Visiting Exhibitions

CIT Blackrock Castle Observatory is open to submissions from artists who wish to display works of a scientific and/or astronomical nature. The gallery walls at Blackrock Castle and all its public spaces including multi media facilities & the Castle Cafe are open to creative display.

Collaborative works between BCO and artists are welcomed with projects such as Cork’s Solar System Trail, Capture the Cosmos and Boundary Works an example of the rich results that manifest when artist meets scientist.

Applications for use of the gallery space and collaborative works should be made to clair.mcsweeney@bco.ie

Currently Showing…

Awesome Universe Exhibition

Awesome Universe is a photography exhibition that celebrates 50 years of Europe’s quest to explore the southern sky, marking the 50th anniversary of the European Southern Observatory (ESO).

To celebrate we are exhibiting 10 of these visually stunning images, showcasing celestial objects such as galaxies, nebulae, and star clusters as seen by ESO’s observatories — home to the world’s most advanced ground-based telescopes.

Messier 78: a reflection nebula in Orion

NGC 2467 and Surroundings

Previous exhibitions….

Astronomical Entanglements

For this exhibition David Upton has drawn for inspiration on the astronomical and socialist histories of Cork City focusing on the plough constellation as a symbol which at once embodies both the celestial and the earthly.

In using archival material, photography, video and cast iron and aluminium sculpture David mixes themes of the local with the cosmic. Through a recent engagement with an outdated iron casting process at the National Sculpture Factory and use of images taken with CIT Blackrock Castle Observatory’s optical telescope metaphors are made to the primal processes of creation and destruction.

Harmony of the Spheres – Improvisation for Radio Telescope and Theremin

Harmony of the Spheres created by Cork based musician Brian Leach is a musical piece incorporating a live feed of data, streamed directly from the 32m radio telescope at National Space Centre. The live signals are manipulated into playing a ten tone scale devised by splitting the octave into ten equal parts. Some of the harmonies produced are new to our ears, while others are reminiscent of Western or Pythagorean intervals.

Interact with these sounds from the universe by using the Theremin.

The Southern & Northern Hemispheres

The Southern Sky: Laura Borsellino & Diego Sassone

The Northern Sky: Denis Walsh

In celebration of Global Astronomy Month we’re running a very special photographic exhibition of the Southern and Northern Hemispheres

For more information please check out our blog

Some exhibition highlights

A view from the Milky way from the south. The reddish colour of the sky is due to Buenos Aires city lights, about 150 km away but stong enough to ligh up the night sky