From: TerryMosel@aol.com

Subject: Newsflash Lecture update, 2 New events.

Date: 24 September 2014 14:42:33 BST

Hi all,

ˆàˆàˆà

(this is a shortened version of the last bulletin, with just the latest updates, and main items)

ˆà

1.ˆàLECTURE UPDATE:

IAA New Season Opening Lecture 24 Sep: Latest Science Results from Rosetta, by Leo Enright

ˆàˆà NEWSFLASH: the latest pictures from Mars as a preview: ˆà

TheˆàIrish Astronomical Association's Public Lectureˆàevent this evening hopes to be among the first in the world to publicly screen pictures from Marsˆàtaken this afternoon by India's historic space probe which arrived atˆàthe Red Planet early this morning.

ˆàˆàˆà The Mars Orbiter Mission successfully fired its main rocket engines atˆà3 o'clock Irish Time this morning to ease itself into orbit around Mars.ˆà Flight controllers hope to receive the first colour picturesˆàfrom the craft sometime this afternoon. If the images arrive in time,ˆàthey will be displayed on a big screen to an audience at Queen's University Belfast tonight.ˆà See http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2767471/India-triumphs-maiden-Mars-mission.htmlˆà

MAIN LECTURE:ˆàThe talk by Ireland's leading science broadcaster and journalist, will reveal the latest findings from the fantastic Rosetta spacecraft at Comet C-G. As you can see from some of the images, the comet is weird - absolutely unlike anything we've seen before. And Leo usually updates his talk from the Internetˆàjust about 10 minutes before he's due to start, so it will be the VERY latest information. Not to be missed!

ˆàˆà The lectureˆàis free and open to all, including free refreshments.ˆàVenue: the Bell Lecture Theatre, Physics Building, Queen's University, Belfast, at 7.30 p.m.ˆà

ˆàˆà Thanks to the Astrophysics Research Centre, QUB, for help in hosting these lectures.

ˆà

2. Shannonside Astronomy Club's Burren Star Party this Weekend. Sorry for the short notice, but I've only just been informed about this. See http://www.shannonsideastronomyclub.com/sac_burren_starparty.htm

ˆàˆà

3. Giant impacts in the early solar system: evidence from meteorites

Edward Scott, University of HawaiòÀÙi Thursday 16 October, 17.00, in TCD

ˆàˆà This is the John Joly lecture organised by Trinity College in Dublin.ˆà: for details see TrinityòÀÙs website:

www.tcd.ie/Geology/assets/pdf/Joly%20Lecture%20&%20Ian%20Sanders%20retirement%20notice.pdf

ˆà

ˆà

4. Special Krauss lecture at QUB, 22 October: "Cosmic Connection: from the Big Bang to life on Earthˆàand Beyond."

BOOKING NOW OPEN! Registration is now open for the lecture. Go to http://star.pst.qub.ac.uk/, and the top news link, beside the book snapshotˆà

ˆàˆà Taking advantage of the visit to Belfast by world famous cosmologist Lawrence Krauss (seeˆàearlier bulletin), the IAA is teaming up with the Astrophysics Research Centre at QUB (to which sincere thanks are due)ˆàto present a public lecture by himˆàon 22 October.ˆàˆà

ˆàˆàˆàTime 7.30 p.m., inˆàLarmor Lecture Theatre, QUB. Free admission but by email ticket application only.ˆà

ˆàˆàˆà Lawrence Krauss is a renowned cosmologist, and author of many best-selling books such as "The Fifth Essence" (Dark Matter); "The Physics of Star Trek"; "A Universe From Nothing"; "Quintessence, The Search For Missing Mass In The Universe", "Beyond Star Trek"; "Atom: An Odyssey from the Big Bang to Life on Earth...and Beyond"; and many articles in various science journals. He is also the ONLY physicist to have received awards from all three of the major American Physics Societies. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_M._Krauss.

ˆàˆà By coincidence, this story on dark matter hasˆàrecently broken: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/09/140904121241.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily%2Fspace_time+%28Space+%26+Time+News+--+ScienceDaily%29. Intuitively, Iˆàlike it, although the science is of course totally beyond me!

ˆà

5. IAA Observing Nights at Delamont Country Park

These very popular weekendˆàobserving sessions will start again this month. Delamont is well signposted off the A22 just South of Killyleagh, (North of Downpatrick)ˆàCo Down. They are suitable for anyone, but are aimed especially at beginners.

We bring our own large telescopes; bring your own if you have a portable one.

ˆàˆàThe eventsˆàwork like this: If it's clear on the Friday night, the event goes ahead. If not, we try again on the Saturday night. If both are cloudy, we try again on the following weekend, same procedure. To check if it's going ahead, check the IAA website: www.irishastro.org up to 6.0 p.m.ˆàon each day. Dates forˆànext session: Sepˆà26-27 If cloudy, we'll try again on the next date on the list..

ˆàˆàˆàˆàˆà

6. World Space Week: October 4 to 11; UK Launch in N. Ireland!

There will be events in various parts of the province.ˆàMore news on this excellent coup by Robert Hill in the next bulletin. To register your event, please follow this link:ˆà www.worldspaceweek.org/events/add-event/ˆà

ˆà

7. ARCHAEOASTRONOMY TRIP TO NEWGRANGE and KNOWTH, 11 October: Following the success of last years' trip,ˆàStranmillis UniversityˆàCollege Institute of LifeLong Learning haveˆàasked meˆàto run another one, on 11 October, but this time including a visit to the Knowth Tomb as well. It has the largest collection of Megalithic art anywhere in Europe in one single site, some of which is reckoned to be astronomical. Booking for thus very popular, non-technical trip, is via the Stranmillis website www.stran.ac.uk, or go direct to http://www.stran.ac.uk/media/media,456138,en.pdfˆàand scroll down to p. 23, or pick up a brochure from Reception.

ˆàˆà This trip is booking quickly, so reserve your places now if you want to go!

ˆà

8. ROSETTA's probe to land onˆàComet on 11 November.ˆàThe Rosetta spacecraftˆàcontinues toˆà'orbit'ˆàroundˆàComet Churyumov-Gerasimenko, sending back more jawdropping photos.ˆàAfter studying the 'binary' surface inˆàgreat detail,ˆàthe site toˆàland a probe on the surface has now been chosen. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2756242/Rosettas-daring-landing-site-announced-Philae-probe-touchdown-huge-boulders-head-comet-67P.htmlˆà(the dimension quoted for the 'landing site' is actually the diameter of the whole 'head' section of the comet)

Watch out for more amazing photos.ˆàˆàSee:

First map of Rosetta's comet: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/09/140911182741.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily%2Fspace_time+%28Space+%26+Time+News+--+ScienceDaily%29

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/09/15/ufo-surface-rosetta-comet_n_5821046.html?ir=UK+Techˆà

Errrm -ˆàfreshly exposed ice, anyone?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2759082/Why-Rosetta-s-comet-spewing-water-vapour-jets-Images-reveal-hidden-plumes-shooting-space.htmlˆà

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2747872/Rosettas-comet-no-ice-darker-charcoal-Surprising-discovery-probe-sends-set-data.html

This will be the topic for the IAA's opening lecture of the new season, by the incomparable Leo Enright.

ˆàSee item 1 above:

ˆà

9. INTERESTING WEBLINKS:ˆà

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2766475/Do-ALIENS-hold-key-sex-Richard-Dawkins-says-ET-reveal-animals-use-reproduce-origins-life.htmlˆà

Dragon arrives at ISS http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/09/140923154421.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily%2Ftop_news%2Ftop_technology+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Top+Technology+News%29ˆà

Rapid view of space images of Earth http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/09/140923152314.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily%2Fearth_climate+%28Earth+%26+Climate+News+--+ScienceDaily%29ˆà

Origin of Uranus and Neptune http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/09/140923101538.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily%2Fspace_time+%28Space+%26+Time+News+--+ScienceDaily%29

Solar explosions in a computer http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/09/140923102231.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily%2Fspace_time+%28Space+%26+Time+News+--+ScienceDaily%29

Winds in infant Solar System http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/09/140922152912.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily%2Ftop_news%2Ftop_science+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Top+Science+News%29

Diamond string leads to space http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2766398/Strings-DIAMONDS-soon-transport-space-Nanothread-breakthrough-make-cosmic-elevators-reality.htmlˆàˆàThe graphic of the orbits is wrong - the inner orbit is not geostationary. A geostationary orbit is achieved at a distance just under 3 Earth diameters from the planet.

Finding hints of gravity waves in stars http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/09/140922091250.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily%2Fspace_time+%28Space+%26+Time+News+--+ScienceDaily%29

MAVEN enters Martian orbit http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/09/140922111111.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily%2Ftop_news%2Ftop_science+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Top+Science+News%29ˆà

ˆà

ˆà

10. TWITTER:ˆàFollow theˆàIAAˆàon Twitter: The account is now operational again as before: IaaAstro.

ˆàˆà

11. JOINING the IRISH ASTRONOMICAL ASSOCIATION is easy: This link downloads a Word document to join the IAA. http://documents.irishastro.org.uk/iaamembership.doc

ˆàˆà ˆàIf you are a UK taxpayer, please tick the 'gift-aid' box, as that enables us to reclaim the standard rate of tax on your subscription, at no cost to you.ˆàYou can also make aˆàdonation via Paypal if you wish: just click on the 'Donate' button.ˆàˆàSee also www.irishastro.org.ˆà

ˆàˆà

ˆà

Clear skies,

Terry Moseley

mob: (0044) (0) 7979 300842

I'm now back on Twitter (occasionally - I don't have enough time!), after some temporary hiccups: terrymoseley2

ˆà

Terry Moseley