Culture Night - Dunsink Observatory D15

Veloce

Hi all

Just a heads up for those of you interested, Dunsink Observatory is open to the Public this evening for Culture Night.

Tonight 7pm-11pm


Visit Dublin’s historical observatory and the home of Ireland’s greatest mathematician and scientist, William Rowan Hamilton. See the magnificent Victorian engineering of the South telescope and dome, built by Grubb of Dublin. Programme includes talks on astronomy and history of the observatory (not suitable for young children).

http://www.culturenight.ie/dublin_event/dias-dunsink-observatory/

jfSDAS

Many thanks for posting the info Veloce about Culture Night at the Observatory.

About 700 people turned up between 6pm and 11pm. The evening featured talks by Jonathan Mackay of DIAS, demonstrations from ICHEC (Irish Centre for High End Computing), Sam Bleyen discussing the Sun and solar observing ( https://samuelastronomy.wordpress.com/ ), IAS members manning the Grubb refractor, and also tours of the main building during the night. It was a great success and introduced many people to a fantastic facility on Dublin's doorstep.

The Open Night season has resumed again, with public nights on the first and third Wednesday of the month between now and next March/April. The evenings aren't listed yet on the page at https://www.dunsink.dias.ie/?page_id=25 (click the "free ticket" link) but there are two talks in early-October for Space Week which can be booked right away. Open Nights aren't confined to the aforementioned evenings as many groups can and do request visits outside of the scheduled dates. Contact the Observatory at the link for more details.

John

Veloce

Cheers John. I didn't get up there until around 8 o'clock and it was quite busy there then at that time. I was a little late for the ongoing lecture but instead went for a walk around the main building and spoke with a DIAS member on some photos taken from Dublin 15 on Sun and the Moon. Including a cool photo of Saturn, its rings and it's moon Titan was also visible. Very interesting.

After this I headed outside across the car park to the South Dome. Robin Moore was giving a talk about the operation of the Grubb Telescope and then maneuvered the telescope facing east - quite an operation in itself! Unfortunately the cloud came down when I was queuing to view through the telescope so I decided to wait until one of the open nights to go there again.

Glad I visited - always wanted to. Especially when I live so close. I will be back soon.

uck51js9zml2yt

I missed that my 6 year old would have loved the big scopes !

jfSDAS

I missed that my 6 year old would have loved the big scopes !

Definitely come along on one of the Open Nights. I'm doing the talk on October 19th ;-) There's also a family night talk on October14th at 7pm which you are more than welcome attend.

Glad you enjoyed the evening Veloce. Sam has taken some amazing images and the h-alpha ones of the prominences lifting off the solar surface are extraordinary -- especially when you see how small the Earth is compared to them! I was wandering a bit over the course of the evening, gathering groups now and again to do a quick history talk and tour of the building.

Robin might have been trying for the penumbral lunar eclipse which was at maximum that evening at 7:50pm. The Moon was low at that stage and cloud moved in at an inopportune time as you said. However, I did get outside at 8:15pm to have a peek through Mike Foylan's binoculars and could still see some distinct shading of the disk. Flipping the axis of the Grubb telescope has definitely got to be done with care!

jfSDAS

There's also a family night talk on October 21st at 7pm which you are more than welcome attend.

Let me get back to you on the above date of Terry's talk -- I've got it in two calendars for October 14th and not the 21st. When we reviewed the programme up to December I'm almost sure the talk was switched to the 21st. Failing memory after turning 50 this year :-)

John

jfSDAS

Yep, Terry's talk is October 14th alright ... just confirmed it with the Observatory. Updated one of the other replies above also.

John