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Rare Aurora over Lough Corrib
On April 24th/25th the Earth passed through the wake of a plasma cloud caused by a solar flare a few days previous and this is caused auroral storms over the two days. We are so far south here in Galway that we seldom see it the Aurora. Venus is showing here near of the horizon and reflecting off the Corrib. This image was taken on the causeway at Inishmacatreer, Lough Corrib, Co Galway. Locals and fishermen will recognize the distinctive pine tree bottom right corner. The photo was taken by Galway native Conor Ledwith who has dabbled in photography most of his life but got a lot more involved with the modern era of digital photography.He says he is blessed by living near the shores of Lough Corrib and having Connemara on his door step and regularly visits the neighbouring counties of Mayo and Clare. Also Ronan Newman of the Galway Astronomy club captured a photographic montage of several recent auroral displays that can be viewed...Here
GAC AGM: June 11th
 On Monday the 11th of June we hold our fnal meeting before our summer break and our 15th Annual General Meeting. The purposes of the meeting is to review the activities of the past year, elect a new committee for the coming year and for the Council to receive feedback from the members on what they would like to see more of or less than from the club.Afterwards we will be showing "Hail Columbia" a historic IMAX dvd. During this Board the mighty shuttle Columbia for its maiden voyage. Experience one of humankind's crowning achievements: the inaugural voyage of the world's first space shuttle. Hail Columbia! goes behind the scenes with astronauts John Young and Robert Crippen as they prepare for their historic launch. Feel the thunderous liftoff and our heroes' awe as Columbia achieves orbit for the first time. Join the celebration as the shuttle triumphantly touches down, mission accomplished capturing the first launch of the Space Shuttle Columbia in 1981.
Milky Way Panorama over Connemara
Ray Butler from the Centre for Astronomy at NUI Galway took this panoramic shot of the Milky way recently. Ray is an award winning astro-photographer. He used a Canon 5DII camera running at ISO 3200, his lens is a Samyang 14/2.8 and shot at f/4 on a fixed tripod.The photo is mosaic of 2 frames @ 30 sec each. The Great Rift (sometimes called the Dark Rift or, less commonly, Dark River) is a series of overlapping, non-luminous, molecular dust clouds. To the naked eye, the Great Rift appears as a dark lane that divides the bright band of the Milky Way lengthwise, through about one-third of its extent, and is flanked by lanes of numerous stars. Starting at the constellation of Cygnus, where it is known as the Cygnus Rift or Northern Coalsack, the Great Rift stretches to Aquila; to Ophiuchus, where it broadens out; to Sagittarius, where it obscures the Galactic Center; and finally to Centaurus.
See the Crescent Venus
 It's the Moon... no its actually the Planet Venus taken through a camera at the lens of my 200mm SCT telescope. Venus is currently the bright object hanging low in the evening sky and it currently exhibits a slim crescent phase. The so called "Ashen Light" is a subtle glow that is seen from the night side of the planet. This ashen light is said to be very similar to Earthshine on the Moon, but not as distinguished in brightness. The crescent can be easily seen even through a small binocular. Venus disc can be small as only 10 arc seconds when its at full phase but its apparent diameter enlarges 6 times to about one arc minute (the Moon is about 30 arc minutes wide) when it is a thin crescent. The phases of the planet Venus are the different variations of lighting seen on the planet's surface, similar to lunar phases. The first recorded observations of them were telescopic observations by Galileo in 1610. However the extreme crescent phase of Venus has been observed today with the naked eye but there are no confirmed pre-telescopic records of it in the history.
Prepare for Noctilucent Cloud Season
Night clouds or noctilucent clouds are tenuous cloud-like phenomena that are the "ragged-edge" of a much brighter than normal cloud and visible well after sunset during the short Summer night in deep twilight. They are made of crystals of water ice. The name means roughly night shining in latin. They are most commonly observed in the summer months at latitudes between 50° and 70° north and south of the equator, Galway at 53 north. They can only be observed when the Sun is below the horizon.
They are the highest clouds in the Earth's atmosphere, located in the mesoshere at altitudes of around 76 to 85 km (47 to 53 miles). They are normally too faint to be seen, and are visible only when illuminated by sunlight from below the horizon while the lower layers of the atmosphere are in the Earth's shadow.
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Professor Mike Redfern recieves Honoury Life Membership
Professor Mike Redfern, past president of the Centre for Astronomy at NUI Galway, recieving an Honourary Life Membership to the Galway Astronomy club by club chairman, Proffessor Markus Woerner.
Mike was responsible for the establishment of a Denominated Degree course in Physics & Astrophysics at NUIG in 2000 which at the time was the first such degree offered in Ireland, he was responsible for building the Imbush Astronomical Observatoy and the setting up of the Astronomy Centre at the college. He also has helped set up a support network between the staff at the Centre with our club. In the years since our club was formed in 1998 Mike has given us many wonderful talks and to repay his gratitude he was presented with this honour. For more information on the Centre for Astronomy at NUI Galway see http://astro.nuigalway.ie
Wonderful Aurora on March 27th
No one predicted this: What happened? On March 27th The interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) surrounding our planet tipped south and opened a crack in Earth's magnetosphere. Solar wind poured in to fueled a rare and beautiful aurora.
Ronan Newman of the Galway Astronomy club photographed he display no far from his home on the Mayo-Sligo border. He says "I certainly didn't expect to see anything, but the plots were interesting enough to get me out investigating the northern sky with my camera, "Suprisingly, around 1230 am I could see the colour of auroras in my light polluted images, so I decided to head to Lough Talt 14 miles from my house. The display was subdued at first but jus after 2.30am became vibrant with lots of green and red pillars, unfortunately it dd not last long and was over in ten minutes. He also captured some timelapse images that a be viewed HERE
Excellent image of new Supernova
Only a Moon’s width south of the planet Mars in the constellation Leo, a star that exploded in a nearby galaxy has just come into our view. Professional and amateur astronomers spotted it on March 16, 2012, on the outskirts of a spiral galaxy named M95.
It was also imaged by Markus Woerner of the Galway Astronomy club recently from his observatory near Spiddal. He used and automated Meade LX 200 Schmit-Cassagrain Telescope. The supernova can be seen at an 11o'clock position
Located 38 million light-years away, the newly detected supernova offers astronomers a rare up-close opportunity to study the evolution of a massive dying star. Though 38 million light-years sounds incredibly far away, it’s actually pretty close as galaxies go. Most supernovae are detected in galaxies far across the universe. This supernova is still very far away, and of course not a danger to Earth in any way. Yet, on a cosmic scale, this explosion is almost in our backyard.
Connemara: A Photographic Dream
By Conor Ledwith
Contact information
If you require information on joining the club please contact the Secretary on 0868434003 or send an email to
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Mostly Cloudy 11 oC
