From: TerryMoselaol.com
Date: Tue, 28 Feb 2006 18:36:12 EST
Subject: Lectures, IAA at WWT, Comet, RRS, Eclipse meets, 'Life-stars', LunarPhase Pro

Hi all,
 
1. The next SDAS meeting  will be on Thursday, 2nd March in Gonzaga College, 
Ranelagh, at 8pm.  Dr  Ian Sanders, Geology Department, TCD, will talk on 
Meteorites and the first five million  years of the Solar System. 
 
2. The next IAA meeting will be on Wed 8  March, 7.30 p.m., Stranmillis 
College, Stranmillis Road, Belfast. This will be a  double-header, featuring a 
presentation on the forthcoming Total Eclipse by  Yours Truly, particularly 
covering the IFAS eclipse trip to Turkey; and a  'Hand-On Telescopes' session, by 
various IAA members. This will give you a  chance to see how to assemble, mount, 
and use a wide variety of telescopes and  mounts. Everything you were afraid 
to ask, and more, in other words! Admission  free, including light 
refreshments. All welcome.
 
 
3. 4th & 5th March: The annual Rocky Road Show, Ulster Museum,  Stranmillis 
Road, Belfast will, as usual, feature our very own planet, and the  IAA will 
have a stand showing the Earth, other planets etc, & as usual our  members' 
excellent collection of meteorites, including one of the largest pieces  of a 
Martian meteorite in private hands! The Museum is open from lunchtime on  Sat & 
Sun afternoon.
 
4. IAA AT WWT. Moon, Planets, Mobile Planetarium at Castle Espie: The IAA's  
annual public observing & mobile planetarium evening will also be on 4  March, 
at WWT, Castle Espie, near Comber, Co Down, from about 7.30 p.m. We'll  have 
the usual selection of telescopes & big binocs for viewing if clear,  and I've 
even arranged a pass of the ISS that evening specially for  us. The 
indefatigable, informative, energetic & entertaining Robert  Hill will be doing his 
usual shows in the portable planetarium; Derek Heatly,  the IAA's own 
'Ulsternaut' will be talking about his upcoming flight into space;  and we'll have other 
talks, exhibition material etc as usual. Normal WWT  admission charges apply, 
except for IAA members bringing a telescope or  binocs, or helping with the 
event. So come along, even with just your  binocs!
 
5. Hail to 
a new comet!  Now visible in the morning sky is C/2006 A1 (Pojmanski) which 
was discovered on photographs on 1st January. It has only  been visible from 
more southerly latitudes until now. It is steadily  moving north, and will 
brighten for the next few days or maybe a week, before  starting to fade again. It 
will be a morning object for us in early  March when it may reach magnitude 5, 
and so will be visible  to the unaided eye from a dark site. More detailed 
predictions can be found at  the excellent www.aerith.net
 
6. Pre-Eclipse Meeting: On  Thursday, March 9th, SDAS will have a special 
pre-total solar eclipse  meeting in Gonzaga College, Ranelagh, at 8pm. All 
welcome on the night  to come along whether going to the eclipse in Turkey or Africa 
or not. 
 

7. SETI? If you want to listen out, or look for, signals  from 'LGM', among 
the stars which are most like the Sun in terms of possibly  hosting 
life-bearing planets, are, it seems, Beta CVn (Beta  in Canes Venatici), and 51 Pegasi. 
Good luck!
 

8. LunarPhase Pro: This may be of interest: 
" Hi Terry, I have a couple of announcements that may (or may not) be of  
interest:
(1.) My LunarPhase Pro software is featured on the cover CD of the  current 
(March) issue of Sky at Night magazine. It's a full working copy of  Version 1 
of the software. There's an offer in the magazine for readers to  upgrade to 
Version 2 at a 15% discount. 
(2.) V2.51 of LunarPhase Pro has  just been released. Details at: 
lunarphasepro.nightskyobserver.com 
(3.) I've put  together an 
Astronomy Toolbar for Internet Explorer or Firefox that can be  downloaded from: 
www.nightskyobserver.com/AstronomyToolbar 
(4.)  I've also set up a new Astronomy Forum at my website: 
forum.nightskyobserver.com  for anyone who's  
interested in chatting about astronomy or space (it's not aimed at at a purely  
Irish audience).
I don't know where you get the time to do  all that you do! :-)
Best wishes, Gary Nugent"
 
9. You might like to note the new broadband email address for Andy  McCrea, 
prop of 'North Down Telescopes': s.mccrea980btinternet.com.
He's still using the old one andrewmccreaa.freeserve.co.uk
too,  pro tem, and I suggest 
you use both for a while until he gets any bugs  sorted out with the new 
broadband one.


Clear Skies,
 
Terry  Moseley.

Last Revised: 2006 February 28th WWW contact:webmaster@arm.ac.uk

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