As Satirday looks to be a washout, some will be heading to Delamont from 9pm onwards.
http://irishastro.org/location
Good Luck and enjoy!
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Total Lunar Eclipse, Friday 27th July – Scrabo Tower and Knockagh Memorial – CANCELLED
UPDATE: Weather – Cloud now 100% – Event Cancelled
Some call it a ‘Blood Moon’, but it’s actually the effect of a Total Lunar Eclipse, when the Moon turns a reddish colour – anywhere from orange to a deep crimson. And the fascinating thing is that we can’t tell in advance just how red it will be: that depends on the state of our atmosphere at the time.
A lunar eclipse happens when the Sun, Earth and Moon line up exactly in a straight line, and thus the Moon passes into the shadow of the Earth as it orbits around it.
This will be the first Total Lunar Eclipse (TLE) visible from Ireland since 28 Sep 2015. It will be the longest TLE of this century, because the Moon will pass almost through the centre of the Earth's shadow, giving a particularly long traverse, although there are other factors too.
However we won’t see all of this eclipse, as the Moon will already be deep in the shadow as it rises above the horizon from Ireland. The maximum of the eclipse occurs at 9.21 pm, but the upper edge of the Moon won’t rise from Belfast until 9.27pm. It will take about 4 minutes more before the whole moon is fully above the horizon,
The total stage of the eclipse will end at 10.13pm, and by then the Moon will have risen to an altitude of only 4 degrees, or just about 8 times its own diameter, above the South East horizon, so to see it properly you must have a really clear view in that direction.
After the total phase when the whole of the Moon is in the Earth’s shadow, it starts to gradually emerge from the shadow, and this marks the Partial phase of the eclipse. That will end at 11.19pm, when the whole Moon has passed out of the darkest central part of the Earth’s shadow. It will then pass slowly through the faint outer penumbral shadow, but this is barely noticeable to the casual observer.
So you need to get as clear a view to the SE as possible, where the Moon will be deepest in eclipse as it rises.
Since by definition Full Moon is exactly opposite to the Sun in the sky, that means that there will still be bright twilight as the Moon rises, because the Sun will only just have set in the opposite part of the sky. And as the Moon may be a faint dull red colour, it may not be visible to the naked eye at first! Use binoculars if you have them to give you a better chance to spot it while it is still low down..
THE GOOD NEWS!
The IAA will hold TWO PUBLIC VIEWING EVENTS for this eclipse, starting at 9.15 p.m:
A: at Knockagh War Memorial Monument on the hill overlooking Greenisland, Co. Antrim, and
B. at the car park on Scrabo Hill, near Newtownards.
Both these locations have an excellent view to the SE, across Belfast Lough, and Strangford Lough, respectively. We will have a selection of telescopes and binoculars to give the best possible view of the eclipse, advice on how to photograph it; to look at Mars which will be at its closest to Earth since 2003; and to answer all your questions about eclipses, and astronomy generally.
MORE GOOD NEWS – we will also be treated to a very bright pass of the International Space Station just after 11 p.m. – that can be seen from anywhere in the country, but we will give you an informed running commentary on it.
IAA Midsummer BBQ, Sat 23rd June, at Armagh Planetarium
We are delighted to be able to confirm that the annual barbecue will again take place in the coach car park at Armagh Planetarium. We will be setting up from 3 p.m., and attending the Planetarium show at 4.00, “We are stars” (optional, the group rate admission charge of £7.50 per adult less 10% applies).
Please let Terry Moseley terrymosel@aol.com know BY RETURN if you will be attending the Planetarium show and how many in your group, so he can book seats.
For the BBQ, it’s the usual format – bring all your own consumables, cutlery, chairs etc if you want them – we supply the cooking facilities.
Terry will also conduct a tour of the Astropark, Hill of Infinity, Human Orrery, and the outside of the telescope domes.
Solar observing if clear.
We hope to see lots of you there.
New IAA Council elected
We had an excellent AGM+ night at the IAA with a brilliant talk on The European Solar Telescope Project by Dr Ada Ortiz followed by the AGM.
The new Council was elected with Brian Beesley taking over from Paul Evans as President. Paul had served as President for 5 of the previous 6 years during a period of continued growth for the Association.
The Aidan Fitzgerald Award was presented to IAAmember and Professional Photographer Bernie Brown for her fantastic work on the Images of Starlight and Heavens Above Astrophotography exhibitions.
From the left, Pat O'Neill, Tony Kempston, Adam Jeffers, Danny Collins, Fitzgerald Medal Winner Bernie Brown, outgoing President Paul Evans, Terry Moseley and incoming President Brian Beesley
Solar Lecture and Annual General Meeting – Weds 18th April
Wednesday 18th April marks the date of the 44th Annual General Meeting of the Association. The purposes of the meeting are to review the activities of the past year, elect a new Council for the coming year and for the Council to receive feedback from the membership on how they – that’s you – would like to see the Association develop.
We have also had a sub-committee sitting to decide whether or not the prestigious Aidan P Fitzgerald Award should be awarded this year, and if so, who the recipient should be.
This award is given no more than once a year for “Outstanding Service to the Association” and is named after one of the leading members of the Association in the 1940s and 50s.
This year we are re-arranging the order of events in order to allow and custom url on youtube very special guest to speak to us prior to the formal business.
TITLE: “The Eye of the Giant: Solving the Sun’s mysteries with the European Solar Telescope”
Let’s be honest: the Sun, when compared to other stars, is a pretty mediocre star. It is not very big, it is not very small. It is not very hot, it is not very cold. And it is in the middle of its life. But it is our own star, the one that gives us light and warmth, the star that gives us life. Life in planet Earth would not be possible without our Sun. In this talk we will travel through the wonders of our very own nuclear reactor. I will talk about how Earth — and indeed all of us — interacts with the Sun, about the so-called Space Weather, about the internal workings of the star and about what we still do not know about it. After one hundred years since the discovery of magnetic field in the Sun by George Ellery Hale, still many questions remain unanswered. In this context, the European Solar Telescope mega-project will help scientists to extract the smallest details of the Sun’s atmosphere and, hopefully, to give an answer to some of the long standing mysteries that surround the Sun. I will end the talk by giving a first hand insight on this 4-meter class european solar telescope that will use tomorrow’s technology to bring the Sun a little bit closer to us. Click here and check maid service paramus nj near me
Dr Ada Ortiz is a researcher at the Rosseland Centre for Solar Physics of the University of Oslo. As a teenager, she loved Astronomy and wondering about what’s out there, and she would do whatever it takes to become a real astronomer. That’s why she took a BSc and a PhD in Physics at the University of Barcelona and became a Solar Physicist. Her PhD thesis was finalist for the AGU’s Scarf Award in 2004.
The topic of her PhD thesis was the variations on the observed solar irradiance due to magnetic activity present on the solar surface. Soon Ada moved towards observations of the Sun at very high spatial resolution and whatever spectropolarimetry techniques could tell us about the physical properties of the Sun’s atmosphere and its magnetism at the finest scales. Now she is focusing on the process of emergence of the magnetic field from the interior of the Sun upwards into the solar outer atmosphere and its effects in the Sun’s activity.
Her job has taken her to living in different places: the Rocky Mountains in Colorado (USA) for her first postdoc, Oslo (Norway), Granada (Spain) and now back to Oslo.
Ada is heavily involved in the European Solar Telescope project. She is a member of the EST Scientific Advisory Group (that will decide on the scientific questions to be tackled with EST) and has also an education & outreach component in her appointment as the scientific responsible for EST communications in Oslo.
When Ada is not scrutinizing the Sun, she can be found diving, skiing, or just enjoying the pleasures of life.
All are welcome, though of course only paid up members are eligible to vote on business matters. Doors open about 7.15pm. There is free parking available on the campus in the evenings. Admission Free, including light refreshments. We are located in the Bell Theatre, Department of Mathematics and Physics, QUB – details here……
With thanks to the Astrophysics Research Centre, QUB, for assistance with this event.
Lecture Weds 4th April – Daniel Williams (Univ of Glasgow) – “The Universe is full of noises: A new perspective from gravitational waves”
In September 2015 the Advanced LIGO detectors in the USA made the first detection of gravitational waves from two black holes colliding at close to the speed of light. This discovery was the first astrophysical result to come from a century of theoretical and experimental efforts to take the predictions of Einstein's General Relativity to build a new field of observational astronomy.
In the past few years LIGO and other gravitational wave observatories around the world have continued to make new discoveries, including GW170817, the first detection of a binary neutron star coalescence, in August 2017, which was accompanied by observations from fifty electromagnetic observatories. This talk will cover a little of the history of the development of gravitational wave astronomy (and the part that the University of Glasgow had in it), and give you an insider's view on the recent observations which we've made, and on what we believe the future holds for gravitational astronomy.
Doors open about 7.15pm. There is free parking available on the campus in the evenings. Admission Free, including light refreshments. We are located in the Bell Theatre, Department of Mathematics and Physics, QUB – details here……
With thanks to the Astrophysics Research Centre, QUB, for assistance with this event.
Lecture Weds 21st March – First Contact: Uncovering An Interstellar Visitor.” – Prof Alan Fitzsimmons, QUB
On 19 October 2017 an Interstellar Object was spotted passing through our Solar system, the first of its kind to be discovered. With little warning, astronomers had only a few days to study it before it became too faint for detailed investigation, even when using the world’s largest telescopes. Studies revealed a body that matched some of our expectations, but that differed significantly in other aspects. This talk will cover how it was discovered, and what we have learned so far.
Doors open about 7.15pm. There is free parking available on the campus in the evenings. Admission Free, including light refreshments. We are located in the Bell Theatre, Department of Mathematics and Physics, QUB – details here……
With thanks to the Astrophysics Research Centre, QUB, for assistance with this event.
Lecture Weds 7th March – “Mars Sample Return technology: development and testing in Antarctica” – Dr Patrick Harkness, Univ of Glasgow
Planetary drilling is more difficult than drilling on Earth. Low gravity reduces the possible weight-on-bit, and freezing conditions can seize the bit downhole. Furthermore, to reach any depth, it will be necessary to assemble the drillstring in-situ, which is a challenging task for robotic systems.
This talk will discuss a recently-concluded technology development programme which created a testbed for a range of low-force drilling and sample caching systems, before testing those systems at a field analogue site in Antarctica. Interestingly, because polar exploration also requires low-force drilling in freezing conditions, the technology is currently being spun out to the British Antarctic Survey, find the best computer support san diego ca.
We are now working to deploy a larger version back to West Antarctica, as part of a scientific sampling programme, as early as January 2019. The lessons learned from this programme, in turn, will inform research with respect to larger-scale planetary drilling in the future.
Doors open about 7.15pm. There is free parking available on the campus in the evenings. Admission Free, including light refreshments. We are located in the Bell Theatre, Department of Mathematics and Physics, QUB – details here……
With thanks to the Astrophysics Research Centre, QUB, for assistance with this event.
IAA Warmup talk 21st February 2018
News, the Sun, the Moon, the Stars and an Introduction to Erin Higgins, all in 20 minutes!
Lecture Weds 21st February 7:30pm – Erin Higgins (AOP) – “The Life of a Cosmic Rockstar”
The stellar giants of our universe are notorious for their drastic lifestyles : live fast, die young. Burning up to hundreds of times the mass of our Sun, these stars produce the heaviest elements in the natural universe. Though they are born in a stellar nursery like all stars, their violent deaths can shine brighter than entire galaxies.
In this lecture we will travel through the lives and possible fates of the most massive stars in the universe. Taking a look back in time from Einstein to the early universe, we will discover what it takes to become a massive star that may one day evolve into a black hole. Ultimately exploring the most recent detections of black hole and neutron star mergers through the wonder of gravitational waves.
Doors open about 7.15pm. There is free parking available on the campus in the evenings. Admission Free, including light refreshments. We are located in the Bell Theatre, Department of Mathematics and Physics, QUB – details here……
With thanks to the Astrophysics Research Centre, QUB, for assistance with this event.