Hi
We have a new promo movie put together by myself for our February 21st AstroFest in Galway which is shaping up to be like in 2014 to be a cracker of an astronomy event
Link here to the full webpage about the Festival
www.galwayastronomyclub.ie/index.php/archive
See an article about one of our festival speakers; Daniel (Eclipsedan) Lynch on page 113-114 of the January edition of the Sky at Night magazine
Speakers for Ireland's Favourite Star Party on February 21st at
1 Professor Michael Perryman (UCD): "Measuring the Distances to the Stars"
Co author of the "Millennium Star Atlas" and project scientist of the GAIA Space Astrometry mission. (FREE PUBLIC LECTURE)
2 Daniel (Eclipsedan) Lynch: "Light into Dark: Chasing Total Solar Eclipses"
Irish Eclipse chaser of ten international Total Solar Eclipses and his talk will serve as a prelude to the March 2015 Solar Eclipse.
3 Nick Howes: "A Tail of Two Comets - Serendipity and Discovery" and after Dinner talk : "Under African Skies... the Astro Safari adventure of a lifetime"
Amateur astronomer at the Kielder Observatory, UK, Consultant and Science writer
4 Damian Peach: "Worlds of the Solar System
World renowned planetary imager, Damian has spent the last ten years documenting the changing face of our solar system with crystal clear images good enough to stand alongside those of the Hubble Space Telescope
5 Professor Susan McKenna Lawlor: "The Rosetta Mission and its lander Philae"
Susan Mckenna Lawlor is the Emeritus professor in Experimental physics at the National University of Ireland Maynooth (NUIM) and the founder and director of Space Technology Ireland Ltd which builds instrumentation for various space experiments flown on ESA, NASA and Russian missions. She also developed a set of instruments to monitor the Martian solar wind on the Mars Express mission launched by the European Space Agency. Her talk will look at the Rosetta Comet mission for which her team built an instrument on its lander that will touchdown on the comet last month.
6 Dr Christopher Watson: Title TBA
Dr Chris Watson from Queens University Belfast who will provide the very latest up-to-date information on the fascinating area of research about Extra Solar Planets. At QUB he has lectureship position studying the impact of stellar activity on the nature and detection of extra-solar planets and has been busy designing techniques to help in the hunt for these New Worlds orbiting other stars
7 Dave Grennan: Building a Home Made Telescope
Dave Grennan well known Irish amateur astronomer and Supernova hunter based at his Dublin suburban home observatory; "J41 Raheney Observatory". He has discovered three Supernovae in recent years and more recently his third using a home built telescope with a mirror that he ground himself. Dave will present a workshop during the lunch break detailing the delicate steps involved for a person to make their own perfect mirror for use on a telescope.
8. Brian MaGabhann, Galway Astronomy Club
Building a small observatory is not all that hard. A simple roll-off roof design can be built in a few days with simple tools and materials easily available in your local building supply store. A dome is much more complicated but still can be done with more careful planning, Or you can buy a kit. Galway Astronomy Club member Brian MacGabhann recently undertook the task of building himself a small wooden observatory and during this 30 minute workshop he will go through the different steps needed to get your observatory off the ground.
Tickets for the event are available at the door from 9.15am, there will also be dark sky observing at Brigits Garden, workshops, information/trade stands and as bonus attendees will get a chance to visit the NUI Galway Observatory.
For details of the Festival (including accommodation) our homepage at
www.galwayastronomyclub.ie/index.php/archive
or phone (00353)868434003. We look forward to seeing you, hopefully under clear skies
