The committee of the Galway Astronomy club would just like to take this opportunity to invite anyone from the UK to the 13th Galway Astronomy Festival taking place here in the beautiful city of Galway, Ireland on February 21st 2015.

The event will start at the 4* Westwood House Hotel just outside Galway City with registration from 9am-9.45am and first speaker on stage at 10.00am. This year we had an exceptional turn out of 120 people on a rain soaked and very stormy February 3rd, which really surpassed our expectations. We would hope for another similar turnout for our next Festival with the theme this year "New Worlds New Horizons"

Our view of the Universe has changed dramatically. Hundreds of planets of startling diversity have been discovered orbiting distant suns. Other astronomical observations have also revealed that most of the matter in the Universe is dark and invisible and that the expansion of the Universe is accelerating in an unexpected and unexplained way. New missions pave the way to a better understanding of our solar system and its cosmic interlopers including comets. Recent discoveries, powerful new ways to observe the Universe, and bold new ideas to understand it have created scientific opportunities without precedent. Some of these big questions will be addressed at the 2015 Galway Astronomy Festival with a host well known amateur and academic astronomers from Ireland and the UK.

Speakers

1. Michael Perryman: "Measuring the Distances to the Stars"

Michael is co-author of the “Millennium Star Atlas” and Project Scientist of the new GAIA Space Astrometry mission, European Space Agency sci.esa.int/gaia/

2. Daniel (Eclipsedan) Lynch, An Irish Eclipse chaser of 10 solar eclipses and has a wonderful catalogue of images and prelude to the March 2015 Solar eclipse

3. Nick Howes, Kielder Observatory, UK
Nick is a well known UK astronomer and he will give two talks, a morning talk and he will also give the Patrick Moore memorial after dinner talks

4. Damien Peach, world leading planetary imager who has spent the last ten years documenting the changing face of our solar system with crystal clear images good enough to stand alongside those of the Hubble Space Telescope

5. Susan McKenna Lawlor, renowned Irish professor of Space Technology Ireland & NUI Maynooth, her talk will look at the Rosetta Comet mission for which her team built an instrument on its lander that will touchdown on the comet this November.

6. Chris Watson: An excellent speaker from Queen University Belfast with a talk on the future visions of New Worlds or Extra Solar planets.

7. Dave Grennan: Irish amateur astronomer and discoverer of three supernovae including one built with a homemade telescope of which the talk will be about http://www.webtreatz.com

Evening program also with dinner, talk afterwards followed by a table quiz see more info including reviews at http://www.irishastronomy.org/index.php ... Itemid=211

Our city is a vibrant, bustling centre of the arts and commerce, though it still retains a relaxed and intimate atmosphere. Galway is also one of the most popular tourist destinations in Ireland. The city, with its medieval streets, waterways, extensive range of shopping facilities, wealth of music sessions and other cultural events, is a place to be treasured. The seaside town of Salthill, a Galway suburb, is a renowned summer resort. Its fine beaches open directly onto spectacular Galway Bay.

Entry only €20(£15) We recommend you use http://www.gohop.com for finding connections to Galway from your location of departure. Hope to see you there, full information along with details of our very busy club schedule will be available at http://www.galwayastronomyclub.ie





Thank you

Ronan Newman
Chairman
Galway Astronomy Club

Hi

We have a new promo movie put together by myself for our February 21st AstroFest in Galway which is shaping up to be like in 2014 to be a cracker of an astronomy event see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URi7vJXW9A8



Link here to the full webpage about the Festival www.galwayastronomyclub.ie/index.php/archive

See an article about one of our festival speakers; Daniel (Eclipsedan) Lynch on page 113-114 of the January edition of the Sky at Night magazine

Speakers for Ireland's Favourite Star Party on February 21st at


1 Professor Michael Perryman (UCD): "Measuring the Distances to the Stars"

Co author of the "Millennium Star Atlas" and project scientist of the GAIA Space Astrometry mission. (FREE PUBLIC LECTURE)

2 Daniel (Eclipsedan) Lynch: "Light into Dark: Chasing Total Solar Eclipses"

Irish Eclipse chaser of ten international Total Solar Eclipses and his talk will serve as a prelude to the March 2015 Solar Eclipse.

3 Nick Howes: "A Tail of Two Comets - Serendipity and Discovery" and after Dinner talk : "Under African Skies... the Astro Safari adventure of a lifetime"

Amateur astronomer at the Kielder Observatory, UK, Consultant and Science writer

4 Damian Peach: "Worlds of the Solar System

World renowned planetary imager, Damian has spent the last ten years documenting the changing face of our solar system with crystal clear images good enough to stand alongside those of the Hubble Space Telescope

5 Professor Susan McKenna Lawlor: "The Rosetta Mission and its lander Philae"

Susan Mckenna Lawlor is the Emeritus professor in Experimental physics at the National University of Ireland Maynooth (NUIM) and the founder and director of Space Technology Ireland Ltd which builds instrumentation for various space experiments flown on ESA, NASA and Russian missions. She also developed a set of instruments to monitor the Martian solar wind on the Mars Express mission launched by the European Space Agency. Her talk will look at the Rosetta Comet mission for which her team built an instrument on its lander that will touchdown on the comet last month.

6 Dr Christopher Watson: Title TBA

Dr Chris Watson from Queens University Belfast who will provide the very latest up-to-date information on the fascinating area of research about Extra Solar Planets. At QUB he has lectureship position studying the impact of stellar activity on the nature and detection of extra-solar planets and has been busy designing techniques to help in the hunt for these New Worlds orbiting other stars

7 Dave Grennan: Building a Home Made Telescope

Dave Grennan well known Irish amateur astronomer and Supernova hunter based at his Dublin suburban home observatory; "J41 Raheney Observatory". He has discovered three Supernovae in recent years and more recently his third using a home built telescope with a mirror that he ground himself. Dave will present a workshop during the lunch break detailing the delicate steps involved for a person to make their own perfect mirror for use on a telescope.

8. Brian MaGabhann, Galway Astronomy Club

Building a small observatory is not all that hard. A simple roll-off roof design can be built in a few days with simple tools and materials easily available in your local building supply store. A dome is much more complicated but still can be done with more careful planning, Or you can buy a kit. Galway Astronomy Club member Brian MacGabhann recently undertook the task of building himself a small wooden observatory and during this 30 minute workshop he will go through the different steps needed to get your observatory off the ground.

Tickets for the event are available at the door from 9.15am, there will also be dark sky observing at Brigits Garden, workshops, information/trade stands and as bonus attendees will get a chance to visit the NUI Galway Observatory.

For details of the Festival (including accommodation) our homepage at www.galwayastronomyclub.ie/index.php/archive or phone (00353)868434003. We look forward to seeing you, hopefully under clear skies