Prof. Monica Grady’s visit to AOP

We were delighted to welcome Prof. Monica Grady to Armagh Observatory and Planetarium as part of the Robinson Lecture on Wednesday 27 November 2019.

Monica, a Professor of Planetary and Space Sciences at the Open University, is best known for her work on meteorites and with the ESA Rosetta spacecraft project, the Philae lander and its Ptolemy instrument and entertained the crowd with her talk on on collisions and catastrophes.

A highlight on the evening was Monica giving a live commentary of the final journey of the Philae lander in our 360-degree dome theatre to a packed audience. This was just before a screening of dome show “Asteroid Mission Extreme” narrated by Sigourney Weaver. Quite apt given that Asteroid 4731 was named Monica Grady in her honour!

This was the first time in its history that the Robinson Lecture was held at the Armagh Planetarium, having merged with the Armagh Observatory back in 2016. Here’s to many more.