Plans to celebrate Irish Astronomy Week with Mayo events

A NUMBER of events are taking place in Mayo during Irish Astronomy Week - The Stars for Everyone - from March 20 to 26.

Astronomy clubs, observatories, universities and public libraries across Ireland are hosting free public indoor and outdoor events to celebrate Irish Astronomy Week, including exhibitions, talks, workshops and telescope observing.

Events in Mayo include a guided dark sky walk at the Wild Nephin National Park, departing from the Letterkeen bothy.

At the park's visitor centre, Declan Holmes will present a tour of the solar system to schoolchildren, and Brian Wilson will be discussing the wonders of Mayo's night sky at a talk in Newport.

A Joyce Country GeoPark collaboration will feature Georgia MacMillian - Mayo Dark Sky tourism talk - and Ronan Newman with an astronomy talk at the Petersburg centre in Clonbur.

The full event listing is available at https://www.irishastronomyweek.ie/.

Elsewhere in the country, Cork Astronomy Club will host an astrophotographer exhibition at the old waterworks in the city. Dunsink Observatory will hold an open night, while Armagh, Greencastle and Schull planetariums each are holding a series of celestial events celebrating astronomy and the 100th anniversary since the invention of the first planetarium projector.

There will be talks as varied as An Introduction to Astronomy, The Birth of the Solar System, Women in Astronomy, The Wonders of the Night Sky, and lots more, with Zoom talks, astrophotography lessons and a Cosmos star party.

Several venues, including libraries, will host children’s astronomy and crafts workshops.