From: TerryMoselaol.com
Date: 11 December 2006 01:37:57 GMT
Subject: Lecture, Geminids, NY Party, Books, Name to the Moon

Hi all,

1. Last IAA Meeting of 2006: The next meeting, and the last of the year,
will be on Wed 13 December, at 7.30 p.m., in Lecture Room 5, Stranmillis
College, Stranmillis Road, Belfast. IAA Council members Danny Collins
and Robert Cobain will give a joint talk on 'Practical Astronomy'. All
are welcome, and admission is free, including some light seasonal
refreshments.

2. A final reminder about the Geminid meteors, which peak late on the
night of 13/14 December. The best shower of the year, and no problem
from bright moonlight this year. See previous E/Ms for details.

3. The Social Highlight of the astronomical year will of course be the
IAA's annual Xmas/New Year Party, to be held as usual at the Tudor
Private Cinema, near Comber, on Sat 6 January, provisionally at 7.30
p.m. The film will be "October Sky", & there will be lots of lovely eats
& drinks of varying degrees of lethality, from totally innocent up to
Polonium 210 cocktails....  More details later, but mark your diaries
now, & keep the date free.

4. Thanks to Danny Collins for the following info: " I was in
Waterstones and saw this big book;
Link     and I mean
big!! 42 cm x 35 cm, 224 pages. It has some glorious pictures over that
size of a spread, worth getting for them alone no matter what the text
is like. £25 in Waterstones, but £16 on Amazon as you see in the
attached. It starts off with the Sun, works out throught the solar
system, our galaxy, further on, ending up with the furthest observable
objects. Absolutely sumptuous!!!

Giles Sparrow has also done "The Planets", a more conventionally sized
book; Link     also in Waterstones, at £12.50, and £7.50 on Amazon. This
one sticks with the solar system, and is copiously illustrated with some
lovely photos, including many of the various moons.

A third nice one for Christmas is "Space: 50 Years of the Space Age" by
Piers Bizony;
Link     which has plenty of photos of the last 50 years of space exploration, including
many I haven't seen before.

So, three ideas for pressies. By the way, Cambridge publishing have
finally released the next volume in their "Encyclopaedia of ......"
series, this one is the "Stars";
Link

 If it is anything like the others in the series, and with James Kaler
as author it should be, it is well worth buying. The previous ones are
Astronomy, from 1984; the Sun, from 2001; Meteorites, from 2002; Amateur
Astronomy, from 2003; and Space (exploration, missions and hardware),
from 2003. I have the Sun, and Space Exploration, both are terrific.   
So many nice books, so little space!! (Of the bookshelf, not vacuum
variety!) "

 5. And thanks to Derek Heatly for this: " The Planetary Society is
sending names on a Japanese lunar orbiter next year, offer ends 31
Jan.You can also send a short message; Link "

Clear skies,

Terry Moseley

Last Revised: 2006 December 11th WWW contact:webmaster@arm.ac.uk

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