Following on from the successful Soyuz mission delivering Tim Peake to the Interbational Space Station, you'll be able to see Tim passing over Northern Ireland once or twice an evening until Christmas Eve.

The station appears as a bright object, almost as bright as Venus rising in the South-West and moving slowly across the sky - at 17,500mph! It takes about five minutes to cross the sky completely. The graphic above shows the times for Belfast - for those in the West of the province it will be just a few seconds earlier - at 5 miles per second it doesn't make much difference!

Tony is a Past President of the Association from the 1977/78 season and we believe he is the youngest person ever to hold the post being in his early 20s at the time, though his successor, Brian Beesley runs him close on that record!

We are delighted to welcome back Tony as a speaker; he has given us some fascinating lectures over the years, with intriguing titles, and this one is no exception. To find out what it's all about you'll have to come along!

In a a change to the programme, the lecture will be given by Terry Moseley BEM, current PR Officer and Meetings Organiser of the IAA, not to mention Past President for a total of 10 years in four stints over a period of 35 years! 

Terry's Lecture, entitled "Our Sun: Friend or Foe?" will tell us plenty about our nearest star......

In the early hours of Monday morning - ie late Sunday night - the first Total Lunar Eclipse to be visible from Ireland for several years occurs. The eclipse will be visible from 01:11 to 06:22 although in the firts and last hours there is very little to see in reality. The Moon will be visible 35degrees high in the South at the start of the eclipse and 20 degrees in the West a the end. During totality, the best part, it will be 28 degrees high in the South-West.

Timings for our timezone - British Summer Time (BST) are as follows:-