A Cork Astronomy Club public lectureheld in UCC’s Civil Engineering Building
Dr Paul Callanan, Professor of Physics and Astronomy at UCC and honorary member of Cork Astronomy Club, gave his annual lecture. His topic – “The European Southern Observatory at 60”. Based in Chile’s Atacama Desert, it’s where Irish and other European astronomers can observe the southern sky. Prof Paul Callanan was a leading campaigner for Ireland to join the ESO and showed many startling images, and outlined the leading role the ESO plays in adaptive optics, and intricate system for stripping out the twinkle from objects viewed by ground-based telescopes.
Above, Prof Paul Callanan in UCC’s Crawford Observatory, and right, an ESO image of an exoplanet and star.
Another field in which ESO leads is the prodigous feat of obtaining images of exoplanets, Paul told us, illustrated by the slide shown above.
A new development in recent years is the launch of thousands of low earth orbit satellites, with Elon Musk’s company Space X being the leader in the field. Frances McCarthy, Education officer at Blackrock Castle Observatory (part of Munster Technical University) will describe how this cascade of satellites has become increasingly unwelcome to astronomers both amateur and professional as they attempt to make observations of the night sky.
Frances, photo above next to a wide field image of the night sky showing satellite tracks, is a favourite speaker with Cork Astronomy Club members. She will introduce Satellite Detectives, a scheme developed by Blackrock Castle Observatory, and will encourage anyone interested in the night sky to help to catalogue and quantify the appearance of the satellite constellations.
Is this a legitimate concern? Are satellites more important than astronomy? What can be done to mitigate the effect on the night sky? Frances will address these questions and a lively discusson is likely to ensue.
Where and when
The venue is University College Cork’s Civil Engineering building. Directions here.
Start time is 8 pm prompt, so please arrive 10 minutes early.
This lecture is open to all. There will also be club announcements and a sky this month presentation, and if you are new to our Club you will get a feel for our activities.
When we finish at 9.45, you can stay and chat for a few minutes after the end of the formal meeting, with tea and coffee served.
Lecture will be live streamed over Zoom. To get the link, email info@corkastronomyclub.com before 5pm on day of lecture. Better still, sign up for our monthly guest bulletin .
After a two year absence, Cork Astronomy Club is back at University College Cork, and on 9th May we heard from two Club members about Birr Castle in the 19th Century and the Leviathan telescope. Built by the 3rd Earl of Rosse in 1845, this was for over 70 years the largest telescope in the world.
This lecture was in preparation for a Club members outing to Birr in June.
We used lecture theatre 1 in the Boole basement. We chose this mindful that our old room in the Civil Engineering building was sometimes full to its capacity of 100, and that some of our members and guests will be cautious about attending a crowded meeting. Boole 1 has more than twice the capacity of our old room. The Boole basement entrance is about 70 m north of the Civil Engineering building, see directions.
Cork Astronomy Club is back at University College Cork! On 11th April, after a two year absence, we are delighted we can restore our monthly lectures to UCC. And our first in-person lecture will be from Paul Callanan, Professor of Physics and Astronomy at UCC and honorary member of Cork Astronomy Club.
Left, Prof Callanan at UCC’s Crawford Observatiory. Right, the black hole image from the Event Horizon Telescope in 2019
Gravitational waves are ripples in the fabric of space-time predicted by Albert Einstein in 1915. Perhaps you can’t really visualise what “ripples in the fabric of space-time” even means? If so you’re not alone! Let Prof Callanan try to help you. He will describe how gravitational waves assist in the search for black holes, and what these mysterious objects are. And if you’re wondering how was it possible to capture that famous image of a black hole (above, right) where the pull of gravity is such that not even light can escape, he’ll explain that too.
We shall be using lecture theatre 1 in the Boole basement. We chose this mindful that our old room in the Civil Engineering building was sometimes full to its capacity of 100, and that some of our members and guests will be cautious about attending a crowded meeting. Boole 1 has more than twice the capacity of our old room. The Boole basement entrance is about 70 m north of the Civil Engineering building, see directions.
Lecture theatre 1 in Boole basement, UCC
This lecture is open to all. There will also be club announcements and a sky this month presentation, and if you are new to our Club you will get a feel for our activities.
Start time 8 pm, and we aim to finish at 9.45. There will be an opportunity to stay and chat for a few minutes after the end of the formal meeting if you want to.
Cork Astronomy Club looks forward to welcoming Prof Alan Fitzsimmons of Queen’s University Belfast. Some comets are predicted years or even centuries in advance, whilst others appear at only a few months notice. But in every case they are eagerly anticipated by amateur astronomers, and if taken up in the mass media, by the public at large. This anticipation is sometimes rewarded with an impressive show, yet often, in the event, a comet will disappoint. From his study of comets Prof Fitzsimmons will suggest what makes a comet great. His title is topical, as comet Bernardinelli-Bernstein, even now travelling toward the interior of the solar system, has been described as the largest ever observed..
Prof Alan Fitzsimmons
This lecture will be held via Zoom, and is open to all. There will also be club announcements and sky this month presentation, and if you are new to our Club you will get a feel for our activities.
Start time 7.30 pm, and we aim to finish at 9.00. There will be an opportunity to stay and chat for a few minutes after the end of the formal meeting if you want to. The Zoom link will be sent to all Club members and also to recipients of our guest bulletins. If you are on neither list you can request a Zoom link by emailing us no later than 4 pm on the day of the meeting.
Not familiar with Zoom? If you contact us in good time, we may be able to help. Email us or (except on the day of the lecture) ring Peter on 089-2004553.
Our Club welcomed Dr Amanda Hendrix of the Planetary Science Institute, who spoke to us from Colorado to make the case that planetary protection rules can be relaxed. Not all were convinced however.
Dr Amanda Hendrix
Planetary protection deals with trying to prevent terrestrial microorganisms establishing a foothold on other worlds and vice versa. The primary goal is to protect the viability of future search-for-life experiments, so they are not confounded by potential terrestrial microbes. Since the 1970’s, spacecraft bound for places that scientists think may be hospitable to life, first and foremost Mars, must undergo rigorous pre-launch cleaning procedures.
Amanda is joint author of an influential report commissioned by NASA. It suggests current planetary protection rules are outdated and proposes a risk management approach. This would make portions of Mars more accessible to both commercial and government missions, whilst remaining careful about access to potential habitable zones.
Several participants in the Zoom meeting found the idea bothersome. A comparison was made with the diseases that Europeans introduced to the Americas: “Have we learned anything from history?” Amanda acknowledged the validity of the concern and offered reassurance that search-for-life experiments would not be compromised if the proposed new procedures were implemented. She was keen to offer re-assurance that the idea of the committee and the report is to provide scientifically-based guidance to NASA with concerns of planetary protection in mind, and that she is advising NASA to take the next steps with caution.
A summary of the report, “Evaluation of Bioburden Requirements for Mars Missions”, produced by the National Academies Committee on Planetary Protection can be found here.
Dr Hendrix spent many years at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab, including two years as the Cassini Deputy Project Scientist, and has been part of many planetary science missions, including the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Cork Astronomy Club welcomed Dr Julian Onions of Nottingham University’s outreach team. He desribed his talk thus: “What are galaxies, how are they classified, how are they formed, what do we understand about their lives, and how many pretty pictures can I fit in one talk?”
Dr Julian Onions
If a marble at Nottingham in central England represented the Sun, he told us, the next Galaxy would be as far away as in the Irish Sea or English Channel. Julian traced the formation of galaxies, their morphology (shapes), their pasts and their futures. He specialises in simulations of the universe to test our theories of how it works. Thanks Julian for a great night!
