Observatory to let public use telescope

Blackrock Castle Observatory (BCO) in Cork is to allow people use its telescope to take pictures of objects in space.

The observatory in the 16th-century castle on the banks of the River Lee is due to get a new dome for its telescope from Britain.

“The new dome is 4m in diameter. Previously it was 3.2m, which might not sound like a big difference, but it represents an increase of 50% in the floor area and will be sited on top of the main tower,” said BCO spokeswoman Dee Geaney.

“This larger dome is being made specially in the UK for BCO — the current one is off-the-shelf — and is designed to withstand the windy conditions at the tower top.

It will cost €20,000, which is about a third of the price for a dome of comparable size from one of the major suppliers, so it represents excellent value. The new dome will be fully robotic; that is, it will be able to work without human intervention. By connecting it to our weather stations, we can tell if the weather is clement enough to open the dome and start observing, even when there’s nobody in the castle.”

Tours of the new dome will be provided for the public and, while looking directly through the telescope will not be possible, a permanently-mounted camera will be made available for public use at specified times and when the weather allows to take pictures of heavenly objects. These will be exhibited in the observatory.

If the weather means the dome cannot be opened for observation, BCO is looking at allowing the public to nominate an object to be photographed by one of the telescopes — a secondary dome and telescope is to be situated on a lower roof — with the resulting photograph emailed to them.

“We will expand our use of smaller telescopes to allow the public to look through a telescope with their own eyes,” said Ms Geaney. “However, it’s really important to remember that optical telescopes can only operate when the skies are clear, so even with the new dome, we cannot guarantee the public can see the stars.”

The observatory is operated by Cork Institute of Technology and the new dome and its telescope will be used to test new instruments under development at BCO Labs, which will make searching for extrasolar planets from the ground — as distinct from space — more effective than is currently possible.

“The problem with looking at the sky from the surface of the earth is that the atmosphere distorts everything,” explained Ms Geaney.

“Satellites in space obviously do not suffer from this distortion, but satellites are extremely expensive. Hence, improving the quality of observations from the ground, made possible by removing much of the disturbances of the atmosphere, has enormous potential benefits, not least in terms of cost. Our research to date shows that we can improve the quality of data from the ground by 50% in many instances.”