Out and about in October

jfSDAS · 23-09-2016 8:46am #1

Hi all,

Some info below about upcoming events of interest. Details are from an occasional email I send to a list of subscribers.

The Rosetta probe is now nearing the end of its mission which will culminate with the gently "crashing" the spacecraft on to the surface of comet 67P on September 30th. Rosetta, and the plucky Philae (which was recently imaged), captured the public's heart over the last couple of years with tweets anthropomorphising the pair. Although the craft will soon lie down to sleep, the data beamed back to Earth by its instruments will keep scientists busy for years.
See:

Congratulations to the Chinese space agency on the recent launch of the Tiangong-2 space station. The orbiting home will be visited by two crew on October 16th for what is nominally a 33-day mission. Next year will see the visit in April of Tianzhou 1, an unmanned cargo vehicle that will dock with the station. Meanwhile, the Tiangong-1 station is set to de-orbit and burn up in the atmosphere at some point in 2017. Many thanks to author and space expert Brian Harvey for details of the date of Shenzhou 11's launch with the Tiangong-2 crew. See https://spaceflightnow.com/2016/09/15/chinas-tiangong-2-space-lab-successfully-blasts-off/

September 24th: Frontiers of Physics, Dublin

This year’s Institute of Physics teachers conference takes place in the School of Physics Dublin Institute of Technology, Grangegorman, Dublin 7. It will be a day of lectures, demonstrations, and workshops, resources and networking.

The keynote presentation will be delivered by the eminent physicist, Prof Mike Cruise who was part of the LIGO team who confirmed the existence of gravitational waves. There will be other guest presenters, including Prof Tom Ray of DIAS speaking on the Grubb Coelostat that was used on the Eddington eclipse expedition of 1919.

Registration fee of €30 includes lunch. A reduced fee for student teachers of €20 is also available. More details https://www.eventsforce.net/iop/949/home

The IoP in Ireland hosts many other events during the year and more information (including details of a lecture in November on the understanding of planet formation) can be found at http://iopireland.org/events/index.html

October 5th: Dream Big

Many thanks to Dr Niamh Shaw for details of the following event which she is co-organising. You can find out more about Dream Big at https://litmt.ticketsolve.com/shows/873562823/events or follow the event on FB via https://www.facebook.com/events/311503975878211

DREAM BIG is a panel event all about humans in Space with Limerick man Cyril Bennis who has paid €70,000 for a trip into space on XCOR's Lynx II, and will be one of the worlds first Space tourists. Joining him will be NASA and Apollo 15 Astronaut Al Worden (and patron of Lough Gur Heritage Centre, Limerick) who flew to the moon in 1971. Tickets are just €5/€3 and you can book online.

September 24th: Channel 4 "Walking Through Time"

Dr Mike Simms of the Ulster Museum has uncovered evidence of the only large meteorite impact crater in the British Isles. His find is the subject of a Channel 4 documentary to be aired on September 24th. More details at http://www.channel4.com/programmes/walking-through-time/episode-guide and http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-37360696

September 26th: IAS talk

The first lecture of the new season for the IAS is on amateur radio satellites and receiving live video feed from the ISS. Venue is Ely House, 8 Ely Place, Dublin 2 at 8pm. More details at http://www.irishastrosoc.org/

September 30th: Ulster Museum Science Festival

The wonders of scientific discovery in Northern Ireland will be revealed in this evening event to be hosted by the Museum. More details can be found at http://nmni.com/um/What-s-on.aspx?type=events where there is also a note about a talk on October 1st by Robert Hill, who is an excellent speaker.

October 3rd to 8th: Space Week Ireland

CIT Blackrock Castle Observatory, Science Foundation Ireland, ESERO, and others are involved this year in developing Space Week Ireland as a major celebration of space and astronomy countrywide. Many fantastic events are organised for young astronauts and veteran space travellers, with full details at http://spaceweek.ie/ ... some highlights are listed below.

Deirdre Kelleghan will be hosting her popular activity workshops "Deadly Moons" and "Marvellous Mars" in Newbridge and Maynooth libraries

BCO will have their portable Star Dome planetarium set up at various venues around Kildare during the week.

International Observe the Moon Night on October 8thwill see telescopes set up by the IAS for the public to view our companion in space (and also the previous evening). See http://www.irishastrosoc.org/events/events.htm

"William Rowan Hamilton and Space Navigation", a talk by Dr Fiacre Ó Cairbre in the OPW Head Office (Dublin) at 4pm on October 7th.

"Calendars, Clocks, and the End of Irish Time", a talk by Dr David Malone in Dunsink Observatory at 7pm on October 2nd. Book via the DIAS web site at https://payments.dias.ie/ where you'll also find details of a further talk on 21st century astronomy which will be given on October 5th at 7:30pm.

Prints from the "Images of Starlight Exhibition" will be on display in the Fitzgerald Library in Trinity College Dublin from October 5th to 9th. TCD will also host two evening talks during the week. Details of both can be found at http://www.tcd.ie/Physics/news-events/events/spaceweek/

Cork Astronomy Club's public lecture on October 10th is "On the Value of Darkness" by Dr Thomas Prosh of Vienna University Observatory. See http://corkastronomyclub.com/

Armagh Planetarium host an evening of observing during Space Week on October 4th. See http://www.armaghplanet.com/events/aop-open-night-for-world-space-week-2016.html

The Irish Astronomical Association's public lecture on October 5th is "Live fast & die hard: The evolution and death of massive stars" by Dr Jose Groh of TCD. See http://irishastro.org.uk/ for more details.

October 16th: Hamilton Walk from Dunsink Observatory

The annual Hamilton Walk celebrates Ireland's most famous scientist and 3rd Director of Dunsink Observatory. More details about the event can be found at https://www.dias.ie/2016/09/19/annual-hamilton-walk-16th-october-2016/ -- a podcast recorded on the walk in 2011 by the late Mary Mulvihill can be found at http://ingeniousireland.ie/product/dublin-eureka-by-the-royal-canal-lite/

October 17th: Hamilton lecture

Professor Shafi Goldwasser (MIT and the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel) will deliver the Royal Irish Academy's 2016 Hamilton Lecture on the 17 October on the topic ‘Modern cryptography in the age of cloud computing’. Venue is the Edmund Burke Lecture Theatre in TCD. Book via https://www.ria.ie/events/hamilton-lecture-modern-cryptography-age-cloud-computing

October 28th - 30th: Mayo Dark Sky Festival

In May of 2016 Ballycroy National Park in County Mayo became Ireland's first Gold Tier International Dark Sky Park, as recognised by the International Dark Sky Association. The idyllic coastal town of Newport will host their inaugural Dark Sky Festival, from 28th - 30th October 2016 and share a passion for the night sky and astronomy during this fun filled New Moon weekend. Come for the extended weekend from the 27th to the 31st of October. See https://mayodarkskyfestival.wordpress.com/

November 24th: DIAS Statutory Public Lecture

The DIAS School of Cosmic Physics Statutory Public Lecture this year will be titled "The Physics of Climate Change: What we know and what we are uncertain about". It will be given by Prof Tim Palmer, Royal Society Research Professor, University of Oxford. Venue is the Edmund Burke Lecture Theatre (Room 1008) in TCD at 6:30pm. You can book for the talk at https://www.dias.ie/2016/09/19/scpspl2016/

Further events

Octocon 2016 is Ireland's premiere Science Fiction convention. This year's event will be held from October 14th to 16th in the Camden Court Hotel, Dublin. More details at http://2016.octocon.com/

Science Week 2016 will be held from November 13th to 20th countrywide. More details at http://www.science.ie/

jfSDAS · 25-09-2016 10:08am

New item for Space Week ...

DCU, through the School of Mathematical Sciences and the School of Physics, will celebrate Space Week with an evening of short public talks delivered by DCU's own astronomers and astrophysicists. It will take place on Thursday 6th October starting at 18:30 and is FREE to all, however advance registration is required.

The topics of the talks will range from finding alien planets to the mysteries of black holes and their impact on the universe we see around us. You can register via: https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/the-universe-from-star-formation-to-supermassive-blackholes-tickets-27732091432

Out and about in October

Comments