Asteroid 30558 Jamesoconnor By John Flannery, South Dublin Astronomy Society (SDAS) It is with great pleasure that we can officially tell everyone that another Irish amateur astronomer has been honoured by having an asteroid named after them. John McConnell, Maire O’Connor, James O’Connor and John O’Neill at the presentation for the naming of asteroid 30558…
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Asteroid 30558 Jamesoconnor Named for Irish Astronomer
Monday, October 18th, 2010 at
1:06 pm
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Recommended Astronomy DVDs
Thursday, May 21st, 2009 at
2:30 pm
Stuck for something to watch on TV of an evening? Then why not load up an astronomy or space-exploration themed DVD and enjoy something related to your hobby. This is my list of recommended DVDs and Blu-Ray title that cover astronomy and space related themes. All are in my own collection. The Universe: Season 1…
African Solar Eclipse
Friday, April 17th, 2009 at
6:06 pm
Only a memory now, but a memory that returns with thoughts of the solar eclipse of coming on July 22, 2009 and the eclipse back on December 4th, 2002. By amazing coincidence that latter Christmas eclipse crossed a similar path over Africa to the eclipse in the summer of 2001. The weather prospects however were…
Google Sky Is Launched
Friday, March 14th, 2008 at
1:41 pm
By now you’ve probably heard the announcements about Google Sky – the new module in Google Earth. If not, the videos below will bring you up to speed. It’s certainly a step in the right direction and I applaud anything that brings astronomy and an awareness of the night sky to a wider audience. But…
A Crawl Around the Crab
Sunday, February 24th, 2008 at
8:59 pm
I recently did a spot of observing with my trusty 20x60mm binoculars. It was also an opportunity to reacquaint myself with some of the familiar celestial sights after a winter of little observational activity. Just past the meridian, as soon as darkness falls during April evenings, is the zodiacal constellation of Cancer, the Crab. Though…
The Moon and Sixpence
Tuesday, February 13th, 2007 at
7:32 pm
The human eye’s capability of discerning patterns in detailed scenes or images (where sometimes such patterns do not exist) is well known. A recent personal instance involving the Moon and a southern hemisphere feature which, while real, took the shape of a readily recognisable Earth-bound object is a case in point. I was testing a…
What to Know When Buying Binoculars
Tuesday, September 13th, 2005 at
7:13 pm
Recommended Astronomy Binoculars We are asked nearly every day: “What are your best binoculars?” And every day we answer: “How do you plan on using them?” We are not trying to be evasive with our answer, but the truth of the matter is – the best binoculars for one purpose may be the worse binoculars…
Google Earth: Explore, Search and Discover
Saturday, July 2nd, 2005 at
5:34 pm
By Gary Nugent Google launched the highly anticipated full version of Google Earth, the search engine’s stand-alone global map utility on June 28th. The application [~10Mb] is available to download from http://earth.google.com. This geographic search tool combines local search with satellite images and maps from around the globe. Google Earth is a standalone application that’s…
Spaceport New Mexico and the X-Prize Cup Part 2
Monday, May 2nd, 2005 at
8:39 pm
by Charles Vane The X Prize Foundation and the state of New Mexico hope that the X Prize Cup wil draw large crowds to southern New Mexico to witness commercial suborbital spaceflight competitions. (credit: X Prize Foundation) The Roadblocks There will, naturally, be hurdles to overcome, especially in the next two to five years. We…
Spaceport New Mexico and the X-Prize Cup – Part 1
Monday, May 2nd, 2005 at
7:55 pm
by Charles Vane The X Prize Foundation and the state of New Mexico hope that the X Prize Cup wil draw large crowds to southern New Mexico to witness commercial suborbital spaceflight competitions. (credit: X Prize Foundation) On June 21 of last year something extraordinary happened. A 63-year-old test pilot by the name of Mike…
Equipment for the Amateur Astronomer
Tuesday, February 8th, 2005 at
6:24 pm
Beginner’s Telescopes Binoculars and telescopes and other astronomy equipment and accessories are the meat and potatoes of amateur astronomy. A good pair of binoculars is what introduced me to the pleasures of stargazing many moons ago and only after a couple of years scanning the skies did I graduate to a telescope. That was one…
Outback Observing
Saturday, April 3rd, 2004 at
2:50 pm
On a visit to Australia last summer I took the opportunity to look up Rudi Vavra, who contacted me on the Internet a couple of years ago in order to look for my opinion on Televue telescopes. We have been in contact for a couple of years now and there has been a standing invitation…
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