SDAS newsletter -- September 25th 2012

Contributions in this mail are from correspondence and forum postings by Antoinette Madden, Terry Moseley, and Albert White, and IFAS members, as well as Discover Science and Engineering at www.science.ie

Hi all,

If you were out and about for Culture Night last Friday evening then maybe you were lucky enough to spot the spectacular fireball that crossed the sky around 11pm. A group of us were at Dunsink Observatory and the unexpected appearance of the object wowed those still present for the observing programme. Terry Moseley has asked that any reports of what you saw be sent to him and Armagh Observatory. More details can be found below.

Our own SDAS meetings commence on Monday, October 1st at 8pm in Gonzaga College, Ranelagh. Once again we are delighted to co-host these with the Irish Astronomical Society and we would like to thank Gonzaga College for providing us with the facilities. All are welcome and admission is free.

Our speaker next week will be Dr Masha Chernyakova of Dublin City University. Masha is a former Schrödinger Fellow at the Dublin Institute of Advanced Studies and has worked with ESA’s XMM-Newton spacecraft. More details and title of the talk will be posted in the next few days. Hope to see you along at the meeting.

Clear skies!

John


Tuesday, September 25th – FREE geology course starting in Trinity College Dublin

from Antoinette Madden: A series of twelve free public lectures for a general audience on geological raw materials and geological hazards in an Irish context will be held at 8pm on Tuesday evenings in Trinity College Dublin, starting on September 25th (today). With talks on subjects like Earthquakes, Volcanoes, Groundwater, and Fracking, there is a terrific range of topics covered. Venue is room 4 in the Museum Building at TCD and the full programme can be found at www.tcd.ie/courses/esc/az/course.php?id=394


Thursday, September 27th – Joan Kearney Science Lecture, Alexandra College, Dublin
Professor Luke O’Neill, Director of the Trinity Biomedical Science Institute at Trinity College Dublin, will be the guest speaker at the annual Joan Kearney Science Lecture, on Thursday 27 September 2012 at 7.30pm. This year’s presentation is on “Why it’s great being a scientist: adventures in information research”. The College is located in Milltown in Dublin and admission to this public lecture is free.


Friday, September 28th – Sea2Sky in Cork and Galway
Showcasing science on a grand scale, European Researchers Night will take place in 800 venues across 320 cities on Friday, 28th September. After a very successful event in 2011, NUI Galway will once again be participating under the theme Sea2Sky along with partners the Marine Institute and Galway Atlantaquaria and their new partner, CIT Blackrock Castle Observatory in Cork to bring an even bigger event this year. The free, fun, family event will see hundreds of scientists presenting their research from the fields of Marine, Atmospherics and Astronomy. Check out www.sea2sky.ie/wordpress/ for more details.


to September 30th – Trinity College Dublin exhibition on Ernest T.S. Walton
Trinity College Dublin is currently hosting an exhibition on Ernest T.S. Walton, who succeeded with John Cockcroft in splitting the atomic nucleus in April 1932. Both men were later awarded the Nobel Prize and Walton is Ireland’s only science Nobel Laureate. More details about the exhibition can be found at www.tcd.ie/Library/about/exhibitions.php


Irish Dark Skies
from Albert White: Last week’s Irish Times carried a terrific article about the effects of urban light pollution and efforts to establish dark sky parks in Europe. You can link to the piece via the new web site on light pollution set up by Albert at www.darksky.ie/ -- he recently drove around Wicklow measuring sky quality and a report of his nocturnal adventures can be found at www.irishastronomy.org/index.php?option=...0&id=95103&Itemid=40


Bright comets due in 2013
from Albert White: Not one but TWO bright comets are expected to grace our skies in 2013. The first is 2011 L4 (PANSTARRS) which may be visible to the unaided eye in March and April 2013, while the other is recently discovered 2012 S1 (ISON) which will have a close perihelion and could be spectacularly bright in November and December next year.

• 2011 L4 (PANSTARRS) – see remanzacco.blogspot.ie/2012/09/new-updat...11-l4-panstarrs.html and cometography.com/lcomets/2011l4.html

• 2012 S1 (ISON) – see remanzacco.blogspot.ie/2012/09/new-comet-c2012-s1-ison.html and www.ast.cam.ac.uk/~jds/


Worth a read …
• The winners of the Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2012 competition have been announced. Check out the stunning images at www.rmg.co.uk/visit/exhibitions/astronom...grapher-of-the-year/
• What if you shone a green laser at the Moon? -- what-if.xkcd.com/13/
• What’s happening across the Solar System this month? -- www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla...-september-2012.html
• Ethan Siegel always has interesting blog posts on cosmology – see his latest posts at scienceblogs.com/startswithabang/
• Updated infographics at www.space.com/infographics/ from Space.com plus even more astronomy posters at pinterest.com/mariejason/astronomy-infographics/ – including a cool timeline of Star Trek!


Undergrad and postgrad placements at the European Space Agency
The European Space Agency (ESA) is offering students a wide range of work placement options. Applicants should be on the verge of completing their Bachelors degree, or be in the first half of their Masters course. Internships last from three to six months, preference being given to longer internships. More details can be found at www.science.ie/science-news/undergrad-an...at-space-agency.html


Cassini Scientist for a Day (closing date is December 3rd, 2012)
Deirdre Kelleghan is coordinating NASA’s Cassini Scientist for a Day competition this year for submissions from Ireland. The competition is designed to give participants a taste of life as a scientist. The team working on the NASA/ESA/ASI Cassini-Huygens mission have set aside valuable observing time for educational purposes, and they will use this to take images as part of the “Cassini Scientist for a Day” competition. Students must choose one of three targets that Cassini will image and write a 50-word essay explaining their choice to a panel of experts. The closing date for entries is 3 December 2012. More details can be found at www.science.ie/science-news/cassini-scientist-for-day.html


Odysseus contest for schools (closing date is January 2013)
The Odysseus contest challenges students between 14 and 18 years old age from all EU countries to develop a project on space exploration, using their knowledge, creativity and critical thinking. Students wishing to participate must form a team of 2 to 5 members, with a teacher as a coach and prepare and submit a project in one of the contest’s categories: i) Solar System, ii) Spaceship – global cooperation and iii) Co-evolution of life. The entry must be digital and it may take the form of any digital file and include a summary in the format provided by the organizers and describing the background thinking of the project. The contest will be open from July 2012 to January 2013. More details can be found at www.odysseus-contest.eu/


“Ear to the Edge of Time” – a play to be performed on October 21st
Ear to the Edge of Time, by Australian playwright Alana Valentine, is the winner of the STAGE International Script Competition for the best new play about science and technology. The play will be performed as a staged reading at Trinity College Dublin’s Samuel Beckett Theatre on the 21st of October 2012.

STAGE - Scientists, Technologists and Artists Generating Exploration - housed at the California NanoSystems Institute at the University of California, Santa Barbara, runs every two years and aims to identify the best new play about science and technology worldwide. STAGE comes to Dublin as a result of the efforts of CRANN, working in collaboration with Nancy Kalawek, Director of STAGE. More details can be found at www.crann.tcd.ie/Education-Outreach/STAGE.aspx


The Shackleton Endurance Exhibition (runs until August 2014)
from Antoinette Madden: The Dun Laoghaire Ferry Terminal is the venue of a new exhibition on Shackleton’s 1914-1917 expedition to the Antarctic. It runs until August 2014 and has 150 photographs and story boards about his journey to the polar region. More details can be found at www.visitdublin.com/event/Shackleton_Exhibition


Advance notice of a lecture by Professor Martin Rees on November 19th
The 2012 Statutory Public Lecture of the School of Theoretical Physics in association with the School of Cosmic Physics will take place in University College Dublin on Monday 19th November 2012 at 6:30pm. The lecture entitled "Cosmic perspectives: from planets to the multiverse" will be given by Professor Martin Rees, Baron Rees of Ludlow, O.M., F.R.S. and will be held in Theatre L, Newman Building (Arts Block) UCD, Belfield. Admission is free.


Report your observations of the fireball on Friday, September 21st
from Terry Moseley: If anyone saw the major fireballs which appeared over Ireland (and parts of GB) at about 22.55 BST on Friday 21 September, please quickly log as much detail as possible of your observation on Armagh Observatory's fireball report form at arpc65.arm.ac.uk/fireballs/index.html -- obviously if you have any photo or video images, these are VERY useful, so please forward them with details of time, focal length of lens, direction, and any other relevant information.

PLEASE GIVE AS MUCH OF THE FOLLOWING DETAIL AS POSSIBLE:
1. Your name, address, and a telephone number.
2. Your location from where you saw the event, as accurately as possible. Preferably a GPS latitude & longitude, or an Ordnance Survey 6 figure Grid Reference, or a distance along a given direction or named/numbered road from a named town & county.
3. Time of the event.
4. What direction were you facing when you first saw the fireballs? Please give this as a compass direction.
5. And in what direction were the fireballs when you first saw them?
6. Approximately what angle above the horizon were the fireballs when you first saw them? For reference, the horizon is 0 degrees, and the point directly overhead is 90 degrees. For comparison, the midday Sun at this time of year is about 35 degrees above the horizon.
7. Approximately what angle above the horizon were the fireballs when they passed at their highest relative to you? (see 6 above for reference)
8. Approximately what angle above the horizon were the fireballs when they disappeared from your view? (see 6 above for reference). And was this because they faded away, or passed behind cloud or a house or tree or hill etc?
9. What direction were the fireballs when they were passing highest above your horizon?
10. IMPORTANT: If possible, please give the track of the fireballs relative to any prominent stars or constellations, e.g. 'just below Altair', or 'Through Delphinus' etc. Even better would be several reference points, e.g. From between Aries and Triangulum, passing just above Altair, and through the 'keystone' of Hercules. Or whatever.
11. Approximately what direction were the fireballs when they disappeared from your view? (see 4 for reference).
12. How many separate fireballs did you see?
13. Can you give an idea of the brightness of the brightest, and of the faintest, ones that you saw? Either give a magnitude (e.g. + 1, or -3, or -6 etc), or else compare with other objects such as Sirius (-1.5), Jupiter (-2.5 approx.) or Venus at its brightest (-4.5) or brighter still.
14. Please describe any colours that you saw.
15. Please describe any fragmentation that you saw.
16. Please describe any sounds that you heard which might have been associated with the fireballs. IMPORTANT: Please describe when you heard these sounds in relation to the sighting, e.g. 'as they were approaching', or 'as they passed highest / closest', or 'just after they had passed closest', or 'as they were disappearing', or as best you can.
17. How fast were they moving when at their fastest, probably when they were at their highest above the horizon? Compare with the apparent maximum speed of either the International Space Station or any other fast satellite, or with the slowest meteor you have ever seen, or with a high altitude jet going overhead.
18. For how long in total were they visible (in seconds or minutes & seconds)?
19. How would you describe your experience in observing similar objects in the night sky, e.g. meteors, other bright fireballs, the ISS, etc?: 'None', 'A little', 'Some', 'Quite experienced', or 'Very experienced'.
20. Any other relevant information.

Exploring further
The following web sites are also a great resource for information about what’s on view in our skies during the month;

www.skymaps.com — superb charts you can download
www.jb.man.ac.uk/astronomy/nightsky/
www.guardian.co.uk/science/series/starwatch
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/nightsky/
www.heavens-above.com — space station predictions
dcford.org.uk/index.php -- the Digital Astrolabe
earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials -- absolutely essential reading for what's up

www.jodcast.net — monthly night sky tour for MP3 players

www.spaceweather.com – details of transitory events during the month as well as aurora alerts

spaceflightnow.com — mission launches and other news (click “Launch Schedule” too)

www.skymania.com – astronomy and space news
www.universetoday.com – more astronomy and space news
www.nightskyobserver.com/the-sky-this-month.php -- Gary Nugent’s astronomy and space news