Date: September 28   Time: 15:00 - 23:00

European Researchers’ Night will take place in 800 venues across 320 cities on Friday, September 28.

It’s one of the EU’s most popular initiatives, aimed at the general public – especially families, young people and those who might not see themselves as science fans, to experience science in an entertaining way.

This year we are teaming up with NUI Galway to bring you Sea2Sky, a free, fun, family-friendly event that will bring the world of science to you, highlighting research in the marine, atmospheric and astronomy sciences.

15:00 – 21:00 | Mars Rover Curiosity

Watch NASA footage of Curiosity and its successful landing on Mars

NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory mission set down a large, mobile laboratory — the rover Curiosity — at Gale Crater, using precision landing technology that makes many of Mars’ most intriguing regions viable destinations for the first time.

During the 23 months after landing, Curiosity will analyse dozens of samples drilled from rocks or scooped from the ground as it explores with greater range than any previous Mars rover

15:00 – 21:00 | Courtyard Entertainment

Enjoy live music with Dr Fiasco throughout the day, exciting entertainment with the Cork Circus and face-painting and balloon shape making.

Lady Grew will help you discover mind-blowing scientific facts via the medium of sci-rap and interactive performance

15:00 – 17:00 | Explore the Universe Workshop

Lifetime Lab will be running fun family-friendly science workshops

Make bubbles, learn about water & space pressure, perform table top experiments and use a marine touch table

Lifetime Lab is based at the Old Cork Waterworks on Lee Road and comprises of an interactive visitor centre and steam engine room, playground and gardens and school resource centre

17:00 – 19:00 | Build a Space Shuttle Workshop

At this drop-in family orientated workshop your group will work together to build models of both manned (Atlantis) and robotic space shuttles (Dawn Explorer)

Once finished you can move on to the other fun activities taking place and take your final shuttle home with you

18:00 – 21:00 | Meet the Researchers

30 minute Q&A sessions with astronomy and marine researchers

Explore a scientist’s world of stars, space and sea with researchers from BCOLabs and National Maritme Centre of Ireland

GET TO KNOW THE RESEARCHERS…

Astronomy:

RESEARCHERS Profile Adrian Collins;    RESEARCHERS Profile Alan Giltinan;   RESEARCHERS Profile Josh Reynolds;    RESEARCHERS Profile Niall Smith

Marine:

RESEARCHERS Profile Bill Kavanagh;     RESEARCHERS’ Profile Cormac Gebruers

18:00-19:00 | Celestial Navigation workshop

Learn about the art of Celestial Navigation with Cork’s Master Mariners

Captain Bill Kavanagh is a Master Mariner and lecturer in Nautical Science in the National Maritime College of Ireland. He has co-ordinated many EU research projects in maritime transport and education. He is currently the president of the Irish Institute of Master Mariners and a Fellow of the Royal Institute of Navigation

19.30 – 20.30 | Science Café

Expert panellists will discuss “Is the Future of Space Exploration Robotic or Human?” during a live link-up with former NASA astronaut Dan Tani and NUI Galway

Researchers in both Cork and Galway will participate in this live Science Café to discuss key points, future possibilities and debate any issues that arise

GET TO KNOW THE PANEL…

Dan Tani |    Niall Smith |    Andy Shearer |    M.C. - Leo Enright


19:00 – 20:00 | The Wonders of the Irish Sea

Susan Steel, Head of Innovation of BIM’s seafood development centre will give a fun family-friendly presentation on exploring the sea and show you the amazing things that you can eat and make from the sea

Susan runs ultra-marathons, fly’s planes, is a Mum to 7 kids and wanted to be a marine biologist since the age of three

RESEARCHERS Profile Susan Steele

20:00 – 21:00 | The Gift of Seaweed

Sally McKenna….journalist, blogger, photographer and a kayak forager will teach you how to identify seaweed on the Irish coastline

Sally’s talk will include seaweed demonstrations giving you to the chance to taste and squeeze to extract the oil

RESEARCHERS Profile Sally McKenna

20:00 – 23:00 | StarGazing

Train your eyes skywards with the Cork Astronomy Club and BCO astronomers who will guide a public stargazing event – the sky will be darkening at 20:00, with a nearly Full Moon lighting the sky

Please note: Stargazing is weather dependent! In the event of a cloudy evening we will run indoor Stellarium planetarium workshops so you can still map the night sky

Exhibitions

15:00 – 17:00 | NASA’s ViewSpace

ViewSpace portrays the beauty and power of the Universe and gently guides the viewer to have a deeper understanding of astronomy. The latest images, movies, animations and news from the Hubble Space Telescope and other NASA observatories will be screened

15:00 – 17:00 | Harmony of the Spheres

Meet Cork based musician Brian Leach, creator of Harmony of the Spheres, a musical piece incorporating a live feed of data, streamed directly from a radio telescope.

The live signals are manipulated into playing a ten tone scale devised by splitting the octave into ten equal parts and you can interact directly with them by using a Theremin

15:00 – 23:00 | Astronomical Entanglements

Local artist David Upton has used archival material, photography, video and cast iron and aluminium sculpture to highlight the astronomical histories of Cork. Some items on display are a cast iron rocket piece and cosmic images David took using our optical telescope

Schools Photography Competition

As part of the European Researchers’ Night 2012 and Sea2Sky event we are asking all young photographers to submit photographs to a free competition entitled ‘Earth, Wind and Fire’

Download entry form and competition details HERE

Kindly supported by the