BLACKROCK CASTLE OBSERVATORY

Here is Eugenes article

BLACKROCK CASTLE OBSERVATORY



Blackrock Castle on the southern shore of the river Lee is a familiar sight to GAA fans travelling to Pairc Ui Caoimh, but unfortunately had fallen into great disrepair of late, so much so that Cork City Council decided to purchase it and have spent the last few years totally renovating it.
Having such a landmark building in their possession they sought a suitable use to which it could be put, to include public access and function and also to promote educational awareness of a subject that was generally not available locally.
Cork C Cc and Cork Institute of Technology teamed up to create an astronomical observatory and a research facility.
CIT under the direction of Dr Niall Smith Astrophysicist the castle will have two Optical Robotically Controlled Telescope and two Radio Telescopes on site. Off site they will have a 1.2meter Optical Telescope in Greece and access to telescopes in South Africa near Bloemfontein and in Georgia in the former Soviet Union.
You may ask yourself why CIT and what will they be looking at? Well CIT are at the cutting edge of development of robotically controlled observatory systems, and their technology is being used by ground based and satellite observatories.
When they get this system operational it will be the ONLY fully robotic system in Europe.
They will have 2 full time staff, 1-post doctorate researcher 4 PhD students and 1 resident co-ordinator.
They will be involved in: -
Quasar monitoring
Building high precision instruments for photometry
Robotic control of institutional systems
High-resolution radio images of quasar jets
Low light imaging technology for quasars (the only team in Europe), in co-operation with Andor Tech in Belfast
“First look” software for the European Space Agency
Joint projects with UCD and Enterprise Ireland
Also to foster an interest in science, engineering and technology through astronomy, and as a focus for science outreach in Cork
They will research: -
Ex Solar Planets
NEO’s
Active Galaxies and
Gamma Ray Bursts.

In Blackrock the technical requirements will encompass: -
Auto Meteorological monitoring,
A robotic dome,
Robotic pointing and tracking,
Auto data acquisition Auto data reduction pipeline i.e. light curves and
Auto data archiving
Connectivity with other robotic scopes through “Dynamic Linking “
And a live feed to colleges and schools.

Instruments used will be 1.5 m optical scopes in S Africa, Greece and Georgia,
16” Meade LX200GPS on a Paramount robotic mount and a wide angle scope on the Meade LX mount plus 2 radio scopes.

The building work should be complete mid May 05, operational shortly after that and open to the public in September.

It’s a fabulous opportunity for amateurs of all degrees to get involved as Dr Smith will appreciate assistance in gathering data on photometry and stellar transit measurements i.e. HD 209450 Peg. and data from those with CCD imaging equipment.
The sky’s the limit!!!

Wow,
this sounds great !!
I'd like to pay a visit to that site in the not too distant future!

Thats a very good article by Eugene, kudos to him for writing it up!

I think perhaps we should consider IFAS Day Trips, instead of waiting for the 3 main star parties (and some sort of expo in Dublin) to meet up. This could be a good place to start?

IFAS Day Trips

Sounds like a good idea!
So when are you gonna organise the first one Seanie?

IFAS Day Trips

Sounds like a good idea!
So when are you gonna organise the first one Seanie?

Say, Tullamore, April 1st to 3rd? Could be lots of fun...

:lol:

Otherwise, remember Mike when a few of us met up in Birr one Sunday for a tour of the Castle grounds etc? Maybe keep an eye out for such places with related exhibitions. I know Cork is quite a drive for some, and would mean B&B for those wanting to go (like me - which would be a good little break away), but there are plent of other places.

E.g. Newgrange? Sligo? Inishowen? Armagh? Dunsink? Of these, I've only been to Newgrange - and that was 12 years ago!

Seanie.

We could talk it over in cosmos.

inishowen,?
what's there ?