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The 40th Annual General Meeting – 16th April

Wednesday 16th April marks the date of the 40th 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.
 
The evening will finish with a Bring and Buy sale and telescope Clinic, so if you have any pieces of gear you don't use any more that could be useful to someone else, bring them along, and if you have some kit that you need some advice using, bring that along too!

IAA Lecture; 2nd April : Dr Steve Myers (CERN) – “The LHC and the Discovery of the Higgs Boson”

The IAA is delighted to announce that the lecture on 2nd April will be given by Dr Steve Myers, Director of Accelerators at CERN. Dr Myers is a graduate of QUB where he studied Engineering, and went on to be Head of the section of CERN dealing with all the big particle accelerators, including the Large Hadron Collider. In other words, without him, they wouldn't have discovered the Higgs Boson!

The lecture is free and open to all, including free refreshments. Venue: the Bell Lecture Theatre, Physics Building, Queen's University, Belfast, at 7.30 p.m.
 
Thanks to the Astrophysics Research Centre, QUB, for help in hosting these lectures.

IAA Lecture – Dr Stefano Bagnulo, Armagh Observatory “Remote Sensing by Polarimetry”

Dr Stefano Bagnulo is an astronomer working at Armagh Observatory. He and his team are carrying out pioneering work that makes it easier to detect signs of life on other planets by filtering out the overwhelming light form the parent star. In this lecture Dr Bagnulo will explain how it's done and what it means for the future of exoplanet expoloration.

The lecture is free and open to all, including free refreshments. Venue: the Bell Lecture Theatre, Physics Building, Queen's University, Belfast, at 7.30 p.m.
 
Thanks to the Astrophysics Research Centre, QUB, for help in hosting these lectures.

IAA Lecture – 5th March, Dave Grennan- “Making Your Own Telescope”

Dave Grennan has been an amateur astronomer for over 35 years. In 2006 Dave built his own private observatory in his backyard in Raheny, North Dublin, for the purpose of conducting astronomical science. In recent years Dave's research has resulted in a number of new discoveries including two main belt asteroids and two supernovae.
 
In this presentation Dave will provide an overview of the equipment which underpins his research.  Dave will explain how the main telescope was recently replaced with a homebuilt 14" astrograph.  The new telescope was founded around a wide field 14" telescope mirror which Dave ground and polished himself. Dave will outline the process of making this mirror and show that undertaking such a project is well within the capabilities of everyone.   The talk will conclude with an overview of his current research and future research plans.
 
Note this is a change to the previously arranged talk – Carl O'Beirnes will talk to us another time. We are very grateful to Dave for stepping in at short notice.
 
The lecture is free and open to all, including free refreshments. Venue: the Bell Lecture Theatre, Physics Building, Queen's University, Belfast, at 7.30 p.m.
 
Thanks to the Astrophysics Research Centre, QUB, for help in hosting these lectures.

Aurora Borealis 27th February – Pictures

Sunspot AR1944 caused something of a stir in early January as it unleashed the most promising Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) of the current season toward Earth just in time for our Stargazing Live evening! Sadly, it missed and we didn't get the Northern lights that evening. The sunspot lived on however and reappeared as AR1967 and incredibly returned again as AR1990. Just as it appeared around the limb it let go with an X4.2 flare – huge but not Earth directed, we were only expecting a glancing blow. But the Earth's magnetic field was very favourable, and we got a good display – even the weather was good!

Pictures of the event are available in our gallery here……

IAA Lecture, 19th February, Dr Ken Smith QUB, – “Sifting the Sky with Pan-STARRS 1; Crunching the Data from the World’s Largest Operational Digital Camera”

Pan-STARRS — the Panoramic Survey Telescope & Rapid Response System — is an innovative design for a wide-field imaging facility developed at the University of Hawaii's Institute for Astronomy.
 
The combination of relatively small mirrors with very large digital cameras results in an economical observing system that can observe the entire available sky several times each month.
 
These cameras produce a literally astronomical amount of data and among those tasked with sorting it all out is QUB's very own Dr Ken Smith who will explain how he does it!
 
The lecture is free and open to all, including free refreshments. Venue: the Bell Lecture Theatre, Physics Building, Queen's University, Belfast, at 7.30 p.m.
 
Thanks to the Astrophysics Research Centre, QUB, for help in hosting these lectures.

QUB/IAA Michael West Lecture – Prof Gerry Gilmore – “GAIA mission and the origin of the Milky Way”

Prof. Gerry Gilmore will give the Michael West Spring 2014 lecture on "GAIA mission and the origin of the Milky Way".

Please note the following:-

This lecture will take place in the Larmor Theatre accessed by the West side of the Physics Dept towards the Whitla Hall

Also, this meeting commences at 7pm, not our normal 7:30pm!

If you are an IAA member you need only say so on the door, however if you are not a member you need to register here…

22nd January – IAA Lecture -“NI Space: Developing the Space Sector and Opportunities in the Province” by Robert Hill, Northern Ireland Space Office

InvestNI, the Regional Business Development Agency for Northern Ireland, has appointed Robert Hill as the Space Sector Industry Champion to the province.
 
Robert's role will be to assist InvestNI in advancing sectoral knowledge and development of opportunities for NI companies to become involved in upstream and downstream space sector activities.
 
As an IAA member we congratulate Robert on this new appointment and look forward to hearing the latest news on the local space industry which he will deliver in thie lecture.
 
The lecture is free and open to all, including free refreshments. Venue: the Bell Lecture Theatre, Physics Building, Queen's University, Belfast, at 7.30 p.m.
 
Thanks to the Astrophysics Research Centre, QUB, for help in hosting these lectures.

 

9th January – BBC Stargazing Live – Ulster Folk Museum, Cultra

A change of venue for this event – to The Ulster Folk and Transport Museum, Cultra. Running from 5pm-10pm, this evening includes a full range of events – see the night sky through telescopes guided by expert members of the IAA, Stardome shows provided by the IAA and Armagh Planetarium, ask questions of professional astronomers from QUB, comet making and activities by W5 and others!

The full programme of events is available as a PDF download here….http://documents.irishastro.org.uk/sgl2014.pdf

Outdoor events are of course weather dependent but we are hoping for clear skies so do wear warm clothes including hats, gloves and scarves.