In the early hours of Monday morning – ie late Sunday night – the first Total Lunar Eclipse to be visible from Ireland for several years occurs. The eclipse will be visible from 01:11 to 06:22 although in the firts and last hours there is very little to see in reality. The Moon will be visible 35degrees high in the South at the start of the eclipse and 20 degrees in the West a the end. During totality, the best part, it will be 28 degrees high in the South-West.

Timings for our timezone – British Summer Time (BST) are as follows:-

The view of the Full Moon before 01:11 will be as follows. For photographers, this is an exposure of 1/125th sec ISO 100 f10. Ideally photographs will be taken with a DSLR camera mounted on a driven telescope, however quite good results can be achieved using a modern Superzoom "Bridge" type camera with a 30x or more zoom lens provided it is mounted on a tripod and either a cable release or the self-timer is used to keep it very still. ISO should be set no higher than 400, or 800 at a pinch during the totality if it is very dark, and exposure needs to be manually controlled – see the guidance figures by the pictures below.

This is the same camera exposure part way through the Partial phase of the eclipse. Note that the Penumbral shadow has considerably darkened the visible portion of the Moon.

This exposure has been increased to show the part of the Moon in shadow, completely overexposing the Penumbral area. The exposure time has been increased to 2 seconds – ie 250 times as much as the previous picture.

Note the bluish band here – this is believed to be result of refraction of sunlight through Ozone in the upper atmosphere of the Earth.

Next we have the Totality. Exposure here is equivalent to 20 seconds – 2500 times that of the uneclipsed Moon. A similar exposure could be achieved with a camera lens set to 2 seconds at f5.6 with ISO 400 or 1 second with ISO 800. This would reduce any blurriness due to the rotation of the Earth.

Unlike the Solar Eclipse earlier in the year, there are no particular safety considerations such as eye protection. Also, there is much more time to enjoy the spectacle – a Total Solar Eclipse is much more spectacular, but it is over in a couple of minutes. The totality here lasts well over an hour!

Enjoy!

Professor Ignas Snellen (Leiden Observatory, Leiden University)

Exoplanets and the search for extraterrestrial life

Thursday 27th August, 7:30pm
Larmor Lecture Theatre, QUB
Free Admission

REGISTER HERE TO RESERVE YOUR SEATS

A true revolution is unfolding in the study of planets orbiting other stars than the Sun. Soon we can start to search for life on planets like Earth. Do we know what to look for, and what to expect?

Professor Ignas Snellen from Leiden University is a world leading expert on the study of exoplanet atmospheres using ground-based telescopes. 

We expect this lecture to be very popular and seats will fill up quickly, so please register as soon as possible to avoid disappointment. More info on our Michael West Lecture wiki page.

With the Moon notably absent, this year's Perseid Meteor shower shows every chance of being an excellent one.

The shower is caused by the Earth passing through the debris trail of Comet 109P Swift-Tuttle which orbits the Sun with a 130 year period. The meteors hit the Earh's atmosphere comparitively fast, aprroximately 35 miles/sec or 120,000 mph and burn up at a height of around 50 miles. This year we are expecting a Zenithal Hourly Rate (ZHR) of around 100 which is good.

We have chosen Weds 12th August for this event this year – it is actually the best night in terms of expected meteor numbers and the weather looks as if we might at least see something. Meet at 8:00pm for the Barbeque with observing from 10:30pm onwards.

The next popular IAA solar outreach day will be on Sunday 2nd August. 2.00 to 5.00. All the usual attractions – solar observing if clear, telescope display, meteorites to handle, exhibition of space & astronomy items. 'Telescope fixit service'. And of course the ever popular starshows by IAA members.

Here's the news many astronomers have been waiting for since November – As Comet 67P Churyumov-Gerasimenko has moved closer to The Sun, the solar panels on the Philae Lander have been able to generate enough electricity to wake the lander up! We await further news with bated breath!

Following a successful AGM we now have a New Council in place for the coming year – see here………

Following the deliberations of a sub-committee of the council, the decision was made to award the Aidan P Fitzgerald Memorial Medal this year. 

The Aidan P. Fitzgerald Memorial Medal is the prestigious award of the Irish Astronomical Association, and is named in memory of one of its leading members back in the 40's and 50's. It is presented not more than once per year for "Outstanding Service to the Association" to someone usually, but not necessarily in a Council post.

The sub-committee had a difficult task as there were a number of members who have contributed outstanding work over the past year, and indeed years, but there could be only one award, so congratulations are due to Tony Kempston!

Tony mentioned in his acceptance speech that this award is of course for his family whose contribution to the Association is immense, so congratulations to all of the Kempston family!

Many Thanks are also due to outgoing President Terry Moseley BEM – it will be a long time before a President retires after his 10th year again!

Incoming President Paul Evans said "I'd like to thank Terry for an excellent year and I'm looking forward to taking up the challenge again for my third year leading the best organisation for astronomers in the country! We'll be organsing a summer programme as well as another top lineup of speakers for the new season, and perhaps more new events too!"