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Ireland's Largest Astronomy Community - Online! |
Welcome to www.irishastronomy.org, the homepage of IFAS, the Irish Federation of Astronomical Societies.
IFAS is an umbrella group of Astronomical Clubs & Societies throughout Ireland represented here. Through this portal, you can meet and greet almost 1,900 fellow Amateur Astronomers from around Ireland and all over the globe. They offer tips and tricks with telescopes and binoculars, astrophotography techniques and stunning pictures of deep sky and planetary objects, tools of the trade to buy and sell, and a wealth of information from all walks of life you won't find anywhere else.
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Neill McKeown - IFAS Astronomer of the Year 2011 |
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The IFAS Astronomer of the Year award 2011 has been awarded to Neill McKeown who selflessly, tirelessly, without prompting and without fuss has provided us all with a comprehensive monthly Observing Guide for the last five years that no doubt has served many people very well indeed. See this thread for more. |
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Congrats to Dave McDonald (309914) 2009 FM14 |
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Dave McDonald of Celbridge observatory (J65) and current IFAS Chairperson has just had his second asteroid discovery officially numbered by the minor planet centre. You may of course remember that Dave's first asteroid discovery (281507) 2008 TM9 was the first asteroid discovered from these shores since (9) Metis was discovered in 1848.
Dave's second discovery was teetering on the edge of numbering for some time and some recent observations posted were enough to push it over the line. This is another great example of how Irish astronomers contribute on a very real and worthwhile level. I'm sure you will join with me to congratulate Dave on becoming the first Irish person to discover two numbered asteroids from these shores. See the forum for more |
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Jupiter, Saturn, The Geminids and Orion - Winter is here! |
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December offers many delights for Astronomers: Jupiter with its 4 Galilean moons rides high in the sky all night, Saturn in all its ringed majesty rises after 4am, the Geminids Meteor Shower peak on December 14th (and rarey disappoint) and Orion, a favourite for Astronomers everywhere, is visible all night. Winter is definitely here. While Irish observers may be suffering from withdrawl symptoms due to a poor Summer and Autumn, make the most of the cold, crisp nights yet to come - before they disappear!
Read more about December's highlights here -> |
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ESO declares 50 new exoplanets discovered |
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Astronomers using the European Southern Observatory's world-leading exoplanet hunter HARPS announced on September 12th a rich haul of more than 50 new exoplanets, including 16 super-Earths, one of which orbits at the edge of the habitable zone of its star. By studying the properties of all the HARPS planets found so far, the team has found that about 40% of stars similar to the Sun have at least one planet lighter than Saturn.
More from the forums here. |
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