South Dublin A.S. news

hi gang,

Happy New Year to all . . . hope you had a good Christmas.

in this issue: THAT comet, tsunami disaster relief fundraising, focus on Saturn, next meeting, Connacht Star Party

as always, feel free to mail me or give me a call on 086-8181931 if you want any info about the SDAS.

John


Comet Machholz
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I got a view of Comet Machholz on Monday night on the road to Tullamore (well, not from the moving car!) . . . really nice comet and it's visible from a dark site with the unaided eye. In the big binoculars it looked marvellous. A very tenuous dust-tail is just about visible . . . not like the scimitar-tailed Hale-Bopp back in the Spring of 1997 which some of you might remember. More info on where to find Comet Machholz at the moment is at www.spaceweather.com or skyandtelescope.com. Pics and discussions about the comet are on www.irishastronomy.org


Tsunami Disaster Relief Fundraisers
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there's a series of observing events to support various tsunami disaster relief funds on this Thursday and Friday night . . . check out www.astronomy.ie for Thursday night's events or if you fancy dropping down to Sandymount Tower Car Park (south side of the tower) from 7:30pm to 9:30pm on Friday night, that's the one being hosted by members of the South Dublin Astronomical Society (more info at www.irishastronomy.org ) . . . Saturn will be spectacular in the large telescopes. Voluntary contributions to look through the telescopes are invited . . . there's no pressure to donate.

if you are able to bring a telescope along on Friday night then please drop me a line or give me a call as soon as is convenient so that we have an idea of what equipment will be available for people to look through.

finally, the IFAS group will have a table quiz in Port Laoise on Saturday night . . . info at the end of this mail. If anyone fancies coming down to make up a team, I'll be driving down and coming back to Dublin the same night so drop me a line or give me a call. Just to add, it's a general knowledge quiz and no specific round on astronomy to stump people!


Focus on Saturn
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this coming Friday is a historic occasion as it's the day that the Huygens probe will be dropped into the atmosphere of Saturn's largest moon Titan. The probe was mated to the Cassini spacecraft which is currently returning stunning images of the Ringed Planet. Huygens will parachute through Titan's atmosphere, hopefully to touch down on it's surface, and return images of this world that many consider to have an atmosphere like the early Earth and which is rich in organic compounds, the building blocks of life. BBC 2 will have coverage of the mission from 11:30pm on Friday night.

Saturn is at opposition (and so is at it's brightest for the year) on the 13th of January. The planet is currently in Gemini and the rings, though not as wide open as last year, are still presented magnificently. Titan can be spotted in binoculars as a magnitude 8 speck close in to the planet. The moon is a little past elongation on Friday night. The minor planet 8 Flora, slightly fainter than Titan, lies close to Saturn at the moment too. Check out www.rasnz.org.nz/MinorP/Flora.htm for more info and a chart of its position.


Next Meeting
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Our next meeting is on Thursday, January 20th when we will have a talk on astrophotography to be given by Dave Gradwell. Dave was involved with the beta-testing of the latest release of Registax -- a software product for processing of astronomical imaging. There's been great interest in this area of astronomy in the last while as digital technology comes of age in capturing images of the Universe.

as always, our meeting is at 8pm in Gonzaga College in Ranelagh, Dublin. Give me a call if you need directions (086-8181 931).


Connacht Star Party
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The second Connacht Star Party hosted by Galway Astronomy Club is being hosted in the Westwood House Hotel in Galway City on Saturday, 29th January 2005. Last year's inaugural event was attended by 120 people and this year's meeting promises to be even better. The theme for the day is extra-solar planets and a great line-up of speakers has been arranged. More details on www.galwayastronomyclub.ie


Saturday 15 January Table Quiz
This table quiz will be held in the Heritage Hotel, Portlaoise, and is due to begin at 8.00 pm. It will be a general knowledge quiz, with a raffle, and (hopefully) a celebrity quizmaster.

Please come along to the event and help make a contribution towards alleviating the pain suffered by those in South-East Asia. We have no overheads or expenses, and every cent raised will be given directly to GOAL.

Tsunami Disaster Relief Fundraisers
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there's a series of observing events to support various tsunami disaster relief funds on this Thursday and Friday night . . . check out www.astronomy.ie for Thursday night's events or if you fancy dropping down to Sandymount Tower Car Park (south side of the tower) from 7:30pm to 9:30pm on Friday night, that's the one being hosted by members of the South Dublin Astronomical Society (more info at www.irishastronomy.org ) . . . Saturn will be spectacular in the large telescopes. Voluntary contributions to look through the telescopes are invited . . . there's no pressure to donate.

if you are able to bring a telescope along on Friday night then please drop me a line or give me a call as soon as is convenient so that we have an idea of what equipment will be available for people to look through.

As ever when you plan a public observing session, the weather lets you down - Met Eireann are forecasting the following for the next 3 days:

Very mild but rather windy in places Friday night with fresh to strong southerly winds. generally cloudy with rain at times with some heavy falls in parts of the west and southwest. Mild in many places on Saturday also but with widespread rain, heavy in places though it should clear eastwards during the afternoon and evening and the fresh to strong south to southeast winds will veer south to southwest. Becoming colder on Saturday night with some frost developing. Cold and bright on Sunday with sunny spells and some frost setting in for a time in the evening but thickening cloud will bring rain eastwards Sunday night and it will become much milder for Monday. Mild and rather windy on Monday with fairly widespread rain.