 'the Pre-Teens'. Simple, apt and accurate. But the "Pre-Teenies" doesn't roll off the tongue so easily as the best suggestion I've had yet -
It's from Donald Ferguson, who suggests the "Tweenies" (in between the Noughties and the Teenies)
So unless anyone comes up with a better idea, I'll go for The 'Tweenies' followed by the 'Teenies' from 2013. You read it here first!
3. IAA NEW YEAR PARTY: Don't forget: The Galaxy's social event of the year will take place on Saturday 2 January, with the highlight being the special private showing of "Star Trek 2009" in the Tudor Private Cinema, Comber.
Thanks once again to George Brannan, for making all the arrangements.
We will meet first for eats in McBrides, in The Square, Comber, at 5.30 (to be ready to eat at 6 p.m.), then move on to the Tudor Cinema, Drumhirk Road, just outside Comber on the A22 Comber to Killyleagh Road, at 7.30 p.m. More details of venues with full directions later.
The programme includes the meal at McBrides, plus the film, plus at the cinema you can warm up with my famous hot punch and mulled wine, reputedly the best in this arm of the galaxy. Soft drinks + tea & coffee also available, all included in the price!
The film will be followed by George's diabolical quiz (and then there's his singing in the musical round too.....), with the usual amazing selection of prizes for almost everybody! The quiz is free to enter too!
Bookings have now closed, so if you haven't already done so, you'll have to wait until 2011.
4. PERIHELION: The Earth will be at its closest point to the Sun on 3 January, at 00.09, at a distance of 147,086,033km, or 0.9832904 AU. Here in Ireland we'll be a bit further away, which must explain why it's so flippin cold!
OK, just in case any of you don't realise that I'm joking - our Northern winter is entirely due to the seasonal tilt of the Earth's axis, and nothing to do with the fairly slight changes in our distance from the Sun, from perihelion to aphelion!
5. QUADRANTIDS. The first meteor shower of 2010 is the Quadrantids, which peak at 18h on 3 January. This shower is brief, but intense, with a maximum ZHR of around 80. The ZHR, or Zenithal Hourly Rate, is the number of meteors which would be seen by an experienced observer, with the radiant in the zenith, in a perfectly clear very dark sky. In practice, observed rates are usually a good bit less than this. This year, the main problem will be an 18day old waning gibbous Moon, which will rise about 20.30. Nevertheless, it will be worth having a look, especially in the few hours between onset of darkness and moonrise. Some Quadrantids can be seen from about Jan 2 through to Jan 4-5.
The radiant lies roughly halfway between the end of the handle of the Plough, and the head of Draco, or just above a point 2/3 of the way from Vega to the end of the Plough handle.
The radiant is circumpolar from Ireland, so it never sets, and as darkness falls it will be lowish in the NNW, then it sinks a bit lower as it passes beneath the Pole, before starting to rise again in the NE.
The further North you are, the better, as the radiant will be higher in the sky at any given time during the night.
6. NEXT IAA LECTURE, 13 January: The first of the Irish Astronomical Association's public lectures of 2010 will be given by Dr Jorick Vink, of Armagh Observatory.
His talk is entitled "The Most Massive Stars in The Universe", and promises to be a fascinating subject. After all, the Sun is 328,935 times more massive than the Earth, and yet we know that there are stars maybe 50-60 times more massive than the Sun. But are there even more massive ones? And is there an upper limit? And how to these stellar heavyweights live their lives? Their lives seem to be relatively brief, but very spectacular!
It's on WEDNESDAY 13 JANUARY, at 7.30 p.m., in the Bell Lecture Theatre, Physics Building, Queen's University, Belfast. ADMISSION IS FREE, as always, and includes light refreshments. Everyone is welcome! Full details of the rest of the programme are on the website: www.irishastro.org
Finally, HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL, and welcome to the 'Tweenies'.
NB: If you wish to have your name removed from this mailing list, please just email me back saying so.
Clear skies,
Terry Moseley
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