November 2018

The third Mayo Dark Sky Festival will take place from Friday 2nd November to Sunday 4th November 2018 at various locations around Newport, Mulranny and Ballycroy. All astronomy lovers will enjoy this unique weekend of the three-day feast of talks, workshops, walks and stargazing celebrating all aspects of Mayo’s dark sky history.

On Friday night, after the kick off at 7 pm, there will be a guided torchlit walk (2.5km) to Burrishoole Abbey for stargazing including a laser-pointer guided tour of the night sky.

On Saturday many talks will take place such as 'How we got to the Moon and Back' by Brian MacGabhann,'The impacts of light pollution in the Sea' by Thomas Davies, 'Active Galactic Nuclei: Black Holes Don’t Suck!' by Bella Boulderstone, 'Tracking environmental change in the lakes and rivers of the Burrishoole catchment' by Elvira de Eyto, 'The Universe from Beginning to End' by Brian Espey, 'Creatures of the Night' by Éanna ní Lamhna and 'Astrophotography for Dummies' with photographer Brian Wilson.

On Sunday the event will end with the following talks: 'Longitude - Astronomers Vs Clockmakers' with Derek Dempsey, Rethinking the relationship between Light & Dark' by Tim Edensor, 'EIRSAT-1, Ireland's first satellite' with Lána Salmon, 'Black holes, black magic and interstellar travel' with John Brown OBE.

Family friend events will include Planetarium Shows, Solar Walk - a walk matching in scale our solar system, Mars Lander Challenge Workshop with Science Ireland, Parent and Child Model Rocket Workshop with Eric Stenzel of Irish Rocketry Society and Model Rocket Launch.

Visitors will appreciate Mayo’s pristine night-time skies.