Limerick Astronomy Club

Earth orbit: it’s getting crowded up there! (Article132) Those of us heading for the big 6-0 or more, may be among the lucky ones who saw a piece of history in the tiny star that moved like no other, making steady progress from the North West horizon on the clear twilights of Autumn 1957 and within ...

Messier’s List (133) Charles Messier’s name is one of the best known in astronomy. Born in Lorraine, France, in 1730, his interest in astronomy began as a teenager when he observed the appearance of a six-tailed comet in 1744 and an annular eclipse of the Sun from his home town four years later. (Wa...

Naming the stars (Article 134) How did the stars get their names? In ancient times those observing the night sky named them for something that had significance in their daily lives or their beliefs. Today, stars are given various different names and designations. Many of the proper names of stars th...

May Night Sky (Article135) With May been the first month of the summer, daylight begins to reach far into the evening. At the start of the month it doesn’t get really dark until about 10.30pm and by the end of the month you can still see a faint glow on the northern horizon at midnight caused by the...

Beautiful Saturn (Article 136) The planet Saturn is now visible in the eastern sky after sunset in the constellation of Leo. Saturn is the second largest planet in the solar system, second only to Jupiter. Like Jupiter, it is a giant planet mainly composed of gas, mostly hydrogen. Although Saturn is...

Titan — lifting the veil. (Article 137) In March, 1655, Christiaan Huygens, a Dutch astronomer, pointed his telescope to the planet Saturn in search of orbiting moons. Inspired by the discoveries of Jupiter’s moons, Huygens found his objective: a tiny speck of light regularly circling its massive pa...

Phoenix: from the ashes of failure. (Article 138) Following the premature failure of the Polar Lander mission to the South Polar Regions of Mars in December 1999, NASA launched a similar craft in August 2007. Scheduled to arrive on May 25th, 2008, it will attempt a landing near Mars’ North polar reg...

June Night Sky (Article 139) Despite the night time been warmer in June than it is in January, most astronomers in this part of the world find it more difficult to observe the night sky at this time of the year. At the start of the month, the sky is still bright on the north western horizon at midni...

Earth — home sweet home (Article 140) Shannonside Astronomy Club has been producing short pieces on various astronomy topics for the Limerick Leader for over two and a half years now and we have dealt with our neighbouring planets and other Solar System residents. We have described the creation and ...

We are stardust (Article 141) From studies of star clusters a curious difference is revealed between the youngest and the oldest stars in the Milky Way, our home galaxy. Stars in the youngest clusters are considered to be metal rich (this is known by studying their spectra). Astronomers use the term...

Summer Solstice (Article 142) The summer solstice usually falls on the 21st of June, but on some years it can occur on the 20th as it does this year. This day is often referred to as the longest day of the year, this is slightly misleading as the day is of course still 24 hours, what is different is...

Vagabonds of our Solar System (Article143) The dictionary describes a vagabond as: ‘an idle wanderer, tramp, vagrant, nomad, a rascal or a rogue…’ This description perfectly describes the Comets, Asteroids and Meteoroids that inhabit the outer reaches of our Solar System, some of which pass us by on...

July Night Sky (Article 144) July is the last month of the summer and you might notice that the evenings are starting to shorten by the end of the month, with sunset on July 1st at 9.56pm and 9.23pm by the end of July. At the start of this month, Mars and Saturn will pass very near each other in the...

Tunguska 100 years later (Article 145) On the 30 June 1908 shortly after 7:00 AM in central Siberia the largest impact of a cosmic object on Earth, during modern human history, took place. Over time the Earth has suffered cosmic impacts, which have changed the course of evolution. About 65 million y...

Great astronomers: Copernicus. (Article 146) Born in the Polish town of Torun, beside the Vistula, in February, 1473, Micolaj Kopernik, or Nicolas Copernicus is seen by many as the father of modern astronomy. He belonged to a wealthy, influential merchant class, with family connections in church and...