International Year of Astronomy in Ireland

In the last day of the International Year of Astronomy - in the early evening of the 31st December - the Moon undergoes the smallest partial eclipse that we have seen in Ireland for 40 years - in that the Moon will only just dip into the umbral shadow of the Earth.  At mid-eclipse (19:23) the lower right of the Moon may just be seen to have a faint ruddy colour as indicated in the diagram.  The Moon begins to enter the penumbral shadow at 17:17, and will thus begin to darken.   A small part of the Moon at its lower right enters the umbral shadow at 18:52 and leaves it at 19:52 withÁ€¦

Armagh Observatory astronomer Dr David Asher made highlights around the world with a new study he presented at the European Planetary Science Congress in Potsdam, Germany, on Monday 14 September.

The research was led by David's colleague Katsuhito Ohtsuka of the Tokyo Meteor Network, Japan. Their team showed that sixty years ago, Jupiter had a "brief encounter": it carried on a 12-year fling with an extra "moon" then casually cast it aside.

Their calculations show that comet 147P/Kushida-Muramatsu entered Jupiter's neighbourhood from the outer solar system in 1949 and dallied in a highly Á€¦

Deirdre Kelleghan gets The Astronomical Leagues Master Outreach Award  one of 25 given out this year and the first International one :-)  Presented by Dr Mike Reynolds Outreach Chair for the League.  "I do not do outreach for awards , but it was nice to get one. There are only 25 people in the world getting the Master award this year and I am the first European to be given one . The Astronomical League is the largest organisation for amateur astronomers in the world.I am a Member at Large for many years." said Deirdre. More info on her blog.

Unfortunately there are no eclipses to be seen from Ireland this month: neither the lunar one on 7 July, nor the solar one on 22 July.

IOP president, Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell, was voted one of the most inspirational women scientists of all time in an online poll run by the New Scientist. Ranked fourth in the pool, Jocelyn was voted as the top living woman scientist.

See the full story here.

This link takes you to the Heavens Above website where you can see the times of the ISS passes (and other interesting information, like for example times for iridium flares). 

This link is set for Armagh.

If you live anywhere else please remember to change the location.

The above photo is one of the most dramatic Earth-science photos ever taken from space. It wasÁ€¦

The International Space Station (ISS) - now the second brightest object in the night sky - is currently passing over Ireland in the evenings. 

This link takes you to the Heavens Above website where you can see the times of the ISS passes (and other interesting information, like for example times for iridium flares). 

This link is set for Armagh. If you live anywhere else please remember to change the location.

The above photo of the ISS was taken by Jonathan Bingham from Antrim, on 19th March 2009. 

"My father and I found a small stone on Ballygalley beach.  This stone is unusally heavy for its size and has the appearance of a meteorite to our untrained eyes.  As you can see from the attached photos, it contains enough metal to be lifted by a 5lbs magnetic pick up tool.  An experts advice on this object would be most appreciated.

Yours sincerely June and Thomas Elliott"

Some people think this is not a meteorite but rather some derby of terrestrial origin, while others think that it has the characteristics of a space rock. What do you think? Write down yourÁ€¦

 As part of International Year of Astronomy 2009, the Irish Astronomical Association (IAA) is pleased to announce a major public competition, with substantial prizes, for all ages, and in various categories, so that anyone can enter. Full details here.

The International Space Station (ISS) is passing over Ireland from now till Monday the 30th of March. Its magnitude is estimated to be between 1 and -2 , pretty bright, but you might be the lucky one to see it flaring to super-Venus levels!

On 21 of March, observers in the Netherlands saw the ISS's luminosity reach magnitude -6: four times brighter than Venus and 40 times brighter than Sirius, the brightest star in the sky.

"The bright flash is sunlight glinting off the station's enormous solar arrays. On March 20th, astronauts unfurled a new pair of arrays on the space station's starboardÁ€¦

This evening (Friday 27 February 2009) those with clear skies after sunset will be able to see another wonderful conjunction between the crescent Moon and Venus. Today's conjunction is quite special because Venus is at maximum brightness: magnitude -4.6. The planet is twenty times brighter than Sirius, the brightest star in the sky. It is so luminous that it can actually shine through thin clouds and cast subtle shadows on the ground.

Click here to see photos from the 1 December 2008 conjunction.

QUADRANTID METEORS. Message from from Terry Moseley: "This is one of the best annual meteor showers, and is expected to peak during the late morning of 3 January. This means that best views from Ireland will be just before dawn on the morning of the 3rd, with reasonable views also later that evening when the sky gets dark again, although the radiant will be a lot lower down at that time, and the First Quarter Moon will interfere. But you can see some Quadrantids any time from New Year's Day to 5 January, so keep a look out if the sky is clear. 

The radiant lies in Ursa Minor, about half wayÁ€¦

Thank you all for the enthusiasm of watching the Winter Solstice Webcast with us. Most people liked it, although some did not. Some Mac users (like myself) did not have Windows Media Player installed (my fault for not being more specific about  this, although if you checked the window  webcast in advance you would have seen if it works on your computer or not). I wish we'd have been luckier with the weather - but hey, that's Ireland! Good to have last year's footage, though.

Click here to see this year's recording (you still need Windows Media Player to run it...)

Click here to see last year'sÁ€¦

The Irish Node of IYA2009 and the Office of Public Works in Ireland are inviting you to join in watching a  live webcast of the winter solstice sunrise on December 21st from the megalithic passage tomb of Newgrange, in County Meath, Ireland. 

This Webcast will be live from 08.30 to 09.30 GMT on December 21st. The sunrise is at ~08.55 GMT (8.55 am in UK and Ireland).

Send us your comments on the event!

  image courtesy The Office of Public Works, Ireland                   photograph by Cyril Byrne, courtesy of The Irish Times 

The best annual meteor shower is the Geminids, which are expected to peak this year on December 13th at 18h. Some activity will persist until about Dec 15/16. Unfortunately this year's display will be spoiled by a Full Moon at maximum, but you should still see some of the brighter meteors. 

The ZHR (Zenithal Hourly Rate: the standard measure of meteor activity) is predicted to be around 100, but you will probably only see about 1/4 of that rate because of the Moonlight. Grab any few hours when the Moon is out of the sky on the days on either side of maximum to get the best view, or if the MoonÁ€¦

Free Telescopes for Schools in Northern Ireland

Robert Hill of NI Space Office at the Armagh Planetarium has arranged that every school in Northern Ireland can receive a free telescope, provided that they submit an application form before Tuesday 23 December 2008.

The Society for Popular Astronomy is leading a project to give 1000 telescopes to secondary schools, with support from the Science and Technology Facilities Council and the Royal Astronomical Society, to encourage schools to celebrate the International Year of Astronomy.

The idea is to encourage schools to develop an interest inÁ€¦

 photograph by Miruna Popescu

The conjunction, occultation, iridium flare, ISS passes, were all viewed successfully from Armagh Observatory. The view was truly spectacular, so fascinating that words cannot describe its beauty.

How did you see it? Send us your photos!

  photograph by Martin Mc Kenna

"I have to say that this was absolutely spectacular, clearly one of the most stunning night sky scenes I have seen since the Summer NLC displays. I give the event 10/10 - easily getting the 'wow factor'. The dusk sky made for the perfect festive scene and ultimate Christmas Card material. When VenusÁ€¦

 photograph by Martin Mc Kenna

Planetary Alignment and Double Flyby

Planetary Alignment: Jupiter and Venus are now in a beautiful conjunction; you can see both planets just after sunset, towards the west. On 30 November, the crescent moon will join them in a three-way conjunction that some astronomers are calling "the best sky show of the year". Check SpaceWeather for conjunction photographs from all around the world.

Double Flyby:  Space shuttle Endeavour undocked from the International Space Station, and the two spacecraft are now orbiting Earth in tandem. Until Sunday, 30 November, whenÁ€¦

Another piece of asteroid discovery news, from Terry Moseley: "Dave Grennan from Dublin has just discovered a Main Belt asteroid from his observatory in Raheny. The object was found in southern Pegasus, and is provisionally designated 2008 US3. It was magnitude 19.5 at discovery. It's in the asteroid Main Belt, and more details will follow once the Minor Planet Center of the IAU computes its orbit.

Those of us that study one aspect or another of the Earth impact hazard are sometimes asked, "If one of these dangerous space rocks really is on course for Earth, how much warning will we have before it collides with our planet?" The answer has been - and still is - that the most probable situation is a warning time of just a few seconds.  That is, despite the excellent work of telescopic "Spaceguard surveys", most objects capable of causing a serious amount of damage have not yet been discovered.  So the first the inhabitants of Earth would know is when the intruder from space starts toÁ€¦

On Wednesday, 10 September 2008, physicists turn on the multibillion-pound machine that will recreate the birth of the universe: the LHC (Large Hadron Collider). Martin Rees, Astronomer Royal and President of the Royal Society, applauds the greatest experiment in history.

Science is a global birthright: it's an intellectual impoverishment to be unaware of the chain of events whereby, from a mysterious beginning, atoms, stars and planets have emerged, and - on at least one planet - creatures have evolved that are able to ponder their origins.

And those creatures have come up with a colossalÁ€¦

Are you ready to celebrate? 

No, not USA Independence Day. For everyone on Earth, it's Aphelion Day. this is  the day when the Earth is furthest from the Sun in its annual circuit around its elliptical orbit. From that day on, we'll start gradually getting closer to the Sun again as we head for Perihelion, or our closest point to the Sun, early in the New Year. The difference is not huge: the variation is from 152m km to 147m km, and it's not enough to outweigh the seasonal effects of the tilt of the Earth's axis, which gives us our Northern and Southern summers and winters. But if you areÁ€¦

When children learn that we live on the surface of a planet, that there are other planets orbiting around the Sun and, finally, that our Sun is like the stars that we see at night, one of their first thoughts is that those stars may have planets as well. And they are right; there are planets around other stars but they are very difficult to see without sophisticated astronomical instruments. Since 1995, when the first so-called "exo-planet" was discovered, almost 250 have been detected. Most of them are more massive than Jupiter (itself weighing 318 Earths) because the techniques used areÁ€¦

A total lunar eclipse will occur on the night of 20/21 February and will be fully visible from Ireland. The totality will last for 51 minutes.

Partial eclipse (dark inner shadow)  begins at:           01:43 am

Totality (reddish colour) begins at:                            03:01 am

Mid Eclipse:                                                           03:26 am 

Totality ends at:                                                      03:51 am

Partial eclipse ends at:                                             05:09 am

An investigation into the fate of the Earth and of the life upon it has found that we are all doomed. According to a paper that will soon be published in MNRAS, by Klaus-Peter Schroder of the University of Guanajuato, Mexico and Robert C. Smith of the University of Sussex, England, the Earth will no longer be habitable in around a billion years and will be enveloped by the Sun in little over 7.5 billion.

The elusive planet Mercury was spotted from Ireland with the naked eye last week. This week is the very best time to see it. Full details are on page 26 of Astronomy Ireland January magazine (www.astronomy.ie/sub). Very few people in the world (less than 1%?) have ever seen Mercury so this is your chance to join this elite club. Please send your sightings to observe@astronomy.ie