Galway Astronomy Festival "City of Stars" Feb 1st 2014

Hi

Bernie of

Sounds great Ronan and I'm looking forward to it already. Can I reserve a stall please to sell a selection of astronomy related books, dvd's etc?

Yes of course Bernie

Paul Mohr is in the process of finishing a new book on Greek Astronomy for the amateur astronomer community and will be provisionally launching the book during the event, he also told me how he appreciate the courtesy in putting 'professor' before his name, but would be more comfortable amongst the other fine speakers if he was listed with just his name like their's: the brotherhood of astronomers. Well done Paul.

Another speaker during the Festival will be Tom ODonaghue from Tuam, Co Galway but who does his imaging from Southern Spain, a photo of his of Rho Ophiuchi and Antares Nebulae took 2nd place @ the "Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2013" competition in Greenwich see www.astrophotography.ie

BTW if you happening to be travelling on an Aer Lingus flight anywhere in Europe or the World over the next two months check out the Dec/Jan issue of CARA, the inflight magazine whre the Galway Astronomy Festival 2014 gets special treatment.

Hope to see you there


Ronan Newman
Chairman
Galway Astronomy Club
www.galwayastronomyclub.ie
www.facebook...ayastronomyclub

Hi again

We have updated our website with abstracts of all our talks and speakers
bio's, also the full program and information on some wonderful trade stands not
seen at any Irish star party before, details of our mega prize draw
will be announced shortly. Please go to www.galwayastronomyclub.ie/index.php/31-...ronomy-festival-2014

Thank you

Ronan Newman

Hi

We are delighted to announce that Apogee Imaging Systems from California will be displaying a large selection of their merchandise at our Astronomy Festival on Feb 1st. They have been supplying cooled CCD cameras to astronomers around the world and are now used in more than 50 countries, from world-class professional observatories to backyard domes where "amateurs" add discovery after discovery every day.

Their cameras have been used for high-end astronomical applications like capturing the first images of optical counterparts of gamma ray bursts, plus thousands of discoveries of comets, near-Earth asteroids, and extra-solar planets.

See them at www.ccd.com/index.html

There will also be large stands by KTEC Telescopes and Scopes and Space.

Ronan Newman

Hi and Happy Christmas

We have one final speaker change to our line up of what will be a very exciting event and at a bargain entry price that wont be beaten of only €20, We are delighted to welcome Tim Puckett of the Puckett Observatory of Atlanta, USA. www.cometwatch.com/ with a talk entitled "The Puckett Observatory World Supernova Search"

Timothy Puckett was born in 1962 in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, and is an amateur astronomer and astrophotographer with over 30 years experience. Experienced in the field of amateur CCD (digital) astro-imaging, Tim has operated numerous CCD cameras since 1989. He has built several robotic telescopes and is currently operating an automated supernova search patrol and comet astrometry program which uses 60-cm and 35-cm telescopes. His photos of comets and deep-sky objects have been published in books and magazines in several countries, including Great Britain, Japan, Italy, Germany, Australia and South Africa. His work has also been featured on ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, CNN, BBC, The Discovery and Learning Channels and Good Morning America. Tim is the Astronomy Sales Engineer for Apogee Instruments and a robotic-telescope consultant for professional observatories.

In recognition of his contributions to the field of astronomy, asteroid 32096 Puckett = 2000 KO38 was named in his honour. He is also the recipient of the American Astronomical Society's 2011 Chambliss Amateur Achievement Award. This award is presented for an achievement in astronomical research made by an amateur astronomer.

The Puckett Observatory is a private astronomical observatory located in the state of Georgia, United States. It is owned and operated by Tim Puckett. Its primary observation goals are the study of comets and the discovery of supernovae. To facilitate the latter goal it sponsors the Puckett Observatory World Supernova Search whose astronomers have discovered 280 supernovae. The Puckett Observatory houses two telescopes. The 60 cm (24”) Ritchey-Chrétien telescope was custom engineered and built by Puckett, and took nine years to complete, going online full-time in 1997. The telescope features a new type of hybrid disk/band worm drive designed by Puckett in 1993. The other observatory telescope includes a Celestron C-14 Schmidt-Cassegrain with a Software Bisque's Paramount ME Robotic Telescope System.


The Puckett Observatory World Supernova Search was formed in 1998, with its principal investigator being Tim Puckett. The search consists of a team of amateur astronomers located in the United States, Canada, India, Greece and Italy. Observatories participating in the search include the Puckett Observatory, and telescopes located in Portal, Arizona (Jack Newton), and Osoyoos, BC (Ajai Sehgal). The observatory uses computers to control the robotic telescopes and sends the images to volunteers via the Internet. Each image is manually compared ("blinked") to archive images. At least 40 hours each week are required to run the search operation. Team members have contributed thousands of hours to analyzing the data.

Ronan Newman
Chairman
Galway Astronomy Club
www.facebook.com/galwayAstrofest
www.galwayastronomyclub.ie

Excellent!
Looking forward to that talk.

Hi Michael, and your talk sounds very interesting also.

We also have well known Galway based Amateur Astronomer and a professor in geology; Paul Mohr who will be talking about his new book due in the Spring entitled “A String of Pearls: A Brief history of Greek astronomy”

Thanks

Ronan Newman
www.galwayastronomyclub.ie/index.php/31-...ronomy-festival-2014