From: TerryMoselaol.com

Date: 18 March 2011 01:49:31 GMT

Subject: Lecture, Mercury, Close Moon, GAN, Nanosail D, Cosmos

Hi all,

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1.ˆàIAA LECTURE MEETING: "Widefield Astro-imaging: the French Connection".ˆàˆà23 March, 7.30 p.m., Bell Lecture Theatre, Physics Department, QUB. The next lecture in the Irish Astronomical Association Lecture Programme, will be byˆàIAA member Martin Campbell:ˆàMartin is aˆàrenowned astronomical photographer, and not onlyˆàwon the IAA's IYA 2009 astrophotography competition, but was also the overall winner of the grand prize for best entry in any category.ˆàMartin regularly travels to exceptionally dark high altitudeˆàsites in Franceˆàto obtain really spectacular images, which he will be showing at this lecture. But the stunning images he submitted for the IYA 2009 competition were all taken in Ireland, showing just what can be achieved from here.

ˆàˆàˆàˆàEven if you have no interest in astrophotography,ˆàthis is sure to be a fascinating lecture.ˆà Admission is free, including light refreshments, and all are welcome. There is free parking on the QUB site after 5.30 p.m.

ˆà For details of all forthcoming IAA lectures and other events, see www.irishastro.orgˆàˆà

2. Mercury is currently well placed for observing lowˆàin the Westernˆà evening sky, currently lying just above Jupiter, and visible from about 30-40 minutes after sunset until it gets too low, or sets. It will be well placed for viewing for the next week or so. Binoculars will help you locate it at first, it should then be possible to see it with the unaided eye. Be careful not to look with optical aid when the sun is still above your horizon.

3. "Supermoon".ˆàˆàThe Moon on 19 March will be at itsˆàclosest to Earthˆàsince December 2008. And since that date coincides with Full Moon, it will appearˆàunusually big andˆàbright. Depending on how closely you defineˆàFull Moonˆàas coinciding with Perigee, it can be regarded as the closest Full Moon forˆà19 years. A very close Full Moon has been described by an astrologer as a 'Supermoon', and unfortunately the media have latched on to this term.

4. Globe At Night (G.A.N.): Less of Our Light for More Star Light: Join the second part of theˆà6th worldwide GLOBE at Night 2011 campaign:ˆàMarch 22 - April 4. With half of the worldòÀÙs population now living in cities, many urban dwellers have never experienced the wonderment of pristinely dark skies and maybe never will. This loss, caused by light pollution, is a concern on many fronts: safety, energy conservation, cost, health and effects on wildlife, as well as our ability to view the stars. Even though light pollution is a serious and growing global concern, it is one of the easiest environmental problems you can address on local levels.

Participation in the international star-hunting campaign, GLOBE at Night, helps to address the light pollution issue locally as well as globally. This year, 2 sets of campaigns are being offered. The first campaign ranˆàfrom February 21 through March 6, 2011.ˆàThe second campaign runs from March 22 through April 4 in the Northern Hemisphere and March 24 through April 6 in the Southern Hemisphere, and everyone all over the world is invited to record the brightness of the night sky.ˆàThe campaign is easy and fun to do. First, you match the appearance of the constellation Orion in the first campaign (and Leo or Crux in the second campaign) withˆàsimple star maps of progressively fainter stars found. Then youˆàsubmit your measurements, including the date, time, and location of your comparison. After all the campaignòÀÙs observations are submitted, the projectòÀÙs organizers release a map of light-pollution levels worldwide. Over the last five annual 2-week campaigns, volunteers from more than 100 nations contributed 52,000 measurements, one third of which came from last year's campaign.

To learn the five easy steps to participate in the GLOBE at Night program, see theˆàGLOBE at Night website. You can listen to last year'sˆà10-minute audio podcast on light pollution and GLOBE at Night. Or download aˆà45-minute powerpointˆàandˆàaccompanying audio. GLOBE at Night is also onˆàFacebookˆàandˆàTwitter.

The big news is that children and adults can submit their measurements in real time if they have a smart phone or tablet. To do this, you can use theˆàweb application. With smart phones and tablets, the location, date and time are put in automatically. And if you do not have a smart phone or tablet, there are user-friendly tools on the GLOBE at Night report page to find latitude and longitude.

For activities that have children explore what light pollution is, what its effects are on wildlife and how to prepare for participating in the GLOBE at Night campaign, see theˆàDark Skies Rangers activities. Monitoring our environment will allow us as citizen-scientists to identify and preserve the dark sky oases in cities and locate areas where light pollution is increasing. All it takes is a few minutes during the 2011 campaign to measure sky brightness and contribute those observations on-line. Help us exceed the 17,800 observations contributed last year. Your measurements will make a world of difference.

Star Maps:ˆàˆàhttp://www.globeatnight.org/observe_magnitude.html

Submitting Measurements:ˆàhttp://www.globeatnight.org/report.html

GLOBE at Night:ˆàhttp://www.globeatnight.org/

Audio Podcast:ˆàhttp://365daysofastronomy.org/2010/02/03/february-3rd-the-globe-at-night-campaign-our-light-or-starlight/

Powerpoint:ˆàhttp://www.globeatnight.org/files/NSN_GaN_2011_slides.ppt

Accompanying Audio:ˆàhttp://www.globeatnight.org/files/NSN_GaN_2011_audio.mp3

Facebook:ˆàhttp://www.facebook.com/GLOBEatNight

Twitter:ˆàhttp://twitter.com/GLOBEatNight

Web App for Reporting:ˆàhttp://www.globeatnight.org/webapp/

Dark Skies Activities:ˆàhttp://www.darkskiesawareness.org/DarkSkiesRangers/

Constance E. Walker, Ph.D. Director, GLOBE at Night campaign www.globeatnight.org),ˆàChair International Dark-Sky Association Education Committee; chair, IYA2009 Dark Skies Awareness Cornerstone Project; member, Astronomical Society of the Pacific Board of Directors; associate scientist & senior science education specialist, NOAO. Address: National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO), 950 N. Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85719 USA, 520-318-8535; cwalkernoao.edu

5. NANOSAIL-D: NASA's first Earth-orbiting solar sail, NanoSail-D, is circling our planet and attracting the attention of sky watchers. Occasionally, sunlight glinting from the sail's reflective fabric produces a flash of light in the night sky. These "solar sail flares" are expected to grow brighter as NanoSail-D descends in the weeks ahead.ˆà A seriesˆàof morning passes continues, some of which are quite favourable. Details of passes for your own location are on www.heavens-above.com.
ˆàˆà NANOSAIL-D AMATEUR ASTRONOMY IMAGE CONTEST
NASA has formed a partnership with Spaceweather.com to engage the amateur astronomy community to submit the best images of the orbiting NanoSail-D solar sail. NanoSail-D unfurled the first ever 100-square-foot solar sail in low-Earth orbit on Jan. 20.
ˆàˆà To encourage observations of NanoSail-D, Spaceweather.com is offering prizes for the best images of this historic, pioneering spacecraft in the amounts of $500 (grand prize), $300 (first prize) and $100 (second prize).
ˆàˆà The contest is open to all types of images, including, but not limited to, telescopic captures of the sail to simple widefield camera shots of solar sail flares. If NanoSail-D is in the field of view, the image is eligible for judging.
ˆàˆà The solar sail is about the size of a large tent. It will be observable for approximately 70 to 120 days before it enters the atmosphere and disintegrates. The contest continues until NanoSail-D re-enters Earth's atmosphere.
ˆàˆà NanoSail-D will be a target of interest to both novice and veteran sky watchers. Experienced astrophotographers will want to take the first-ever telescopic pictures of a solar sail unfurled in space.ˆà Backyard stargazers, meanwhile, will marvel at the solar sail flares
-- brief but intense flashes of light caused by sunlight glinting harmlessly from the surface of the sail.
ˆàˆà NanoSail-D could be five to 10 times as bright as the planet Venus, especially later in the mission when the sail descends to lower orbits.
ˆàSee http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2011/01feb_solarsailflares/ˆà
ˆà
6. COSMOS 2010:ˆà Cosmos is Ireland's second-longest running star party, since 1992 in fact, when it was first called the Irish Astrofest. This year it takes place over the weekend of April 1st to 3rd at Annaharvey, Tullamore. See www.midlandsastronomy.com ˆàfor more details.

7. JOINING the IRISH ASTRONOMICAL ASSOCIATION is now even easier: This link downloads a Word document to join the IAA. http://irishastro.org.uk/iaamembership.doc.ˆà See also www.irishastro.org.ˆà

ˆà

Clear skies,ˆà

ˆà

Terry Moseley

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