IAA meeting - Excellent as always!

This fortnight's meeting kicked off with a departure from the script. Professor Alan Fitzsimmons gave us a short presentation on Comet 17P/Holmes and showed us the latest photographs taken with his telescope - this being the Isaac Newton Telescope on La Palma! Alan explained to us that in the previous few days Comet Holmes would appear to have ejected aprroximately 1% of its mass in an outburst that lifted it from magnitude 17 to 2.2 - a factor of a million times! The ejecta is currently expanding away from the nucleus at around 1300mph!

Here is Professor Fitzsimmons (right) with IAA President Pat O'Neill and Alan's photo of Comet Holmes in the background.



The main presentation was by Dr Andy McCrea MBE who was President of the IAA for nine years in total and is also MD of North Down Telescopes. Andy's talk was entitled "Andy's Amazing American Astronomical Adventures" and covered his recent trip to California and Nevada which started out as a non-Astronomical holiday but inevitably included visits to the famous observatories at Mount Wilson and Mount Palomar as well as Scope City and the Meade factory at Irvine.

Andy also took the opportunity to witness the Aurigid meteor shower, unfortunately not visible from Ireland.

All in all this was an entertaining and informative lecture well up to the usual high standard.