The International Year of Astronomy is coming to a close, and Astronomy Ireland has one more big lecture coming up.

Monday, 14 December:
Christmas Lecture , "The European Southern Observatory and the World’s Biggest Telescopes: the present and the future" by Professor Tim de Zeeuw, Director General of the European Southern Observatory, Garching, Germany.

The telescopes made by the European Southern Observatory [ESO] have made some of the most significant discoveries of recent times in astrophysics and cosmology. This includes the supermassive black hole at the centre of our galaxy, the most distant gamma-ray burst, the Earth-like planet Gliese 581c, and the most distant galaxy ever seen by humans.

Professor Tim de Zeeuw, Director-General of ESO, is coming to Dublin to talk on ESO and how it will advance astronomy in the future. He received his PhD degree from Leiden University and worked at the Institute for Advanced Study and Caltech before returning to Leiden as professor of astronomy. His research focuses on the formation, structure and dynamics of galaxies. He directed the Netherlands Research School for Astronomy and Leiden Observatory, and served on oversight committees for AURA, ESA, ESO and NASA.

ESO was founded in 1962 and is an intergovernmental research organisation comprising of 14 states in Europe. ESO has built the largest and most technically advanced telescopes in the world, which provide access to the southern sky for European astronomers. One of the telescopes belonging to ESO is the Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Paranal, Chile.

While the ESO has 14 members, Ireland is not one of them. Several prominent astronomers and astronomy groups in Ireland have expressed their views that Ireland should join, arguing that it would allow the growing number of astronomy graduates to continue their work in Ireland, and would also attract into the Irish economy the expertise required to sustain and develop the technology demanded by ESO facilities.

Tuesday to Saturday. 12-16 January 2010 and Monday, 25th January, 2010:
New Year 20th Anniversary Public Lecture "400 Years of the Telescope, from Thomas Harriot to Hubble" By Professor Allan Chapman of Wadham College, Oxford

January
Astronomy classes open to the public begin again in Trinity College.
Admission to lectures: € 7 (€ 5 members and concessions)
Location: Fitzgerald Building, Trinity College, Dublin 2. Near the Westland Row or Lincoln Place entrances
DVDs of lectures are €7 each plus €5 for P&P for any number of DVDs and can be ordered from Astronomy Ireland.
For more information, contact www.astronomyireland.ie.

Picture: Professor Tin De Zeeuw