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Event

Lecture Weds 15th Feb – Dr Michele Bannister, QUB “Icy Wonders of the Outer Solar System”

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Recent discoveries are revealing intricate structure in the populations of tiny icy worlds that orbit far beyond Neptune. Surveys with some of the world’s largest telescopes are mapping the depths of this vast region. With the >800 discoveries from the Outer Solar System Origins Survey, we are writing the history of how our Solar System was sculpted into shape by the migration of Neptune and the other giant planets. I’ll also discuss the few known extreme orbits in this region, and whether they hint at the elusive presence of a distant giant Planet Nine.
 
Dr Bannister is an expert on these mysterious worlds, from 'ex-planet Pluto', to Eris, Haumea, Sedna, Makemake and Quaor and many others
 
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.
Photo

ISS Lunar Transit Photographed from Sprucefield

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IAA President Paul Evans has successfully imaged a transit of the International Space Station (ISS) from Northern Ireland. Using information provided by the website Calsky.org, Paul determined that Sprucefield near Lisburn would be on the centreline of the transit which would take place after the ISS had passed Venus and Mars and moved into Earth's shadow. It so happened that the sky was clear if slightly hazy so an attempt was made. Paul used his Celestron ED 80 telescope with Lumix G7 camera at prime focus in 4K video mode, taking 25 8 megapixel images every second. From the video it was found that 11 frames had the ISS on the illuminated part of the Moon  and these were stacked up Using Starstax software to produce the image below. (Click for Full Size)

ISS Moon Transit

Event

Lecture Weds 1st Feb: ‘All Craters Great and Small’ , by Dr Mike Simms, Ulster Museum

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Fewer then 200 impact craters are currently known on Earth but others must lie hidden beneath younger rocks. At Meteor Crater, in Arizona, the classic example of an impact crater, Mike will explain how careful detective work over many decades led to the realisation, firstly, that all is not what it seems, and ultimately gave rise to an understanding of some of the Meteor Crater enigmas.
 
Closer to home, Mike will describe how a chance discovery made on holiday led to the discovery (maybe) of the only impact crater known in the UK, represented by a gravity anomaly beneath the Scottish Highlands. However, reanalysis of the gravity data suggests that the crater was much larger than originally thought, indeed too big to fit in the space available. Can this problem be resolved? 
 
Mike is an acknowledged expert on meteorites and impacts, so this promises to be a really fascinating lecture – not to be missed!
 
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. 
 
Event

“Heavens Above” at Island Arts Centre, Lisburn until Thurs 9th February

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Currently exhibiting at the Island Arts Centre, Lisburn, "Heavens Above is the IAA's travelling astrophotography exhibition.
 
 
Covering a range of subject matter from the mysterious clouds of the Milky Way, through the electric colours of the Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) down to the detailed capture of time-critical celestial events such as Solar and Lunar eclipses, this exhibition is a must see for anyone with an interest in the sky above us.
 
Some of the pictures in this exhibition have been taken with specialist equipment from exotic locations in order to capture the very best starlight possible, however many others have also been captured from ordinary locations in Northern Ireland using off the shelf photographic equipment that many people would use for holiday snapshots. It is a measure of how far modern technology has come that such equipment is also able to capture such fabulous images in very low light.
 
Included in “Heavens Above” are category winners of the International Astronomy Photographer of the Year Competition organised by the Royal Greenwich Observatory in London, and also the recent winner of Amateur Astrophotography Ezine’s “Milky Way” competition.
 
The exhibition is open 0930-2200 Mon-Fri and 0930-1700 Sat and admission is free to all.
 
 
Event

Lecture 18th January – Dr Kate Maguire, QUB, “Cosmic Lighthouses: Supernovae and the Dark Universe”

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Supernovae mark the explosive deaths of some stars at the end of their lives. These incredibly bright explosions can be seen to great distances in the Universe. Supernovae were essential to the unexpected discovery that the expansion rate of the Universe is accelerating, invoking the presence of the mysterious and unexplained quantity, dark energy. I will describe what we know (and don’t know) about these stellar explosions, and how future transient surveys plan to use them to uncover the nature of dark energy.
 
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. 
 
Event

Lecture 4th January 2017 – Prof Mike Burton, Director, Armagh Observatory & Planetarium – “Galactic Explorers – Mapping the Molecular Gas of the Southern Milky Way”

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Professor Mike Burton has recently taken on the Directorship of Armagh Observatory and the Planetarium bringing both bodies under a single management. Prior to this he spent many years in Australia carrying our research into how stars form and the excitation of the interstellar medium in which this occurs. This makes uses the tools of infrared and millimetre-wave astronomy, measuring the spectral signatures arising from the gas and dust in interstellar molecular clouds.

We are very pleased to welcome Prof Burton to the IAA to talk to us about "Explorers of the Galaxy"

Further details here….

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. 

 

Picture by Bernie Brown

Event

Lecture – Weds 14th Dec – Aoife McCloskey, TCD – “Sunspots and Solar Flares: How can we forecast space weather?”

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One of the most challenging endeavours in modern technological society is predicting the occurrence of adverse space weather conditions in the near-Earth space environment that are hazardous to technology and human life. The main source of adverse space weather is our active star, the Sun. Solar flares are highly energetic events that occur on the Sun, but can directly impact day-to-day technologies in space (e.g. satellites, GPS signals, astronaut radiation) and on Earth (e.g. radio communication).
 
The main scientific questions to answer are when, where and why do these events occur on the Sun? If we can answer these, then we can better prepare for their impact here at Earth. The energy that powers these energetic events is known to come from magnetic energy stored in sunspot groups – dark regions/spots of strong magnetic field on the surface of the Sun. This talk will address the present state of space weather prediction and ongoing research, including using sunspots to predict solar flares, that aims to improve the capabilities of current space weather forecasting. 
 
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.
Event

“Heavens Above” – the IAA’s Astrophotography Exhibition 9th Nov – 27th Dec, Clotworthy Arts Centre, Antrim

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Update: This exhibition is now extended until Tues 27th December so plenty more time to see it!
 
On the morning of Wednesday 9th November, “Heavens Above”, an exhibition of astonishing photographs of the sky taken exclusively by members of the Association, will open to the public. 
 
The exhibition at The Clotworthy Arts Centre, Antrim will run until Sunday 3rd December and admission will be free to all.
 
Covering a range of subject matter from the mysterious clouds of the Milky Way, through the electric colours of the Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) down to the detailed capture of time-critical celestial events such as Solar and Lunar eclipses, this exhibition is a must see for anyone with an interest in the sky above us.
 
Some of the pictures in this exhibition have been taken with specialist equipment from exotic locations in order to capture the very best starlight possible, however many others have also been captured from ordinary locations in Northern Ireland using off the shelf photographic equipment that many people would use for holiday snapshots. It is a measure of how far modern technology has come that such equipment is also able to capture such fabulous images in very low light.
 
Included in “Heavens Above” are category winners of the International Astronomy Photographer of the Year Competition organised by the Royal Greenwich Observatory in London, and also the recent winner of Amateur Astrophotography Ezine’s “Milky Way” competition.
 
In the New Year the Exhibition will move to new venues in Lisburn and Downpatrick.
 
Event

IAA Public Astronomy Outreach Event, Cullyhanna, Co Armagh, Sunday 4th December “Winter Sky Spectacular”. 5 p.m. to about 9.30 p.m

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Join members of the Irish Astronomical Association as they show you the wonders of the winter sky through their powerful telescopes at Cullyhanna Community Centre (Follow link for directions, SatNav BT35 0PZ  and Overhead view – Community Centre marked by red circle http://irishastro.org/cullyhannacc.jpg) on Sunday 4th December.
 
See Venus, Earth's sister planet, and the one closest to Earth, and the brightest object in the night sky after the Moon: it's also known as the beautiful Evening Star.
 
There will also be a lovely crescent moon, with the 'Old Moon in the New Moon's Arms'.
 
And we'll also view mysterious Mars – possibly the abode of simple life forms.
 
Another treat will be a pass over Ireland of the International Space Station – easily visible with your own eyes if you know when and where to look.
 
Then there are all the usual wonders of the winter night sky – the lovely Pleiades or Seven Sisters; the huge Andromeda Galaxy – twice as big as our own Milky Way galaxy, lying at the incredible distance of 2.5 million light years, or about 25 million million million miles! Even at that distance you can see it with your own unaided eyes and we will show you where to look.
 
And there's everyone's favourite constellation: Orion, the Mighty Hunter, with his famous 'Sword', which is actually a gigantic cloud of shining gas and dust, in which stars and planets are being born as we look. Orion's two brightest stars are truly amazing: Betelgeuse is a Red Supergiant, so big that it would engulf the orbits of the three innermost planets in our solar system: Mercury, Venus and Earth! Rigel is not so big, but it's very very hot, and tens of thousands of times brighter than our Sun.
 
And there's much much more all around the night sky, in Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Auriga, the Great Bear, and so on.
 
Even if it's cloudy there will be plenty to interest everyone: We'll have the portable Stardome, kindly loaned by Armagh Planetarium, in which we will give amazing starshows touring the universe from our own Earth to the far reaches of the universe.
 
We'll also have an exhibition of all sorts of interesting things to do with astronomy and space, including a selection of meteorites: rocks which have actually come from outer space to planet Earth.
Event

Lecture – Weds 30th Nov – Dr Wes Fraser (QUB) – “Recent space exploration: small guys take the spotlight”

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In the last few years, we have witnessed a second renaissance in robotic space exploration. Unlike the era of Voyager and Magellan however, the missions that have truly caught the public’s eye have visited the Solar System’s small objects. New Horizons to Pluto, Rosetta to comet 67P, Dawn to Ceres and Vesta, we now have a deep understanding of these small bodies implicating facts about their formation that we are still yet to fully appreciate.
 
Working our way from the asteroid belt outwards, I will give an overview of each mission, including details of the spacecraft, and summarize the astrophysical import of some of the landmark results each mission has produced. Along the way, I will show some of the most spectacular space photos ever taken, and some of social media’s often hilarious reactions to humanity’s latest space explorations.
 
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.