From: TerryMoselaol.com
Date: Sat, 5 Mar 2005 14:59:39 EST
Subject: Rosetta, Armagh, Sky At Night, Mercury, ISS, RRS

Hi all,

No Rosetta? I haven't seen or heard of any reports of sightings of the 
Rosetta spacecraft on its close fly-by of Earth last night - did anyone see it?

Armagh: Radio repeat: If you missed Mark McCluney's excellent feature on 
Armagh Observatory etc this morning on Radio Ulster it will be repeated tomorrow 
(Sun) afternoon at 2:30pm. Mark interviewed Professor Mark Bailey (Director of 
the Observatory) and Dr Tom Mason (Director of the Planetarium), and ended 
with a fascinating interview with Professor Jocelyn Bell-Burnell from Portadown, 
discoverer of Pulsars, (who failed her 11+ !)

Sky at Night: Sir Patrick Moore will present the Sky at Night on Mon 7 March, 
"Strangers in the Night". BBC 1, @ 1am (but subject to regional variations). 
Repeated on BBC4 at 8:30pm. Patrick investigates the Edgeworth-Kuiper Belt and 
the Oort Cloud, the supposed origin of comets, with our own highly-esteemed 
IAA member Dr Alan Fitzsimmons (QUB)

Mercury: Elusive little Mercury is just about to put on its best evening show 
of the year for observers in our latitudes. I saw it last night & again 
tonight in 10x50 binocs, & it will get even easier to see over the next week or so.
   I attach details of its apparent size, phase, brightness, elongation, 
setting times, etc (for Belfast, but OK for all of Ireland, except the setting 
times which will be a few minutes later the further West you are). I've done it 
as an RTF file, so don't be afraid to open it!

The ISS will start another series of evening passes on 8 March for observers 
in the South of the island; on the 9th for Northerners. Download predictions 
for your own location from www.heavens-above.com and see if you can spot one 
of the early evening passes while you're looking for Mercury. If you happen to 
be in the right location you can sometimes spot it passing very close to the 
Moon or Saturn - again Heavens-Above should give you all the details.

Rocky Road Show: this annual event at the Ulster Museum will run next 
Saturday & Sunday afternoons (12th & 13th March), & is always worth a visit if you're 
interested in the planet beneath our feet, meteorites etc.

Clear Skies,

Terry Moseley

RTF File

Last Revised: 2005 March 7th WWW contact:webmaster@arm.ac.uk

Go to HOME Page