Lyrids, Jupiter, Conjunction, ISS/Progress, 24hr photo, Lecture, quasar spectrum

Hi all,

 

1. Lyrid Meteors. The main spring meteor shower is the Lyrids, which peak at about 05h on 22 April. There will be no moonlight, so conditions are favourable. The radiant is almost circumpolar from here, so observations are possible through most of the night. The usual maximum hourly is about 10, but stronger outbursts do occur, the last being in 1982. The parent body is Comet Thatcher, and the meteors are swift, and often bright.

 

2. Jupiter at the Last Chance Saloon. Giant planet Jupiter is rapidly sinking into the evening twilight, but your last chance for a nice view comes on the evening of the 22nd when it will lie less than 2 degrees below and left of a very thin New Moon. The Moon's phase is only 2%, so it will appear just as a very faint fine curved line. Jupiter is still mag -2.0, so you should be able to see both in binoculars AFTER the Sun has set. Look in the West from about 21.20 to 21.35, or a bit later for those West of the midlands.

 

3. Moon - Venus - Aldebaran Conjunction: A lovely 11% crescent Moon will lie between Venus and Aldebaran / the Hyades on the evening of April 24. Another nice target for astrophotographers.

 

4. ISS + Progress 47: The International Space Station continues its series of evening passes over Ireland. The supply spacecraft Progress 47 is on its way to dock with the International Space Station on Sunday afternoon. Although it is very much fainter than the ISS, you may be able to see a the Progress 47 crossing the sky several minutes before the ISS as it approaches for docking. Details for your own location, and lots of other useful information such as Iridium Flares, are on the free site www.heavens-above.com

 

5. Amazing 24-hour sky photo: See http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/04/19/24-hours-in-one-photo_n_1436506.html

 

6. At The Speed of Light? The Astrophysics Research Centre at Queen's University Belfast invites you to the 1st lecture of this year's Michael West Lecture Series in Astronomy and Astrophysics.
   The Michael West Public Lectures are sponsored by Dr. Michael West, a QUB alumnus and benefactor, and aim to give everyone the chance to hear about the latest scientific developments in Astrophysics and related subjects directly from world-leading scientists.

   The 1st lecture of 2012 deals with and challenges one of the postulates of Einstein's Relativity Theory, that the speed of light is a universal constant. 

   Professor João Magueijo of Imperial College London will tell us about the Big Bang and the subsequent evolution of the Universe. He will also describe his revolutionary idea that the speed of light may not be a constant after all.

Date: 2 May 2012, 7-8pm. Title: What if the Speed of Light isn't constant? What you gain and what you lose. Place: Larmor Lecture Theatre, Queen's University Belfast 

  Please find more information on our speaker and reserve your seat at 

http://tinyurl.com/MichaelWestLectureSeries2012

Attendance is free but a reservation is required.

7. Dave Grennan captures Quasar Spectrum: Irish amateur astronomer Dave Grennan has managed to record the spectrum of the best-known quasar, 3C-273 in Virgo. It is the brightest quasar in our skies (but still a very faint 13th magnitude!), and older readers may remember the excitement when these mysterious high redshift objects were first discovered. We now believe that a quasar is the highly energetic nucleus of a distant galaxy, harbouring a super-massive black hole. 

    Dave recently managed to record its spectrum from his home observatory in Dublin and also calculated the red-shift and distance from the spectrum. This amazing feat was a result of his superb skill, dedication and planning, and all the more remarkable having been done from a seriously light-polluted city. Congratulations to Dave for yet another amazing performance, showing just what Irish amateur astronomers can do. See http://www.webtreatz.com/index.php/articles/34-general-articles/86-quasar-2c-374-measuring-the-redshift.     

 

8. Sky at Night @ 55. Sir Patrick Moore has picked his 55 favourite night sky objects and over the month of April, would like you to see as many as you can. The Moore Marathon will help celebrate 55 years of The Sky at Night, first broadcast on 24th April 1957.

    From the Moon to the star Albireo, the Moore Marathon has something for everyone. You can spot some with your eyes, others need binoculars or a telescope, and you can take part on your own or as a group. On 6 May on BBC One, and 10 May on BBC Four, The Sky at Night will feature a selection of your observations, from the simple to the most interesting. You can take part by downloading a Moore Marathon observing form at http://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/news/sky-night-55-moore-marathon

 

9. New European Astronomy Journalism Prize launched. A new journalism competition to capture and promote inspirational coverage of astronomy was launched on Thursday 29 March at the National Astronomy Meeting in Manchester. The prize is the ultimate for any astronomy enthusiast - a trip to the European Southern Observatory's (ESO) Very Large Telescope in Chile. Never a week goes by without coming across stories or features on astronomy in the UK media; yet many of the people behind the stories have never had the opportunity to visit the facilities that produce the results they are covering. The Very Large Telescope is the world's most advanced optical instrument, and is located at the Paranal Observatory on Cerro Paranal, a 2,635m mountain in the northern part of Chile. 

Entries into the European Astronomy Journalism Prize must be about astronomy and related areas of technology, or about the work and lifestyles or astronomers, engineers or others working in the field of astronomy. Online, written or broadcast entries are welcome. The competition is being run by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) and European Southern Observatory (ESO, in conjunction with the Association of British Science Writers and the Royal Astronomical Society. It is open for entries from Monday 2 April 2012 until Friday 27 July 2012. Works must have appeared in English and in the UK, between 1 July 2011 and 30 June 2012 inclusive to be eligible. They must reflect European interests. A full list of terms and conditions can be found at www.stfc.ac.uk/astroprize and at www.eso.org/public/astroprize

10. "God, Science and Global Warming".  An Audience with Sir John Houghton CBE FRS. 7.45pm, Tuesday 15th May 2012, The Market Place Theatre, Armagh. (Prof Mark Bailey asked me to circulate this, which may be of interest even though it's not strictly astronomy)
    Sir John Houghton, former co-chair of the Scientific Assessment Working Group of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will speak on "God, Science and Global Warming". This will be followed by a discussion chaired by BBC Presenter Mark Carruthers with questions and contributions from the audience.
  Members of the Panel will include Father Timothy Bartlett (author of the pastoral reflection on climate change "The Cry of the Earth"), Professor Valerie Hall (Emeritus Professor of Palaeoecology at Queen's University Belfast) and Michael Nugent (Chairman of Atheist Ireland).  With Sir John as the keynote speaker and with such a group of experts this promises to be an enjoyable and enlightening evening.
   The ticket price of £7.50 (+ £1 online booking fee) includes light refreshments at 7.00pm and there are afternoon tours of Armagh City's main attractions, and packages for overnight stays.  Book online at
http://www.marketplacearmagh.com/whats-on/an-audience-with-sir-john-houghton-cbe-frs/
  To learn more about the event and opportunities to experience Armagh City visit http://www.armaghu3a.org/?p=492, and http://www.armagh.co.uk/.

11. TWITTER: the IAA now has a twitter account. twitter@IaaAstro

12. BBC THINGS TO DO WEBSITE: See the forthcoming IAA events on  

http://www.bbc.co.uk/thingstodo

 

13. JOINING the IRISH ASTRONOMICAL ASSOCIATION is now even easier: This link downloads a Word document to join the IAA. http://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.  See also www.irishastro.org. 

 

Clear skies,

Terry Moseley

AGM, COSMOS, ISS, Lectures, various comps, Weblinks, Titanic Stars, Venus, etc

Hi all,

  

1.   IAA AGM and TALK, 18 April: The Irish Astronomical Association AGM will be held on

WEDNESDAY 18 April, at 7.30 p.m., in the Bell Lecture Theatre, Physics Building, Queen's University, Belfast. Location:

After the business is completed, long-standing member Mr Michael Duffy will give an illustrated presentation called "Revenge of the Armchair Astronomer". Certain aspects of the content are being withheld from me, but I'm assured by a third party that it will be well worth seeing.

 

2. COSMOS 2012: The Midlands Astronomy Club present their very popular annual star party, at Annaharvey Farm, just outside Tullamore, Co Offaly, on the W/E of 13-15 April.  Speakers include:

- Thierry Legault, world-renowned French astrophotographer
- Girvan McKay, Midlands Astronomy Club
- Eamon Ansbro, Kingsland Observatory, Roscommon
- Kevin Berwick, Dublin
- Dermot Gannon, Midlands Astronomy Club
- Apostolos Christou, Armagh Observatory
- Lawrence Rigney, Midlands Astronomy Club
More details are available on the website www.midlandsastronomy.com

 

3. ISS The International Space Station has started a new series of evening passes over Ireland. Details for your own location, and lots of other useful information such as Iridium Flares, are on the free site www.heavens-above.com

 

4. SDAS LECTURE: Brian Harvey, an expert on the world's space programmes, is the next speaker on April 19^th. Brian gave a terrific talk last year on the 50^th anniversary of Gagarin's flight and his lecture this month is about the Chinese space programme. With the first Chinese space station Tiangong-1 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiangong_1 ) being launched in September last year and taikonauts due to make the first docking with the station in August this year, China has big plans for space exploration. 

 

5. At The Speed of Light? The Astrophysics Research Centre at Queen's University Belfast has the pleasure to invite you to the 1st lecture of this year's Michael West Lecture Series in Astronomy and Astrophysics.

   The Michael West Public Lectures are sponsored by Dr. Michael West, a QUB alumnus and benefactor, and aim to give everyone the chance to hear about the latest scientific developments in Astrophysics and related subjects directly from world-leading scientists.

   The 1st lecture of 2012 deals with and challenges one of the postulates of Einstein's Relativity Theory, that the speed of light is a universal constant. 

   Professor João Magueijo of Imperial College London will tell us about the Big Bang and the subsequent evolution of the Universe. He will also describe his revolutionary idea that the speed of light may not be a constant after all.

Date: 2 May 2012, 7-8pm. Title: What if the Speed of Light isn't constant? What you gain and what you lose. Place: Larmor Lecture Theatre, Queen's University Belfast 

  Please find more information on our speaker and reserve your seat at 

http://tinyurl.com/MichaelWestLectureSeries2012

Attendance is free but a reservation is required.

6. "Earth and Sky" photo contest running to April 22^nd

 The World at Night (TWAN) web site is running an astrophotography contest this month. More details at http://www.twanight.org/newTWAN/news.asp?newsID=6069   

 

7. Sky at Night @ 55     

Sir Patrick Moore has picked his 55 favourite night sky objects and over the month of April, would like you to see as many as you can. The Moore Marathon will help celebrate 55 years of The Sky at Night, first broadcast on 24th April 1957.

    From the Moon to the star Albireo, the Moore Marathon has something for everyone. You can spot some with your eyes, others need binoculars or a telescope, and you can take part on your own or as a group. On 6 May on BBC One, and 10 May on BBC Four, The Sky at Night will feature a selection of your observations, from the simple to the most interesting. You can take part by downloading a Moore Marathon observing form at http://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/news/sky-night-55-moore-marathon

 

8. Space Shuttle Endeavour Cockpit 'Live'. For some amazing photos, see:

http://spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/sts134/poweron/

 

9. Blackrock Castle Observatory, Cork: The varied events programme continues in April with something for all ages, and note that booking for their annual space camp, which runs from July 13 to 27, is now open. See www.bco.ie

10. New European Astronomy Journalism Prize launched. A new journalism competition to capture and promote inspirational coverage of astronomy was launched on Thursday 29 March at the National Astronomy Meeting in Manchester. The prize is the ultimate for any astronomy enthusiast - a trip to the European Southern Observatory's (ESO) Very Large Telescope in Chile. Never a week goes by without coming across stories or features on astronomy in the UK media; yet many of the people behind the stories have never had the opportunity to visit the facilities that produce the results they are covering. The Very Large Telescope is the world's most advanced optical instrument, and is located at the Paranal Observatory on Cerro Paranal, a 2,635m mountain in the northern part of Chile. 

Entries into the European Astronomy Journalism Prize must be about astronomy and related areas of technology, or about the work and lifestyles or astronomers, engineers or others working in the field of astronomy. Online, written or broadcast entries are welcome. The competition is being run by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) and European Southern Observatory (ESO, in conjunction with the Association of British Science Writers and the Royal Astronomical Society. It is open for entries from Monday 2 April 2012 until Friday 27 July 2012. Works must have appeared in English and in the UK, between 1 July 2011 and 30 June 2012 inclusive to be eligible. They must reflect European interests. A full list of terms and conditions can be found at www.stfc.ac.uk/astroprize and at www.eso.org/public/astroprize

11. "God, Science and Global Warming".  An Audience with Sir John Houghton CBE FRS. 7.45pm, Tuesday 15th May 2012, The Market Place Theatre, Armagh. (Prof Mark Bailey asked me to circulate this, which may be of interest even though it's not strictly astronomy)
    Sir John Houghton, former co-chair of the Scientific Assessment Working Group of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will speak on "God, Science and Global Warming". This will be followed by a discussion chaired by BBC Presenter Mark Carruthers with questions and contributions from the audience.
  Members of the Panel will include Father Timothy Bartlett (author of the pastoral reflection on climate change "The Cry of the Earth"), Professor Valerie Hall (Emeritus Professor of Palaeoecology at Queen's University Belfast) and Michael Nugent (Chairman of Atheist Ireland).  With Sir John as the keynote speaker and with such a group of experts this promises to be an enjoyable and enlightening evening.
   The ticket price of £7.50 (+ £1 online booking fee) includes light refreshments at 7.00pm and there are afternoon tours of Armagh City's main attractions, and packages for overnight stays.  Book online at
http://www.marketplacearmagh.com/whats-on/an-audience-with-sir-john-houghton-cbe-frs/
  To learn more about the event and opportunities to experience Armagh City visit http://www.armaghu3a.org/?p=492, and http://www.armagh.co.uk/.

12. TITANIC STARS (the celestial ones). If you intend to see the new 3-d version of Titanic, you'll be glad to know that an astronomical error in the original version has now been corrected - the only change that director Cameron made. See:http://gawker.com/5898584/james-cameron-alters-titanic-in-nerdiest-way-possible?utm_campaign=socialflow_gawker_twitter&utm_source=gawker_twitter&utm_medium=socialflow

13. VENUS continues to blaze in the evening twilight sky - a real celestial beacon! It is now approaching its greatest brilliancy, and shows a distinct crescent phase in a small telescope. The phase is currently about 40%, and gradually decreasing as it moves inexorably towards its transit across the face of the Sun on 6 June. More on that in a later bulletin.

14 TWITTER: the IAA now has a twitter account. twitter@IaaAstro

15. BBC THINGS TO DO WEBSITE: See the forthcoming IAA events on  

http://www.bbc.co.uk/thingstodo

 

16. JOINING the IRISH ASTRONOMICAL ASSOCIATION is now even easier: This link downloads a Word document to join the IAA. http://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.  See also www.irishastro.org. 

 

Clear skies,

Terry Moseley

8 Sisters, 2 Lectures, Lidl Binos, Cosmos, SKA Computer, SAN, ISS, BCO, BigPrize

Hi all,

  

1.  The 'Eight Sisters' - Venus in the Pleiades. On Tuesday evening, 3 April, the famous Seven Sisters, properly known as the Pleiades Star Cluster, will be joined by brilliant planet Venus. Venus will be so much brighter than the stars of the cluster that it will be difficult to see some of the fainter ones with the naked eye, but binoculars or a small telescope will reveal a beautiful sight.

    Venus will actually pass through the SE edge of the cluster, and it will be closest to the centre during our daylight on Tuesday, but it will still be within the cluster itself as twilight begins on Tuesday evening.

  Have a go with a camera if you have one, though you will need either a good zoom lens or else take a shot through a telescope, or even binoculars mounted on a tripod.

 

2. IAA LECTURE, 4 April: (N.B. This is a change from what is in the programme card) The Astronomical Association's next public lecture will be given by John Flannery, of the SDAS: Title: "The Outer Limits: Exploring the Outer Solar System". WEDNESDAY 4 April, at 7.30 p.m., in the Bell Lecture Theatre, Physics Building, Queen's University, Belfast.  Synopsis: "For thousands of years we only knew of the classical planets out as far as Saturn. That all changed in 1781 when William Herschel discovered the planet Uranus and at a stroke doubled the then-known size of the Solar System. Neptune soon joined the planet club while Pluto had a brief membership during the 20th century.

    Astronomers have found though that the outer solar system is a far more dynamic place than was originally thought with various classes of asteroid-sized bodies now catalogued, while Pluto itself is just one of a collection of similar sized objects. The talk will classify the members of the outer solar system, what research is currently taking place, speculate on future discoveries, and detail why Pluto was demoted from planet status."

 

3.  Lidl Binocular offer: 10 - 30 x 60 binocs. Lidl will be doing a special offer of moderately powerful zoom binoculars from Thursday 5 April. Price in NI = £18.99, or €19.99 in ROI. The only details I have at present are the basic specification, which is zoom range of 10-30, with 60mm objectives. No makers name is given, but their optical products are usually made in China, to a reasonable degree of quality. Zoom binoculars are not idea for astronomy, as they tend to have a small field of view, and once you increase the magnification above about 10 or 12, they really need to be mounted on a tripod. But at that price they would be really good value if the quality is OK. I will try to find out more asap.

 

4. COSMOS 2012: The Midlands Astronomy Club present their very popular annual star party, at Annaharvey Farm, just outside Tullamore, Co Offaly, on the W/E of 13-15 April.  Speakers include:

- Thierry Legault, world-renowned French astrophotographer
- Girvan McKay, Midlands Astronomy Club
- Eamon Ansbro, Kingsland Observatory, Roscommon
- Kevin Berwick, Dublin
- Dermot Gannon, Midlands Astronomy Club
- Apostolos Christou, Armagh Observatory
- Lawrence Rigney, Midlands Astronomy Club
More details are available on the website www.midlandsastronomy.com

 

5. IBM building most powerful computer in history to unravel origin of the universe
  The machine will process more than an 'exabyte' of data every day - more than the entire internet, and enough to fill 15 million 64GB iPods every day. It will be more powerful than a million of today's fastest PCs. It will be attached to the SKA, a huge radio telescope built to 'see back' to the dawn of universe 13 billion years ago. It will output 100 times more information than Large Hadron Collider. See

IBM building most powerful computer in history - which it hopes it will unravel origin of the universe | Mail Online

 

6. The Sky at Night: Celebrating 55 years of The Sky at Night, Sir Patrick Moore, FRS, and his team go on a journey to the ends of the universe.

Mon 11:35pm BBC 1 Northern Ireland (20 mts)
Thu 7:30pm BBC FOUR (30 mts)
Fri 12:00am BBC FOUR (30 mts)
Fri 12:00am BBC HD (30 mts)
Sat 12:00pm BBC 2 Northern Ireland (20 Mts)
Sun 12:45am BBC FOUR (30 Mts)

 

6. ISS The International Space Station continues its series of morning passes until April 12. Details for your own location, and lots of other useful information such as Iridium Flares, are on the free site www.heavens-above.com

 

7. Blackrock Castle Observatory, Cork: The varied events programme continues in April with something for all ages, and note that booking for their annual space camp, which runs from July 13 to 27, is now open. See www.bco.ie

8. Brand new European Astronomy Journalism Prize launched. A new journalism competition to capture and promote inspirational coverage of astronomy was launched on Thursday 29 March at the National Astronomy Meeting in Manchester. The prize is the ultimate for any astronomy enthusiast - a trip to the European Southern Observatory's (ESO) Very Large Telescope in Chile.

Never a week goes by without coming across stories or features on astronomy in the UK media; yet many of the people behind the stories have never had the opportunity to visit the facilities that produce the results they are covering. The Very Large Telescope is the world's most advanced optical instrument, and is located at the Paranal Observatory on Cerro Paranal, a 2,635m mountain in the northern part of Chile. 

Entries into the European Astronomy Journalism Prize must be about astronomy and related areas of technology, or about the work and lifestyles or astronomers, engineers or others working in the field of astronomy. Online, written or broadcast entries are welcome.

The competition is being run by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) and European Southern Observatory (ESO, in conjunction with the Association of British Science Writers and the Royal Astronomical Society. It is open for entries from Monday 2 April 2012 until Friday 27 July 2012. Works must have appeared in English and in the UK, between 1 July 2011 and 30 June 2012 inclusive to be eligible. They must reflect European interests. A full list of terms and conditions can be found at www.stfc.ac.uk/astroprize and at www.eso.org/public/astroprize

9. "God, Science and Global Warming".  An Audience with Sir John Houghton CBE FRS. 7.45pm, Tuesday 15th May 2012, The Market Place Theatre, Armagh. (Prof Mark Bailey asked me to circulate this, which may be of interest even though it's not strictly astronomy)
    Sir John Houghton, former co-chair of the Scientific Assessment Working Group of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will speak on "God, Science and Global Warming". This will be followed by a discussion chaired by BBC Presenter Mark Carruthers with questions and contributions from the audience.
  Members of the Panel will include Father Timothy Bartlett (author of the pastoral reflection on climate change "The Cry of the Earth"), Professor Valerie Hall (Emeritus Professor of Palaeoecology at Queen's University Belfast) and Michael Nugent (Chairman of Atheist Ireland).  With Sir John as the keynote speaker and with such a group of experts this promises to be an enjoyable and enlightening evening.
   The ticket price of £7.50 (+ £1 online booking fee) includes light refreshments at 7.00pm and there are afternoon tours of Armagh City's main attractions, and packages for overnight stays.  Book online at
http://www.marketplacearmagh.com/whats-on/an-audience-with-sir-john-houghton-cbe-frs/
  To learn more about the event and opportunities to experience Armagh City visit http://www.armaghu3a.org/?p=492, and http://www.armagh.co.uk/.

10. TWITTER: the IAA now has a twitter account. twitter@IaaAstro

11. BBC THINGS TO DO WEBSITE: See the forthcoming IAA events on  

http://www.bbc.co.uk/thingstodo

 

12. JOINING the IRISH ASTRONOMICAL ASSOCIATION is now even easier: This link downloads a Word document to join the IAA. http://irishastro.org.uk/iaamembership.doc.  See also www.irishastro.org. 

 

Clear skies,

Terry Moseley