Remember, remember to look up in November! Yes this optimum time of year for celestial observing has a whole goodie bag of autumnal treats to be enjoyed throughout the month – so plant some sparklers or toffee apple sticks on these dates in your diary to keep yourself inspired by Read more
Can you believe we are in August already? Let’s hope for another sunny heatwave and some clear skies for stargazing. Read below to know what to look out for this month! Sturgeon Moon Mark your calendars! The next full Moon will grace the skies on 9th August at 8:55am (UK Read more
Welcome to summer stargazing 2025. We are going to have a look at the night sky and some of the things we can see through June. Hopefully, these nights are warm enough to feel comfortable stargazing. We will have to wait a bit to see the stars as the sun Read more
So here we are, closer to the middle of the year than the beginning and we are barrelling fast towards the summer! Exciting news for those lucky enough to get the summer off – not so exciting for those who have exams first. In the spring night sky we have Read more
Another month down, and we’re officially into April! With it, we’re welcoming brighter mornings and brighter evenings – thank you, daylight savings! We’re getting closer to retiring the winter coats and swapping hot drinks for iced ones. Spring is here! Pink Moon The ‘Pink Moon’ will be the full moon Read more
This month is an interesting one for those of us who love to stargaze. I know the nights are still cooler, so wrap up and head out to watch the stars. While the sun will gradually set later and later until the summer solstice. We will still have plenty of Read more
During December we will be able to start stargazing from earlier in the evenings, weather permitting of course. This means that on clear nights we get a view of more stars and objects in the night sky; but it is better to be prepared for the colder weather (and more Read more
The Plato Science Working Team usually meets four times a year at the European Space Agency’s ESTEC site in the Netherlands. On this occasion one of the team was retiring so we met at her institute — Paris Observatory. Certainly, grander and a change from the usual cold breeze on Read more
I’m writing this from the beautiful southwest coast of Türkiye, gazing up at the night sky. It’s the 26th of September, 9 PM, and the temperature is a perfect 24°C. From here, Polaris sits about 18 degrees lower on the northern horizon than it does in Northern Ireland, so all Read more
So we’re heading for the end of the summer already and we here at the Planetarium can’t believe it – our favourite part of the year drawing to a close! While it can be quite hard to stargaze at this time of year, due to it being light so far Read more
Stargazing will be a late night activity for July since the days will be brighter and longer during the summer. It’s a great activity for those who love camping and get a clear night for it. The stars will be more visible around midnight, so we should start to see Read more
Night Sky June Summer is almost here so welcome back for another month of objects to look out for in the night sky, with some good weather (fingers crossed)! June has a few things for us to see, first thing being the summer solstice. Summer Solstice Thursday 20th of June Read more
Happy new year stargazers! I hope 2023 was a blast and I hope 2024 is even better!! We are still on the winter night sky, so that’s perfect, there is so much to see and definitely so much to talk about!! It’s still cold in January, so wrap up Read more
Hopefully during this month we will have some nice, dry weather for stargazing and warmer evenings to do it with! As July have longer days, you will be well into the night before you will get to see anything in the night sky. However, this just means an excuse for Read more
So, it’s been a weird spring so far this year, with most people working from home and stuck in their houses. But we’ve been getting some good weather over the last few weeks, allowing us to get out for our daily exercise, or even just into the garden. Well, now might Read more
This is the first Night Sky blog article of the new decade and hopefully I’ll be able to point out some interesting things for you all to see in the night sky this month.
Article written by: Helen McLoughlin, Education Officer Let’s face it, New Year’s Resolutions like ‘I’m going to the gym three times a week’ or ‘I’m going on a diet’ are all well and good but fizzle out after a week or two. Why not take up stargazing once a month Read more
The long cold dark nights have well and truly settled in, and now that it’s December it’s officially acceptable to say the C word. Christmas, Christmas is coming! And so is Santa Claus! Decorations are going up, there’s mad panic to buy Christmas presents and families are organising who’s having dinner and where. Ahh I love this time of year.
The Armagh Observatory and Planetarium are holding a special event to mark the lunar eclipse, coming at almost the same time as the opposition of Mars. The event has proved so popular that tickets sold out within a couple of hours of being released, so we have written this blog entry to tell you about what will happen if you missed out on obtaining a ticket or are going to try to observe the eclipse from elsewhere.
Goodbye February, the shortest month of the year, and hello March! The desperate chill of winter is starting to lift and at the end of this month we will have the March Equinox. On the 20th March the Sun will shine directly on the equator and there will be nearly Read more