Catherine Grennan (1939 - 2004)

I'm delighted to be able to announce that my first asteroid discovery has now been formally named and numbered by the Minor Planet Centre. The August publication of the MPC circulars gives mention to the the fact that my first asteroid discovery is now formally designated (215016) Catherinegriffin.
The naming citation reads as follows;

(215016) Catherinegriffin = 2008 US3
     Catherine Grennan (née Griffin, 1939-2004)#
 was the mother of the discoverer.  She encouraged
 his interest in amateur astronomy, and this led to
 the discovery of this minor planet.

Space Shuttle Endeavour Flies South of Ireland 18 minutes after Launch.

The space Shuttle 'Endeavour' launched successfully from Kennedy Space Centre right on time at 22:03 GMT on Wednesday 14th July 2009.  I was waiting with my video camera when it passed just south of Ireland on its rendezvous with the International Space Station to deliver the final piece of the Japanese 'Kibo' laboratory to the ISS.  An truly amazing sight.  What you can see here is the shuttle (above) just after separating from the external fuel tank (red coloured below).  Apologies for the shaky video but i was just so excited!!  The fuel tank will fall back to earth and burn up on re-entry while 'Endeavour' will continue on to ISS.

Click on the 'Read More' Link below to view the video clip.