Space Week and other events

hi all,

A bit late posting this information but hope you can get along to some of the events listed below.

John


World Space Week, running from October 4th to the 10th, is being actively promoted this year by Trinity College Dublin and Blackrock Castle Observatory in Cork.

A series of daily lectures will be hosted in TCD and feature Kevin Nolan on "Exploring Mars, Discovering Earth" next Friday at 1pm, along with talks each evening from Monday, October 7th to 10th at 6pm. See www.spaceweek.ie for a terrific line-up of lectures.

Blackrock Castle Observatory in Cork has a number of Mars-themed workshops suitable for schools during World Space Week. They also plan to try image the Jupiter-bound JUNO spacecraft during its flyby of Earth on October 9th as it gains a gravity assist from our planet. JUNO was launched in August 2011 and is scheduled to reach Jupiter in July 2016. See www.bco.ie/2013/09/wsw2013/ for the BCO programme and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juno_(spacecraft) for information about the mission (the NASA mission page is down during the Government furlough).

Keeping with the Mars-theme, India's first mission to the Red Planet is due to be launched on October 28th. Mangalyaan, or Mars-craft, is scheduled to reach Mars-orbit in September 2014. The mission is dependent on use of NASA's tracking stations, some of which are currently unmanned, so unless the current shutdown is sorted soon then the launch might have to be deferred until 2016. More about the mission at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mangalyaan


Maths Week 2013 -- 12th to 20th of October
A huge variety of events have been organised countrywide for Maths Week this yearand more details of these can be found at www.mathsweek.ie -- highlights include the Hamilton Walk at Dunsink Observatory, Mallow Science and Maths Family Fair, Roger Penrose at the Royal Irish Academy, and Prof Ben Allanach's talk about the search for Dark Matter. See also www.science.ie/science-events/mallow-science-fair-2013.html


Wednesday, October 23rd: RDS Speaker Series
Dr Tony Scott is in conversation with Dick Ahlstrom of the Irish Times about 50 years of the Young Scientist Exhibition. See www.rds.ie/cat_event_detail.jsp?itemID=1100493 for more details.


Geo-Gathering 2013 -- 19th/20th October
Thanks to Terry Moseley for notice about a major geology conference weekend which will be held in Galway this month. The Geo-Gathering will feature a weekend of talks by experts in their various fields. See www.igi.ie/news/geo-gathering-2013.htm for more details.


Cork Astronomy Club meeting on October 14th
Con McCarthy, Project manager for ESA's Mars Express Lander, Systems Engineer for Huygens and Venus Express, will give a talk titled "From Sputnik to the Moon Landings: A History of the Russian Space Programme". See www.corkastronomyclub.com/ for more details.


Irish Astronomical Society talk on October 21st
Dr Masha Chernyakova of DCU will give a talk on "Puzzling Gamma-Ray Binaries: Theory and Observation". See irishastrosoc.org/wp/ for more details.


The Alchemist Cafe (Dublin) talk on October 8th
"Maths and the Céide Fields" is the subject of October's talk. See www.alchemistcafedublin.com/ for more details.


Astronomy Ireland talk on October 14th
Many thanks to Justin Howlett for details about a talk on "Robots in Space" to be given by Dr. Leah-Nani S Alconel of University College London. More details can be found at www.astronomy.ie/lecture201310.php


Irish Meteorological Society talk on October 31st
Well known science journalist Mary Mulvihill will give a talk to the IMS this month on "The Ingenious Irish". The lecture will highlight the contributions of Irish scientists over the years to various disciplines. See www.irishmetsociety.org/programme/mary-mulvihil-talk for more details.


Talks at the Science Gallery @ TCD
Professor Keith Devlin of Stanford University will give a talk on Maths and Gaming on Monday, October 14th, while Simon Singh will speak about The Simpsons and their Mathematical Secrets on Thursday, October 17th. Both events are free to attend but booking is essential. See sciencegallery.com/events for more details.


CERN exhibition at UCD
The new Science Centre at University College Dublin will host an exhibition about CERN from October 9th to 28th. The exhibition is self-guided and open to the public from 9am to 9pm on weekdays. A guided tour can be arranged with the faculty in UCD beforehand though. See www.iopireland.org/events/ for more details.


Stack Exchange --Astronomy Q & A
Many thanks to Paul Higgins for alerting me to Stack Exchange, a network of Q &A forums across a broad range of topics. Paul writes, "The idea behind stack exchange is to have the public ask in depth questions about technical topics to be answered by specialists knowledgeable on the topic." The next couple of weeks should see an astronomy area open up to the public after beta-testing at astronomy.stackexchange.com/


International Observe the Moon Night -- October 12th (and IAS event on the 11th)
Celebrate the beauty of our companion world in space on October 12th by viewing the Moon through binoculars, a telescope, or just by gazing up in wonder. See observethemoonnight.org/ for more details. The Moon will be at First Quarter and the Irish Astronomical Society will be hosting a Sidewalk Astronomy Event on October 11th at Sandymount Tower in Dublin. See irishastrosoc.org/wp/ for more details.


"The Life of Galileo" -- November 8th to 10th
Bertolt Brecht’s acclaimed play about science, religion and authority, ‘The Life of Galileo’, comes to Dunsink Observatory for three nights in November, when the play will be staged around several unique spaces, including the 150-year-old dome with its historic telescope. See www.dias.ie/index.php?lang=en for more details.