Ah. Probably the way to do it. I'd like to point out, however, that the photo itself contains more information than its bland appearance suggests at first.

One thing is that the picture - a bright Venus 15 -20 ° off a full Sun - would probably be impossible. i do not see how you can spot Venus in bright daylight at a distance to the Sun which is only twice the Danjon limit for the Moon when the sun is below the horizon. The calm blue sky does not fit a full Sun either - The relatively small dynamic range of the image gives away the fact that this sun must somehow be severly diminished in brightness.

I like the secon point most, however: As BAUTers, we all know that lens flare can be very informative : In the last flare you actually see the razor-thin ghost image of the Sun. In higher-resolution versions, you also see it in the second one from top, the pink one.

So - it was all there!

Oh, oh, that means work

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Non sunt multiplicanda entia praeter necessitatem.

Soooo - I list the people here. The bold names are the names of the features. Links lead to images of the features (all craters, by the way):

John Birmingham
George F. Fitzgerald
Sir William A. Hamilton
Eric M. Lindsay
Thomas McLear
Robert Mallet
Joseph Barclay Pentland
Thomas Romney Robinson
William Parsons, Earl of Rosse

I prefer Santa Damiana, from the Dominican Republic.

Just as an extra (and as substitutes in case I made some mistake), there are two more Irishmen (yes, all men) on the Moon:
Sir Edward Sabine
George J. Stoney

Also, let's not forget that two names, Alan and Kathleen, after which craters are named, are considered to be of Irish origin.

If you'd like to look up Lunar feature names and their origins, here is my source.

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Non sunt multiplicanda entia praeter necessitatem.

They're all fine.

I'm surprised that you missed a few very notable ones:

Lord Kelvin
Robert Boyle
John Tyndall
George Stokes

Two more obscure ones are Joseph Larmor and William Henry Harvey.

[Edit: scratch that last one. It seems crater Harvey is named after the English doctor who discovered the circulation of the blood. I was misled by Virtual Atlas of the Moon.]

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- There must be a new moon out, she said. He's always bad then.

That's because I chose the brute-force, no-brainer approach: Look up a Lunar feature catalogue and find "Irish" . It would be interesting to have a look at the list and see why my search didn't turn up the notables you mention. Probably cashed in as British. I am at work, though, so I'll leave that part to the Dubliner .

And my cigar?

Next question also has to wait until later - my shift on the ICU has only just begun.

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Non sunt multiplicanda entia praeter necessitatem.

Sorry, still no time to come up with anything decent. So, just to get the game rolling again, a no-Google, no-astrometry software, no-heavens-above question:

Name the largest of the 88 constellations.

Fast!

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Non sunt multiplicanda entia praeter necessitatem.

Hydra

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- There must be a new moon out, she said. He's always bad then.

So it's your turn again....

Everyone else still there?

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Non sunt multiplicanda entia praeter necessitatem.

present

Ein bibchen.

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Lighten up! This is a stellar board! Author: duh.

"The Sun, with all the planets revolving around it, and depending on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as though it had nothing else in the universe to do..." Author: Galileo supposedly.

I think half my posts recently have been to post that I'm still here

To what is Robert Burnham Jr. referring in the following passage:

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- There must be a new moon out, she said. He's always bad then.

Alpha Pisces, Al Risha, (double star). The color contrast between two stars is tricky to the eye. Both are close in magnitude, 4.3 and 5.2, and both are A class stars.

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Lighten up! This is a stellar board! Author: duh.

"The Sun, with all the planets revolving around it, and depending on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as though it had nothing else in the universe to do..." Author: Galileo supposedly.

Correct! (Sorry for the delay - the board neglected to notify me of your reply!)

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- There must be a new moon out, she said. He's always bad then.

If they are both A class stars, why do their colors appear different? Are they A0 vs. A9, or is there a metalicity factor? Is metal ever a color factor in G class or above? [Oh, none of those are my question, btw. ]

Seems like I'm kinda stuck on color around here.

What is the primary color of Spitzer and why? [I am going on memory here, but I think I'll not get egg on my face.]

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Lighten up! This is a stellar board! Author: duh.

"The Sun, with all the planets revolving around it, and depending on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as though it had nothing else in the universe to do..." Author: Galileo supposedly.

Do you mean the primary coulour of what Spitzer receives and processes or the primary coulour of what the telescope looks like from the outside?

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Non sunt multiplicanda entia praeter necessitatem.

The color paint they used, not the reception color of IR. Hmmmm, what color is IR?

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Lighten up! This is a stellar board! Author: duh.

"The Sun, with all the planets revolving around it, and depending on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as though it had nothing else in the universe to do..." Author: Galileo supposedly.

I would have assigned "colour" with an analogy from soundwaves: We perceive the same note if the wavelength of a soundwave is doubled or halved (octave). Since we can hear around 11 octaves of sound but see less than one of light, I would have used this artistic license to assign a coulour (this, I thought, was behind your question).


Ad rem: The photos show a spacecraft of gleaming, reflective polished metal.

So, white? (Nice if you want to keep the craft colder than the the temperature of the CMB)

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Non sunt multiplicanda entia praeter necessitatem.

White? Nope. I believe they only used paint on the shadow side of Spitzer. That should help.

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Lighten up! This is a stellar board! Author: duh.

"The Sun, with all the planets revolving around it, and depending on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as though it had nothing else in the universe to do..." Author: Galileo supposedly.

Hint?

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Non sunt multiplicanda entia praeter necessitatem.

Black?

Dave Mitsky

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Chance favors the prepared mind.
De gustibus non est disputandum.
Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.