Monday 29th March @ 7pm - 8pm 

We’ll be jumping off with a brief history of how BCO went from historical to astronomical with the installation of the observatory on top of the castle tower. 

Presented by

• Dr Niall Smith (Head of Research, MTU Cork Campus)
• Danielle Wilcox Content Developer, Administrative Coordinator and Resident Astronomer at MTU BCO
• Alan Giltinan (Senior Researcher, MTU Blackrock Castle Observatory)

This will lead into a tour of the night sky using astronomy software that we use to explore the wonders of the night sky. We’ll give the viewers some targets that they themselves can look for over the coming week. One of these targets will be the moon, which will be the target for the photo competition.

We’ll come back for a “Fireside Chat” about the future of human space exploration and how “New Space” will benefit society in the very near future. We’ll then bring things back down to Earth and discuss how the astronomy research we’re conducting is having a direct impact here with the likes of the MASK project. This project is using techniques that were developed at BCO as a way to analyse starlight and now these techniques are being used to test the efficacy of mask materials to help prevent the spread of Covid-19.

This will be followed by a live Q&A session with the viewers.