Interview with Dr Brian O'Halloran an Irish Scientist working on the Herschel Space Telescope

Dr Brian O'Halloran was interviewed by Deirdre Kelleghan
at Dunsink Observatory.Dr O'Halloran was the IAS guest
speaker on October 19th 2009, he kindly agreed to this
interview a few minutes before he delivered his presentation.

The interview was recorded with a mobile phone so
turn up the sound for best hearing.

The talk on the Herschel Space Telescope was excellent
and it was great to hear about Brian's work on SPIRE

You can follow Herschel at The European Space Agency here

You can follow Herschel on Twitter here

The interview will be broadcast on Phoenix 92.5FM
October 31st Saturday at 3:15 pm.
The station broadcasts to Dublin 15.

Irish Astronomical Society Events coming up

October 30th Free Public Observing at the Martello Tower Car
Park Sandymount 8pm - 10pm. Someone will be there to talk
to you no matter what the weather is like.
Telephone 0876398143


November 16th Telescope workshop
in Dunsink Observatory 8pm. If you want to get the best out
of your scope or have a new scope and
would like to get to know how to use it , come along and we will help you out.


The ESO education
and Public Outreach Department
The Jewel Box Star Cluster.

The combination of images taken by three exceptional telescopes,
the ESO Very Large Telescope on Cerro Paranal , the MPG/ESO
2.2-metre telescope at ESO’s La Silla observatory and the
NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, has allowed the
stunning Jewel Box star cluster to be seen in a whole new light.

The release, images and video are available on
http://www.eso.org/public/outreach/press-rel/pr-2009/pr-40-09.html


Whats Up for October 2009
The Andromeda Galaxy

Stunning Mars Image for you - Herschel Exclusive at Dunsink

A wonderful explanation of this stunning image from the surface of Mars by Phil Platt
can be found here http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/category/astronomy/ click the link and read it.
Much more on the HiRSE website here http://www.uahirise.org/

The incredible Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter’s HiRISE camera took the image

What can I say about this image ? it shouts out a story, it seeks and deserves our
attention , it brings focus to our spirit , and helps us wrap ourselves in the fabric
and the beauty of the surface of this awesome planet.


If you are up early in the morning ( Oct 16th) Venus , Saturn and Mercury will join
a lovely crescent moon on the eastern horizon 07:00 enjoy






Don't forget Monday October 19th in Dunsink, e mail John Murphy
to reserve a seat . johnmurphy474@gmail.com

See you there

Deirdre

Cassini Scientist for a Day Essay Competition

WOW !! A really cool competition open to all students in Ireland

(11 to 18 years).

Just 500 words on why Cassini should image either Saturn and its Rings, Tethy's and Saturns Rings or Titan Saturn's largest moon.

So if you are a teacher , have a good read and a good look at the video's and requirements.

Perhaps you have a budding scientist sitting in your class room ? Feel free to pass on this information to a teacher or a pupil you know .

Prizes include vouchers for Amazon, a trip to London and, if you’re specific target is chosen, Cassini itself will take an image of your chosen subject!

The Cassini Mission to Saturn and Titan is one of the greatest exploration missions of our time.

This is your chance to be part of this wonderful science experience.

All information regarding the Cassini Scientist for a Day Essay Competition re Ireland www.maths.qmul.ac.uk/schools/cassini

Watch all the videos at http://www.youtube.com/user/CassiniScientist4Day#play/uploads/0/nrn4hPdY6KU


Deadline for submission in Ireland is 30th Oct
Good Luck

Dublin Institute of Advanced Studies - Statutory Lecture 2009 Oct 12th 2009 8pm UCD

All from Nothing: the structuring of our UniverseTelescopes are time-machines. They allow us to see into the distant past. Our deepest images show the Universe not as it is today, but as it was just 400,000 years after the Big Bang. At that time there were no galaxies, no stars, no planets,
no people, no familiar elements other than hydrogen and helium. The cosmos contained
nothing but weak sound waves in a near-uniform fog. Spercomputers can compress thirteen billion years of cosmic evolution into a few months of calculation to show how these sound waves
developed into the rich structure we see around us today. A study of their harmonic content gives clues to their origin. They appear to be an echo of quantum zero-point fluctuations occurring a tiny fraction of a second after the Big Bang. Thusour
entire world may be a consequence of the nature of this early vacuum.
In a very real sense, everything may have come from nothing.

Lecture Theater C005
Health Sciences Building
University College Dublin
October 12th 2009 8 p.m.
Professor Simon D.M. White
Director at the Max Plank Institute for Astrophysics

Irish Astronomical Society October Talk
- All welcome its free click on the image see it large




Lets DO It in the Park again

October 22nd - Wicklow Mountains National Park - 7:30 pm - 9:30 pm - Upper Lake Car Park

A call for telescopes and their people to help show our moon , Jupiter's moons
and the lovely Jupiter to the public in the park .

Our last major public outreach event 100 Hours of Astronomy brought amateur astronomers
in this country together to share the night sky with the public. What an incredible amount of public service astronomy went on that week in April .

We all learned from that very positive experience , and now we have the opportunity to to do it again and build on what we learned.

Let me know asap if you are taking part and what you intend to do in your area. No need to get complicated , just share the sky in your neighbourhood . Watch the IFAS forum for updates
http://www.irishastronomy.org/cms/



A familiar voice talks Stars

@365DaysOfAstro Sept. 30 podcast: The Delight of Stars by Brother Guy Consolmagno http://bit.ly/YYhpM

The Exhibition Gallery at Birr Castle Science Centre
Images by Bernard Kelleghan

In the Footsteps of Galileo an exhibition of astronomical sketches
has opened in Birr Castle Science Centre Co Offaly.

The exhibition displays 51 observational sketches by astronomers
from all over the world, and over 100 children's moon drawings .


A lovely mixed audience of astronomers, artists , educators , children
and the general public attended the launch .

Dr Carolina Odman International Program Manager for UNAWE ie Universe Awareness for Young Children opened the exhibition for me, and gave a talk on UNAWE's teachings to young children about the scale and beauty of the universe.


The Seventh Earl of Rosse spoke about the uniqueness of
the exhibition and said
"it's a pleasure to see In the Footsteps of Galileo
in the shadow of the Leviathan."

I said a few words on behalf of the contributors and also spoke
about astronomical drawing , why we do it ,
the learning through observation experience, that brings the subject to the page.


Sir Patrick Moore who has donated six sketches to the display sent
a message of good will with regrets for been unable to attend himself.

To my great delight Lord Rosse framed four original sketches from
his ancestor The 3rd Earl of Rosse .
These sketches include the world famous Whirlpool Galaxy
and the Crab Nebula sketched using the Leviathan.



The Seventh Earl of Rosse on his knees before
the Whirlpool Galaxy sketched by his ancestor
The Third Earl . Deirdre Kelleghan , Dr Carolina Odman
and Lady Rosse look on



Children's moon drawings from Dublin, Louth, Cork, Offaly
New York and elsewhere add to the International flavor


The Exhibition runs till November 1st 2009 and is
open everyday from 9 am - 6 pm

Deirdre reports on the astronomical sketching exhibition at Birr Castle in Ireland

Deirdre reports on the astronomical sketching exhibition at Birr Castle in Ireland

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Falling Man

Remembering The Falling Man 911

Across the entire global community there seems to be no alignment of agreement on ethics in relation to the journalistic press or the photo journalistic press. There are varying degrees of standard guidelines and principles for all the strata of output in the media in the twenty first century.

The cultural evolution theory developed by the nineteenth century anthropologist Lewis Henry Morgan is a stiff ethnocentric model that I found difficult to place over any society in the world. He put forward the idea that societies developed from the first stage of savagery onto barbarism then finally reaching civilization.

I found this view a little narrow and a little shallow until I began to focus on the microcosm of society that is the world’s press, in this context the model sat very well.
All aspects of Morgan’s cultural evolution theory reside in both the shallowness and depths of the worlds printed and broadcast media. From tabloids to broadsheets, from rolling news to in-depth reports directly from the centre of disasters and war.

The savage, the barbarian, and the civilized exist together. These various media formats feed us their view of world events static and unfolding. The savage paparazzi, who dive to lower and lower depths of unethical behavior to achieve images for reward. The barbaric photojournalism of war and human suffering and the attempt at civility by the more ethically sensitive media, that at least tries to find a balance towards, honor of the individual and human dignity.

It is a fact that a picture paints a thousand words. A photograph is revealing to the viewer and revealing of its subject. One image etched in my mind as regards ethical issues and the privacy of the individual is the 2001 image of “The Falling Man” .

This image appeared in newspapers across the globe in the day’s post 911; it is heralded as an iconic image in the same vain as the Unknown Soldier.

In a documentary made at the time, it was put forward as a heroic image of an American in an elegant gracefully fall.

The fact is, this is an image of a man in the last few seconds of his life. A very private moment stolen by the click, click, click, of a press photographer. The photojournalist job that day was to get exclusive graphic images to sell to the networks.

Now, one could argue that the latter was perhaps in the public interest or that the public has a right to know allowing ethical considerations being overridden.

Journalism and the freedom of the press has an ethnology all of its own. The victim falling to his death on 911 did not go to work to become an icon of a tragic day.
It is unfortunate how a murdered man becomes a reluctant hero in his dying moments and somehow brings a badge of honor to the photojournalist who captured this barbarism.

The photograph was subsequently used to eventfully identify the man but that also brought up issues which evoked anger and shame. Somehow the people who fell from the twin towers that day became referred to as jumpers. This implied that they committed suicide which their families associated with shame.

Journalists and photojournalists have a responsibility to bring us news, to investigate on our behalf. They also have a responsibility to attempt to achieve equilibrium between their story gathering abilities and the right to the privacy and dignity of an individual.

Where is the point that people must relinquish their privacy as they perhaps become celebrities? If you rise your head above the parapet you are it seems, automatically relieved of autonomy over your private life. Moral sensitivity good taste and compassion are required on the part of journalists especially when they are reporting about victims of accidents or other tragedies.

If you die because of an act of terrorism and your dying image is captured on film you become an overnight celebrity, a hero, an icon, somehow transmuted from an ordinary individual to someone owned by the world? In your life perhaps you were an unremarkable person and in your death you become a moral dilemma, something to be honed and cooked up into a media offering for the masses to digest.

RIP to all victims of 911

ALCON 2009 New York

Viewed from 37.000 feet the landscape of Canada was laced with thousands of steel blue pools. Meandering river channels etched life into a combat green background. Shoals of puffy cumulus raced beneath me in several layers, of white and grey. The Air Lingus shamrock tipped wing sliced through the atmosphere toward a New York landing.....................

Below are a few micro moments from my trip to New York for ALCON 2009

Deadly Moons Art Astronomy workshop
at The Astronomical Leagues Convention
in Hofstra University New York.
Deadly Moons will be part of Heritage Week at Newgrange
next Saturday August 22nd details to follow.
e mail skysketcher@gmail.com

The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled.
Plutarch




Deirdre Linda and Galileo at Custer Observatory Long Island

The Amateur Observers Society of New York were my hosts
Linda Prince did a great job organising children from the
Science Camp at Hofstra and local children from her
young astronomers group to attend the workshop.
http://www.aosny.org/

A few images from my visit to ALCON in New York



Deirdre gets The Astronomical Leagues Master Outreach Award
one of 25 given out this year and the first International one :-)
Presented by Dr Mike Reynolds Outreach Chair for the League.
I do not do outreach for awards , but it was nice to get one.



Apollo 19 LEM built but never launched to the moon
on exhibit at The Cradle of Aviation Long Island NY



Biggest highlight - Seeing the Apollo 19 Lunar Lander at The Cradle of Aviation
Biggest shock - The size of the empty space at ground zero
Best fun - The Star B Q at the Custer Institute Long Island
Most satisfying - The cross cultural success of Deadly Moons
Most interesting - Hayden Planetarium and The Natural History Museum
Best building - The Guggenheim
Most extraordinary fun - Meeting Twitter followers :-)
Most beautiful - a huge Stibnite Crystal from China in the Natural History Museum
Very classy - The collection of Poetry given to all at the Star B Que
compiled by Robert Chapin published by Harvey Miller.
Very pleased with the reaction to my other two talks.
Enjoyed - The people , the friendships, the children , the heat, the scopes , the city , the transport, the food, the laughing , the learning, the fun.
Biggest giggle , the role playing at Vivian Whites workshop ( sorry Vivian we collapsed )
good workshop tho :-)






The NY children's moons on exhibition at ALCON
alongside astronomical sketches from Sir Patrick Moore CBE
Deirdre , Jane Houston Jones , Michael Portuesi , and Bill Crispeno



The outstanding Guggenheim Museum
where I saw an exhibition of drawings by Frank Lloyd Wright
with Linda Prince and Stu Parker an astronomer from New Zealand
We had a hot dog picnic in Central Park before heading to
Ground Zero, and after dinner later I was happy to join in
Music Under the Stars , a public star party at an Irish
Concert in Massapequa . We viewed the moon
and Jupiter in a variety of scopes. I gave away Eyes in the Skies DVD's from ESA :-)

http://www.hellofromearth.net/
Send a message to Gliese 581d on this website

What's Up for August 2009