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March 2013

Building works The upgrading of footpaths along Catherine Street is getting along rightly, as they say around here. Our picture shows the junction with Linenhall Street on a clear day. Mind you, when they are cutting the decorative stone work one can hardly see the traffic lights. We are not quite sure what that solitary object on the right is meant to be. Is it the throne of the Roe Valley? Could it be a trap to trip up drunks after closing time? Is it a haven of rest for tired policemen watching the traffic on Catherine Street? Who knows.

Watch out for the comet As many of our readers have a more than passing interest in the night sky, we thought we would print as little reminder. The comet Pan-Starrs (C/2011L4) has just passed its closest point to the Sun and is now becoming visible in the northern sky. Look towards the west shortly after sunset. The comet should be a naked eye object but binoculars may help. On the 12th the object will be just to the left of the moon. (See our map borrowed from the splendid Spaceweather website.) All this assumes of course that there is a clear western sky after sunset. Stranger things are supposed to have happened!

Two days later . . . . . . Our hack photographer tried to record the above mentioned cometary event, but unfortunately he failed miserably. As the photograph is rather a nice one - showing Lough Foyle and the lights of Donegal - not to mention the City of Culture on the left - we decide not to withhold it from our readers. Notice the crescent moon which looks like a full moon because of the ashen light. This is light reflected onto the moon by the Earth's atmosphere. Readers might like to look at the spot half-way between moon and horizon and just a few points to the right amongst the black clouds. This is where the comet was ten seconds before the picture was taken. Ah well,  better luck next time. Pan-Starr will be back in only a hundred thousand years!

Eureka . . . . . . Don't the centuries just fly!

The clean-up continues Some areas of the valley still suffer from an over-abundance of snow. Whereas low-lying areas are totally unaffected, some of the mountain areas have witnessed the largest snow drifts in many years. On the left is Johnny Doherty - a superb digger operator - hard at work clearing a path to the offices of the Newsbrowser. To graphically illustrate the amount of snow Johnny had to shift we include a shot of our editor and news-hound in front of  a pile of snow  from a single road-blocking  snowdrift.

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