From: TerryMoselaol.com
Date: 26 November 2006 01:53:51 GMT
Subject: Lecture, Saturn, Mercury, Bargain 'scope, Comets, JENAM

Hi all,

1. The next IAA meeting will be a public lecture on 29 November by
well-known amateur astronomer Mr Seanie Morris from Tullamore Astronomy
Society. Entitled "The Top Ten Things I Like About the Universe", it
will be at 7.30 p.m. in Lecture Theatre 5, Stranmillis College,
Stranmillis Road, Belfast. Admission is free, including light
refreshments, and all are welcome.

2. CASSINI / HUYGENS at SATURN: Thanks to Prof Alan Fitzsimmons at QUB
for the following alert: The latest issue of National Geographic has a
large article on Cassini/Huygens at Saturn, and a nice double-sided
poster of the Solar system.

3. MERCURY: The innermost, and now officially the smallest, planet in
the solar system is now well placed for observing - provided that you
get up in the very early morning twilight! It is visible low in the
SE from about 50 to 30 minutes before local sunrise. At the moment, look
from about 06.35 onwards, but over the next few weeks into mid-December
its rising time gets progressively later, and by Dec 10 you needn't
start looking until about 07.30. On that date it will form a nice trio
with Jupiter and Mars. But although Jupiter will be about a full
magnitude brighter than Mercury, and much easier to see, Mars will be
almost 2 magnitudes fainter than Mercury, and since it will also be
lower down, it will be much harder to see.

4. LIDL TELESCOPE 150mm: From Thur 30 Nov Lidls will be selling the
Meade LXD75 6-inch reflecting telescope with Autostar #497 computer
controller and mount and tripod for #499. It usually retails around
#850. See: Link

5. COMETS: Comet 2006 P1 (McNaught) was
discovered by Rob McNaught during the course of the Siding Spring Survey
in August.  It has largely been a southern hemisphere object and is
never going to be well placed for observing from the UK / Ireland.  It
has been brightening relatively rapidly since discovery, and visual
observations now put it at around 9th magnitude, though it is now only
visible in the twilight.  It is a "new" comet from the Oort Cloud on its
first pass through the inner solar system.  Such comets often brighten
more slowly as they approach closer to the Sun.  Taking this into
account the likely peak brightness in January is between 2nd and 0
magnitude, although if it continues brightening at the present rate it
could be significantly brighter.  It is not well placed for observing
and remains close to the horizon in the evening twilight for northern
hemisphere observers.  It will however be worth CCD or DSLR imagers
attempting to catch it from now until January 12 in order to update the
light curve.    The comet remains around 15 degrees from the Sun and at
about 17:00, when the Sun is about 8 degrees below the horizon, the
comet is 7 degrees above the horizon for the southern UK / S Ireland. 
This will be a difficult observation, but I hope some observers will be
able to image the comet.  If it does become bright, then visual
observation may be possible for UK observers from the beginning of
January until the 12th, with the comet a few degrees up at 17:00, and
the tail perhaps visible until later in the evening.

Comet 2006 M4 (SWAN) is now fading rapidly after its October outburst,
however it is still visible in binoculars in Aquila, a few degrees from
Altair.  Its magnitude is currently around 8, and it is becoming more
diffuse.  A BAA e-circular sent on October 24th noted that Comet SWAN
had undergone a second brightening from 6th magnitude to around 4.5 and
that it was not clear how long the outburst would last, but the previous
one was only a few days.  In the meantime the comet was a naked eye
object, with a short tail.  Whilst a further outburst is unlikely now
that the comet is receding from the Sun, comets can fragment at any
time, so it is worth keeping an eye on the comet as it fades.

For more details see the Section web page at
Link ( Edited from a BAA e-circular. T.M.) 

 6. JENAM-2007 (Joint European and National Astronomy Meeting) will take
place in Yerevan, Armenia. The First Announcement was sent in October
through the EAS Newsletter, and the web page is active since then at
link and mirror (mirror site at EAS)

However, to make a wider announcement, it would be rather helpful if you
could circulate the JENAM First Announcement to the non-EAS members in
Ireland. Thank you very much in advance. With best wishes, Areg
Mickaelian, Co-chair of SOC and Chair of LOC, JENAM-2007.

                                 J E N A M - 2 0 0 7
                              "Our non-stable Universe"
                          20-25 August 2007, Yerevan, Armenia

		   Web page at link
	       Mirror page at EAS:mirror

JENAM-2007  will take place in Yerevan (Armenia) and will be the 15th
Annual Meeting of the European Astronomical Society (EAS) and the 6th
Annual Meeting of the Armenian Astronomical Society (ArAS).

JENAM-2007 will consist of 6 Plenary sessions (invited reviews on hot
topics of modern astrophysics, 8 EAS Symposia, and 7 Special Sessions
(SPS). The EAS symposia will last 2-3 days each, 4 symposia in parallel.
The SPS will last 2 days each, 3 or 4 SPS in parallel. Poster sessions
will be organized as well for each of the symposia and SPS.

During the JENAM, the EAS General Assembly and EAS Council meetings will
take place, as well as a Job Market for young scientists, exhibitions, a
number of social events, etc. Beside the joint excursions on Wednesday,
August 22 and Saturday, August 25, additional tours will be organized
for accompanying persons and those scientists not attending sessions on
the given days.

The opening and closing sessions, EAS symposia and special sessions will
be organized in the conference halls and auditoria of the Yerevan State
University (YSU). Exhibitions and poster sessions will be organized at
the entrance halls. The participants will stay at the Yerevan central
hotels, and buses will take them every day to the University and back. A
detailed information on travel to Armenia and visas, Yerevan hotels, and
local conditions will be available soon.

The proceedings of the JENAM-2007 will be published in the EAS
proceedings series in 2008.

ORGANIZERS European Astronomical Society (EAS) Armenian Astronomical
Society (ArAS) Yerevan State University (YSU) Byurakan Astrophysical
Observatory (BAO)

SCIENTIFIC ORGANIZING COMMITTEE Harvey Butcher (Netherlands) Anatol
Cherepashchuk (Russia) Thierry Courvoisier (Switzerland) Michel
Dennefeld (France) Anne Dutrey (France) Hayk Harutyunyan (Armenia)
Joachim Krautter (Germany), Co-chair Tigran Magakian (Armenia) Michel
Mayor (Switzerland) Areg Mickaelian (Armenia), Co-chair Antonella Natta
(Italy) Artashes Petrosian (Armenia) Ian Robson (UK) Yervant Terzian
(USA) Yaroslav Yatskiv (Ukraine)

LOCAL ORGANIZING COMMITTEE A.M. Mickaelian, Chair S.A. Ghazaryan, H.A.
Harutyunyan, S.G. Harutyunyan, E.R. Hovhannisyan, L.R. Hovhannisyan,
N.D. Melikian, E.H. Nikoghosyan, A.A. Sadoyan, L.A. Sargsyan

EAS SYMPOSIA EAS S1: Extrasolar Planets EAS S2: Searching for
Proto-Planets around Young Stars EAS S3: Violent Phenomena in Young
Stars EAS S4: High-Energy Astrophysics EAS S5: Activity in Galaxies EAS
S6: Dynamics of Galaxies and Galactic Nuclei EAS S7: Observational
Cosmology EAS S8: Science with Virtual Observatories

JENAM-2007 SPECIAL SESSIONS (SPS) SPS1: Stellar Structure and Evolution
SPS2: New Developments in Asteroseismology SPS3: Gravitational Wave
Astrophysics SPS4: Astronomy from the Antarctic plateau SPS5: Astronomy
Education in Europe SPS6: Archaeoastronomy SPS7: Numerical Astrophysics

Note: some of the SPS may be cancelled if there is not enough interest
from the pre-registered participants.

REGISTRATION FEES EAS members           200 Euros Other participants   
240 Euros Accompanying persons  120 Euros

EAS and ArAS TRAVEL GRANTS A limited number of EAS and ArAS travel
grants will be available mainly reserved for young participants and
scientists from countries with limited resources. An application form
will be available after the period of the pre-registration (December 31,
2006). Those who are going to apply for a grant are encouraged to
pre-register as soon as possible.

PRE-REGISTRATION The deadline for the pre-registration is December 31,
2006.

The online pre-registration form can be found at link

If you have problems with web access or with online registration, please
send the completed form as an e-mail attachment to aregmickapaven.am.

DEADLINES Oct 1, 2006     Deadline for proposals for EAS symposia and
Special Sessions (SPS) Oct 15, 2006    First Announcement with
Pre-registration form Dec 31, 2006    Deadline for Pre-registration Jan
15, 2007    Second Announcement with a call for Registration, Travel
Grant Application, and Submission of Abstracts May 1, 2007     Deadline
for Submission of Abstracts and Travel Grant Applications May 15, 2007 
  Applicants to be informed on outcome of Travel Grant Applications and
Confirmation of Acceptance of Abstracts Jun 1, 2007     Deadline for
Early Registration (with reduced fee) and Hotel Reservation Jun 30,
2007    Final Submission of Abstracts of accepted papers for the
Abstracts book July 15, 2007   Final Announcement with the detailed
Program Aug 20-25, 2007 JENAM-2007 in Yerevan Oct 31, 2007    Deadline
for submission of papers for publication in the Proceedings

CONTACTS Joachim Krautter (Germany), Co-chair, SOC:
jkrauttelsw.uni-heidelberg.de Areg Mickaelian (Armenia), Co-chair, SOC
and Chair, LOC: aregmickapaven.am

For an inquiry and discussion of the details of the EAS symposia and
JENAM special sessions, please contact the corresponding SOC Chairs and
the Conveners. More contact details will be available in later
announcements. Clear skies,

Terry Moseley

Last Revised: 2006 November 27th WWW contact:webmaster@arm.ac.uk

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