Nobel Laureate Professor Reinhard Genzel delivers masterclass to top Irish students of astrophysics and high-energy particle physics. On Wednesday 18 February the Royal Irish Academy hosted thirteen postgraduate students for a masterclass facilitated remotely by Nobel Laureate Professor Reinhard Genzel. Professor Genzel is Director of the Max Planck Institute for Read more
Armagh is a partner in two telescope projects whose key goal is to detect the optical counterpart of colliding massive dead stars. Albert Einstein predicted that when two massive objects spiral around each other, eventually merging to become one more massive object, gravitational waves would be emitted. Scientists spent a Read more
Article by: Mark Grimley Thomas Romney-Robinson was the third director of the Armagh Observatory, long before the building of the Planetarium. He was born in Dublin in 1792 and became director of the Armagh Observatory in 1823. An office that he held for almost six decades, staying in the post Read more
Written by AOP PhD Candidate Chris Duffy Although much of the work of a modern astronomer is behind a desk number crunching and working out what our data is telling us, there are also opportunities to be involved in taking that data. At AOP we have recently joined there BlackGEM Read more
Written by Collections Officer, Matthew McMahon Armagh Observatory is no stranger to the amateur astronomer, and its history has been shaped, and preserved by numerous amateurs over the years such as Rev. Ellison, Patrick Corvan and many others. Today we are commemorating another amateur astronomer, who passed away eighty years Read more
Article by Ed Snowdon Whether you are a researcher gathering data, or a hobbyist taking photos from your back garden, astronomy has always required a certain amount of good luck. Instruments can be uncooperative, data can be lost or damaged, and of course there’s the ever-present threat of bad weather. Read more
Ask any number of astronomers who they believe to be the most influential figures in 20th century astronomy and chances are you will hear the name of Vera Rubin being uttered a few times. Recipient of numerous awards and accolades including the Royal Astronomical Society’s Gold Medal, Vera Rubin (nee Read more
The story of Jocelyn Bell Burnell’s discovery of pulsars is one of the best known in astronomy. The story of how, as a graduate student at the University of Cambridge, she detected “a bit of scruff” on the chart recorder of the radio telescope designed by her supervisor Anthony Hewish. Read more
The first asteroids discovered in the early 1800’s were named after Roman and Greek mythological figures like Ceres, Pallas, and Vesta. Today, most asteroids are named after people, both real and fictional, places, animals, plants, and other natural phenomena. The discoverers of asteroids are responsible for proposing the name however Read more
As part of Museum Week 2019, some of the staff from Armagh Observatory and Planetarium have written a few words about which women in STEM inspire them particularly. Katherine Johnson by Helen McLoughlin With the excitement surrounding the 50th Anniversary of the first ever moon landing in 1969, I wanted Read more
To kick off our new weekly series on the Technical Applications of Astronomy to Society, inspired by a recent publication of the IAU (The International Astronomical Union), our Director Michael Burton has written a brief summary of the history and purpose of the IAU, as well as outlining some of Read more
Article by: Gavin Ramsay Unlike our Sun, around half of all stars have another stellar companion. The closest stars to the Sun are two bright southern stars, alpha Centauri A and B, which orbit each other every 80 years and Proxima Centauri which orbits A and B every few tens Read more
Michael Burton, Director of the Armagh Observatory and Planaterium Monday January 21, 2019 – the last chance to watch a total eclipse of the Moon from Armagh for over a decade. Should we hold a special viewing session to give people the chance of seeing this celestial wonder?! Easy question, Read more
The Armagh Observatory has been a staple feature along the Armagh skyline since its creation in 1790. Astronomical research has been undertaken within the organisation since the 1790s and to this day it has seen several different Directors and numerous astronomers walk through its historical doors.
Space is always changing. New things are discovered frequently, and the latest discovery was made inside our own solar system. Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system, now has a staggering 79 moons in its orbit. Compare this to Earth’s lonely, singular moon and this shows you just how monstrous the gas giant planet is in size.
No one undertakes research in physics with the intention of winning a prize. It is the joy of discovering something no one knew before. – Professor Stephen Hawking Today, 14th March 2018, marks a very sad day in the world of physics and the world in general. One of Read more
Article written by: Professor Michael Burton, Director of Armagh Observatory and Planetarium The city of Armagh lays claim to a remarkable history that belies its small size. A history stretching from the neolithic era, and the mythology of Emain Macha (the ancient capital of Ulster), through the City’s Christian foundation Read more
Armagh Observatory and Planetarium’s Robinson Lecture this year will be about the Sun. To lead into this here is the first of two articles about why astronomers study our Sun, and the range of telescopes and satellites co-opted to the the task. Solar physics is the branch of astrophysics that Read more
The 2018 Robinson Lecture will be given by Professor Louise Harra of University College London. Her topic is about the Solar Orbiter, a new spacecraft to be launched to study the Sun. It will be held in the Archbishop’s Palace in Armagh on Wednesday 22 November, 2017, starting at 7pm. Read more
Gaia is a satellite launched by the European Space Agency (ESA) on 19 December 2013. It is essentially a census gathering information on over one billion stars, totalling an amazing 1% of the galaxy’s total population, measuring their positions, motion, brightness and colour. Gaia’s primary objective is to create the Read more
During our school days, children in the developing and developed world could not even dream about getting a chance to look through a professional telescope; forget about playing with it for real observations! Those days, only the best professional astronomers/astrophysicists had access to such telescopic sites and networks. However one Read more
Michael Burton, Director, AOP On 27th July 2017, the RoI Minister John Halligan switched on I-LOFAR telescope, the largest radio telescope in the world, at Birr Castle in Co. Offaly. The Armagh Observatory and Planetarium is a member of the 8 institutions across the island of Ireland that came together to build I-LOFAR. Read more
The discovery of the TRAPPIST-1 exo-planetary system is a truly remarkable event in science. It is an exemplar of how an armada of telescopes – some located on the ground and some in space, and collectively owned by a league of nations – can work together to chart new frontiers Read more
At the planetarium it is often stated that every time you look into the sky you are doing astronomy, it has become a slight mantra that we chant to encourage people to gaze up at the visible universe and really grasp that astronomy and space is truly all around us. Read more