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The annual Perseid meteor shower is coming. The shower begins, gently, in mid-July when Earth enters the outskirts of a cloud of debris from Comet Swift-Tuttle.Dust-sized meteoroids, hitting the atmosphere,…

This article was written with predictions for 2006, but apart from times and rates, this is still relevant every year. Dr. David Asher from the Armagh Observatory along with Dr. Rob…

Venus is the second brightest object in the night sky (second only to the Moon) and our nearest planetary neighbour, being the 2nd planet from the Sun. Venus is almost…

As a veteran solar observer, I have been asked many times about safe solar observing, and how to go about it.  Firstly, let me stress that the Sun is dangerous, and…

Now that we have entered the beginning of June, members should be on the lookout for Noctilucent Clouds. Nocti and lucent are derived from the Latin where they loosely translate…

The story of the Coopers of Markree Castle, Co. Sligo, Ireland dates back to the 17th Century, and we first hear mention of them in 1663 when Cornet Cooper was allotted…

The challenge presented to astronomers by poor climate seems nowhere to have been more strikingly accepted than in Ireland during the nineteenth century. Armagh and Dunsink observatories had already come…

Mars has two moons, Phobos and Deimos. These are very small, about 20 and 10 km across respectively. They are also much closer to Mars than the Moon is to the Earth. Phobos,…

It seems that every year, the age-old question of the possible origin of the Star of Bethlehem is asked to stargazers. Was the so-called Christmas Star an unusual, eye-catching gathering…

Copyright©1997 by Gordon Garradd (Australia) This photo of periodic comet Encke was obtained by G. Garradd on 1997 June 5. It was a 100-second exposure obtained with a 25-cm Newtonian…