Date: July 6 Time: 18:00 - 21:00
First Fridays at the Castle is an action-packed open night on the first Friday of every month with activities for visitors of all ages.
18:00-20:00 | Family-friendly workshops GAMES
Four half-hour hands on family friendly sessions with our in-house teacher and astronomer, Frances McCarthy. Play “Black Hole Explorers” a co-operative game to design a space craft that can safely explore a black hole. The object is to return to Earth with your results and collect your Nobel Prize! Suitable for family groups with at least one strong reader to decode the science you find out!
20:00 -21:00 | Lecture
Join Prof. Mike Redfern for “Black Holes – Invented in UCG”
Everyone has heard about black holes but almost nobody knows that they were first described 90 years ago by Alexander Anderson, who was at
the time Professor of Natural Philosophy and President in University College Galway. Of course, it was many years before anyone was able to actually get proof that he was right!
In the talk Mike will tell you something about black holes, what they are, how we may observe them and, most importantly, how they were invented by Alex Anderson. He will finish with some astonishing recent data proving that our Milky Way galaxy has a super-massive black hole at its heart, gobbling up stars in the vicinity.
UPDATE: WITH THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE HIGGS BOSON DISCOVERY, PROF REDFERN WILL INCLUDE AN OVERVIEW OF THIS ELUSIVE PARTICLE AND ITS IMPORTANCE.
An insight into Mike…
Mike Redfern is Professor in the Centre for Astronomy in NUI-Galway since 1981 and was involved in the setup of the highly successful degree in Physics and Astrophysics 12 years ago.
His research has covered all sorts of strange things including laser physics, bio-sensors, and aircraft early warning devices, but most recently has concentrated on instrumentation for high resolution astronomical imaging using large telescopes all over the World.
Note – BCO members enjoy priority seating
Stargazing will return during the winter months
