Danielle Wilcox who was the winner of the BTYSTE Irish Scientists Have Talent – will be taking the audience on a tour for a behind the scenes look at the science that happens at Blackrock Castle Observatory. First, we’ll have an up-close look at the different smaller telescopes that we have on site that we use for observing nights at the castle.

Then we’ll head to our small observatory which houses the telescope used to look at exoplanets and we’ll have a look inside the dome; this area is normally restricted to astronomers and staff at BCO. From there we’ll head to the top of the main tower of the castle. There we have our large observatory, which is home to our main telescope, Big Bertha. Big Bertha peers halfway across the known universe to have a look at black holes. The techniques used to analyse the images of those black holes are now being used in an experiment to test masks that are being worn during the pandemic. So, from there, we’ll journey out to the Cork Institute of Technology to see the experiment happening in action!