Our meeting on 9th January will feature a lecture by by Prof Phil Dufton of QUB: "Forty-five Years in Astronomy".
Prof Dufton, who has given us several fascinating lectures before, has had a long and varied career in astronomy, and has seen some amazing changes in what we know, or think we know, about the universe. That promises to be a very interesting and informative talk.
It will be at 7.30 p.m. in the Bell Lecture Theatre, Physics Building, QUB.
This year's New Year Party will be held on Saturday 5th January. We start with a buffet meal at McBrides restaurant in The Square, Comber, followed by a special private screening of a film in the local Tudor private cinema. Meet at McBrides at about 5.30 p.m. for 6.0. p.m. The film will be "Men in Black 3". This film has a rating of PG-13, so parental discretion is advised regarding any children.
We will also have free refreshments at the Tudor Cinema, including Terry's notorious seasonal punch (notorious because no-one else can make one like it!), tea & coffee, and soft drinks. We will also have George's entertaining and challenging quiz. You MUST book in advance, by 28th December: £15 per adult. Download the flyer and form here…
On Wednesday 12th of December we have a very special topical night with three of our Council members taking the stage.
First up, Terry Moseley will give his account of the recent Total Solar Eclipse in Australia. Terry will be followed by Andy McCrea who saw the eclipse from a different vantage point and managed to take some excellent photographs of the event.
After this, David Collins will give us a short introduction to his new book, "The Star of Bethlehem". This is a preview of his main talk which will be delivered at Stormont on Friday 14th December.
This promises to be a power packed evening with plenty of fun to bring 2012 to an end with a bang!
It is with great sadness that we have to announce the passing away of Sir Patrick Moore who died peacefully in his sleep at his home in Selsey today, 9th December 2012 aged 89. Here is a personal tribute by IAA Past President Terry Moseley….
I was lucky enough to be living in Armagh when Patrick, as he then was, arrived to be Director of the newly announced Planetarium. Having just bought his Observers Book of Astronomy and made a simple 2″ (50mm) refractor, I had then bought 2 kits to grind 8.5″ (21.6cm) mirrors, so I wrote to him for advice. He invited me to call and see him at his house on the Mall, and thus began a lifelong friendship.
Launch of new photograph exhibit, free Christmas show and stargazing
The year 2012 marks the 50th anniversary of when European astronomers headed south, to Chile, determined to build the most powerful ground-based telescopes in the world and founded ESO (European Southern Observatory).
Armagh Planetarium is celebrating this anniversary by launching a new gallery exhibition. Around 40 visually stunning images have been erected with captions, showcasing celestial objects such as galaxies, nebulae, and star clusters as seen by ESO’s observatories, as well as beautiful images of the observatories themselves, which are located in some of the most unusual places on Earth.
Join us for our launch night on Tuesday 4th December 2012 where we will unveil our gallery. You will also have the opportunity to see our Christmas theatre show “Mystery of the Christmas Star” FREE and if the skies are clear we will be observing the wonders of the December night sky.
Please note that spaces for the FREE theatre show are limited so pre-booking is essential. Call us on 028 3752 3689.
6pm – Doors open
7pm – Gallery Launch
7:30pm – Mystery of the Christmas Star Theatre show
8pm – Night sky observing
9pm – Doors close
Our lecture on 28th November will be brought to us by Chiaki Kobayashi. The lecture, entitled "The origin of elements and evolution of galaxies" is described here by Dr Kobayashi in her own words…..
From the observed initial conditions, a snapshot of the Universe at about 300, 000 years after the Big Bang, I am simulating the formation and evolution of galaxies over 13 billion years using a super computer. In the galaxies, stars are born and die, explode as supernovae, and eject heavy elements such as carbon and oxygen, from which human beings are born. Comparing with observations of nearby and distant galaxies, I will summarize what we know about the origin of elements.
Dr Kobayashi was born in Tokyo, Japan, and studied for her undergraduate and PhD at the University of Tokyo. She also worked in Munich, Germany; Canberra, Australia, and is now a Senior Lecturer at University of Hertfordshire.
All are welcome to this lecture – starting 7:30pm sharp in the Bell Lecture Theatre, Queens University, Belfast
We will be Observing with the Mobile Planetarium at Portballintrae Visitors' Centre from 7:30pm onwards on Friday 23rd November. The Forecast is good – a 10 day old Moon and Jupiter will be in the sky with opportunities to see many other objects through our telescopes. Indoors we'll have displays of astronomical paraphernalia and experts on hand to help you set up your telescope, so if you have one and haven't been getting the use you hoped from it, bring it along! As always, all are welcome
Total Eclipse Cairns, Queensland, Australia – 14th November 2012
After checking out the site close to Ellis Beach, roughly 5km north of Palm Cove earlier in the day, my wife Shirley and our fellow umbraphiles, Col and Marcia Maybury headed to Col’s aptly named ‘Hat tree’ beach. The name came from a hat which Col had tied to a tree on an earlier ‘reckie’ visit with his lovely wife Marcia.
When we arrived around 3am we were amazed by the beautifully clear inky black, ‘moonless’, sky with majestic Orion high in the north – but upside down of course! The Southern Milky Way stretched from horizon to horizon, dotted with unfamiliar bright stars and constellations. Sirius was high overhead in the zenith with Canopus further to the south not far from the ‘false cross’ part of Vela and Carina, and Jupiter and the southern polar constellations all easily on view. Low in the south was the famous Southern Cross with the pointers, Alpha and Beta Centauri, below and almost hidden by a palm tree. Over the next few hours, several wide-angle shots of the Milky Way and the southern stars were captured.
Around 4.30am we noticed the sky brightening in the south east and brilliant Venus glared high above the ocean in a clear azure-blue sky. The beach was also the chosen location for fifteen or twenty other eclipse watchers and they set up their camps around us as the eclipse hour approached. To the south was a group of teenagers who had lit a roaring beach fire. The smell of the burning wood and the noise of the breaking surf just a few feet away will stay in our memories forever- an idyllic observing site – and an almost magical sky with temperatures around 23OC – certainly not observing conditions that we are used to.
The sky continued to be largely clear all around as the dawning Sun brightened, but there was an annoying plume of cloud which appeared to be rising from a peak in a small ‘saddle island’ in the bay. As the Sun climbed from the sea, the obscuring cloud was illuminated, burning gold against a blue sky – the scene resembling the plume of an erupting volcano. The cumulus cloud was stubborn and despite most of the rest of the sky being resolutely clear, the cloud remained in front of the Sun as the eclipse began. Minutes ran through quickly as first contact (around 5.35am) passed and then after twenty minutes or so we got our first fleeting glimpse of the Sun with a tiny bite out of its top left-hand edge – the eclipse was happening! The plume of cloud remained stalwartly blocking our view until a moment or so before totality when a break appeared to reveal a thin crescent of silver Sun against an inky black sky. Totality was moments away – suddenly another tiny triangular patch of cloud engulfed the totally eclipsed disk and it obscured our precious scene until at last we were treated to a full view of the totally eclipsed Sun. It seemed as if the clouds had parted and the last puff of cumulus had ben blown away by the watching (and praying!) hoard. No signs of shadow bands and the cloud prevented our usual activity of watching the little eclipsed Sun patterns through the palm leaves. The sky was now twilight dark with several bright stars appearing and Venus clearly back on view. We were deep in the Moon’s shadow and the temperature drop felt evident enough for me to pull on a hooded fleece– the 360o horizon was tinged salmon pink against the violet-blue sky. During totality we could see several red-pink prominences and a section of the pink chromosphere clearly on view on the edge of the disk. It was an amazing sight with the ghostly corona, still mingling with some thin cloud appearing faintly against the inky black sky – in a blink it was over and the spectacularly brilliant diamond ring flash appeared at the Moon’s upper right limb to herald the end of totality and the need to replace the Sun filters and eclipse viewers. The corona was smaller than I had hoped – a clear indication that the solar maximum was beginning to wane. My most memorable event was the flash of the Sun to announce the grand finale of one of nature’s most enthralling events. I observed the Moon’s passage of the Sun in almost totally clear skies and we then proceeded to a breakfast bar in Sheridan Street/Captain Cooke Highway for a celebratory eclipse fry-up!
Cairns was definitely one of my most magical eclipse experiences. Col, Marcia and Cairns provided us with a glorious eclipse in a tropical setting – where will we next stand in the Moon’s shadow?
Footnotes:
The stretch of beach from where we observed was closed the day following the eclipse due to the presence of a four metre ‘Saltie’ or estuarine crocodile. These are extremely dangerous creatures.
Better to see a partial total solar eclipse than a total partial solar eclipse.
At one stage we thought that rather than being an umbraphile we would be umbrellaphiles.
The accepted theory is that the temperature drop during the progressive stages of the eclipse becomes sufficient that additional clothing is required (reference ‘hooded fleece’ above). This was not borne out by some temperature measurements made in Cairns (Kewarra Beach) – the temperature dropped suddenly from 22.450OC at 6.30am to 22.375OC at 6.45am – a difference of only 0.075OC. The impression that the temperature drop is much larger during an eclipse is probably due to the drop in light levels, and also to a possible reduction in humidity which we sense as a chilling of the air. The effect may be influenced by a range of factors including the length of totality, time of eclipse, solar altitude, site conditions and altitude etc.
Our lecture on 14th November concerns the Sun again, but this time from a different perspective. As the Sun emerges from the deepest minimum in a century, some scientists are beginning to suspect that we may be on the verge of another period of low solar activity like the Maunder Minimum. This was a period in the 17th century when the sunspot cycle seemed to be almost put on hold with many fewer sunspots even at the peaks of the 11 year cycle. This brought about "The Little Ice Age" during which Europe and North America had very cold winters. Certain irregularities in the way Solar Cycle 24 is developing look as if we may be about to experience something similar!
Dr Elliott is a leading Irish scientist who until recently worked at Dunsink Observatory. He trained as a solar physicist and spent several years on the research staff of Sacramento Peak Observatory, New Mexico, USA and also took part in site testing for the solar observatory on La Palma in the Canary Islands. He has long been interested in the influence of solar activity on the Earth's climate and has written numerous articles on the history of astronomy in Ireland.
As usual, the meeting starts at 7:30pm sharp in the Bell Theatre at Queens University, Belfast
