From: TerryMosel@aol.com Date: Fri, 3 Oct 2003 19:46:22 EDT Subject: IAA meet, Fireball, Mercury Occ, WSP in S&T Hi all, 1. The next IAA meeting will be at 7.30 p.m. on Wed 8 October, in Stranmillis College, Belfast. Dr Ian Morrison of Jodrell Bank will speak on "Mapping the Big Bang". He's an excellent speaker, so don't miss it. Admission is free, invluding light refreshments, & all are welcome. 2. Did anybody see a fireball last night (Thursday) at about 8.25 p.m., in the SW as seen from Co. Down? 3. Mercury will occulted by the Moon on Oct 25 as seen from Ireland, at about 12.10 UT, but it lies only 1° from the Sun at the time, so DO NOT ATTEMPT TO OBSERVE IT! But - you might be able to see it live on the SOHO satellite images. It all depends on whether the Moon occults Mercury as seen from the position of the SOHO satellite. If so, you'll just see Mercury fade and disappear over a period of some seconds, and then reappear sometime between a few minutes & an hour or so later, depending on the 'depth' of the occulation. You won't be able to see the Moon, just the planet disappearing, or not, as the case may be. Any mathematicians out there with access to SOHO's orbital elements care to calculate whether there will be an occultation from SOHO (the satellite!) or not? Obviously if the Moon occults Mercury as seen from SOHO, then it won't matter where you are on the Earth watching the live SOHO images! Even if there's no occultation, you should be able to see Mercury as a bright 'star' apparently 'gliding past' the Sun. It will pass just less than 1 degree North of the Centre of the Sun (less than half a degree, or about 1 solar diameter, N of the edge of the Sun's disc) earlier that day. It should also be visible for a day or two on either side of that date. 4. There's a feature by Kelly Beatty on the recent WSP on the online S&T News Bulletin: http://SkyandTelescope.com/news/article_1067_1.asp Clear Skies, Terry Moseley
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