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THE ASTRONOMER Electronic Circular No 2144      2005 Aug 21 12.55UT
Ed:Guy M Hurst, 16,Westminster Close, Kempshott Rise,  Basingstoke,
Hants, RG22 4PP,England.Telephone/FAX(01256)471074Int:+441256471074
INTERNET: GUY@TAHQ.DEMON.CO.UK             GMH at AST.STAR.RL.AC.UK
WORLD WIDE WEB                         http://www.theastronomer.org
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BIRR CASTLE RECORDS
Earlier this year, TA subscriber Andy Stephens (Cheltenham, UK) was 
invited to visit Lord Rosse's Observatory at Birr Castle, located in 
County Offaly, Ireland. A report describing the highlights of this visit 
will appear in The Astronomer later this year.

As a direct result of this visit Lord Rosse has agreed to a one-off sale 
of a very limited number of duplicate copies of publications and papers 
from his archives. These include copies of Otto Boeddicker's 1892 'Atlas 
of The Milky Way', historically important off-prints of the 3rd and 4th 
Earl's contributions to the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal 
Society and planetary and cometary papers published in the Scientific 
Transactions Of
The Royal Dublin Society.

All these papers can be considered to be extremely rare, and it is the 
desire of Lord Rosse that they are purchased by professional 
institutions, professional and serious amateur astronomers and 
scientific historians.

A list of the available items and their prices is available from Andy 
Stephens UK Tel 01242 675719, or you can email him at
nighthawk@glasseyes.fsnet.co.uk .

All proceeds will go to fund projects at the Castle, including further 
restoration of the historic 6 foot speculum, using which the 3rd Earl 
famously, first detected the spiral structure in galaxies.

SUPERNOVA 2005dh in MCG +04-37-55
Discovery by LOSS of a possible supernova (IAUC 8583):
SN      2005 UT      R.A.  (2000.0)  Decl.    Mag.     Offset
2005dh  Aug. 10.22  15 54 03.32  +23 08 09.9  17.1   6.1"E, 16.4"N

SUPERNOVA 2005di IN MCG -04-52-46
Discovery by LOSS of a possible supernova (IAUC 8584):
SN      2005 UT      R.A.  (2000.0)  Decl.    Mag.     Offset
2005di  Aug. 12.36  22 25 32.84  -24 14 20.1  18.6   15.0"W, 9.2"N

VARIABLE STAR NEAR UGC 2495
The LOSS team also  report discovery of a variable star on KAIT images 
of Aug. 8.50 (at mag 17.2) and 11.51 UT (mag 17.3).  The new object is 
located at:
RA 03h 02m 00.47s DEC +41 34' 34.1" (2000), which is 70".4 W
and 62".0 S of the nucleus of UGC 2495 according to CBET 197.

SUPERNOVA 2005dj IN UGC 3545
Further to the announcement on TA E-Circular 2141, this discovery by Tom 
Boles has now been announced on IAUC 8585. Spectral confirmation is 
awaited.

Guy M Hurst