Astronomer’s talk comes on coat-tails of total lunar eclipse

It may not make him popular with employers in Galway but David Moore is advising people to take Monday, September 28, off in order to witness a total lunar eclipse, which will start at around 2am and last until 5.30am.

The founder of Astronomy Ireland says this is a special event that won’t be seen again for years and shouldn’t be missed.

The following night, September 29, David will be in the Town Hall Theatre to discuss, among other subjects, how the Irish invented astronomy. In a lecture that will embrace the universe, Black Holes, Dark Matter, Dark Energy and the Big Bang theory will all be up for discussion.

Closer to earth, David will talk about the sun and its family of planets, asteroids and comets, looking at where life might exist in our solar system.

Crediting the Irish with inventing astronomy might sound a bit far-fetched, but David, whose enthusiasm for his subject is unparalleled, points to Newgrange burial tomb in Meath. At 5,000 years old, this Neolithic structure predates the pyramids and Stonehenge, he says.

Newgrange was built so that the sun would shine directly into the passage leading to its tomb on the shortest day of the year. That meant its creators knew how a calendar worked. In fact, he says, they were able to figure out that there were 365-and a-quarter-days in a year. That quarter-day might not seem like much, but it added up to a month every century. For early farmers, that could have meant the difference between living and dying, as it dictated when they planted crops.

“Then fast forward to the 1800s, when the biggest telescope in the world was in Birr. It was the Hubble Space Telescope of its day and attracted astronomers from all over the world, despite our weather,” David explains. Birr’s telescope, built by Lord Ross, remained the biggest in the world for half a century.

Even today, it would be a mistake to think Ireland’s influence has declined. The Rosetta space mission, launched by the European Space Agency in 2004 to rendezvous with a comet and send a probe to its surface, is co-managed from Spain by Mullingar man, Laurence O’Rourke, a graduate of Maynooth and UCC.

The Philae probe landed on the comet last November, the first time ever such a feat was achieved. And while the €1 billion mission has not been without its difficulties, the probe has been sending back data to Rosetta and from there to Earth since it ‘woke up’ in June. Part of the technology involved in this was built in Maynooth, says David.

As a member of the European Space Agency, Ireland is allowed to tender for contracts, and does, whether those are scientific or commercial projects – such as communication satellites.

Sixty per cent of Ireland’s GDP is driven by science and technology, something most people aren’t aware of, says David. Even at the height of the boom this sector was three times higher than the construction business and was the biggest employer in Ireland.

And while there may not be very many jobs in Ireland for astronomers, it’s a great subject to study at university alongside other science subjects such as IT, maths or physics.

In fact, David adds, many financial institutions claim to prefer astro-physics graduates than people with MBAs. That may be because they are more creative and less likely to be driven by money.

Outside of business, astronomy is huge in this country, he says. Relative to our population, Astronomy Ireland has the biggest membership of any group of its type in the world.

“You might wonder, with the weather we have, why there should be any interest in astronomy, but if the skies are always clear where you live, you mightn’t take so much notice. Here in Ireland, we nearly have a party when the sun shines!”

And, says David, people realise, too, that astronomy isn’t just about places far away.

“It has everything to do with everyday life. Every particle in our body and being, we want to know where it comes from. It is possible we are made of comets. Our oceans are made of comets and it’s likely that all the organic material in our body comes from comets.”

You don’t need a degree in maths or science to learn more about the universe. All that’s required is curiosity and wonder, he says, pointing to Einstein whose interest in physics was piqued in childhood by watching magnets at work.

David’s own passion also began in childhood, courtesy of a friend who had a telescope – rare in those days, he adds. His friend had been looking at Jupiter but when David wanted to do likewise, he was told Jupiter was gone. When he asked why, he was referred to a book! He read all he could find in the school library and local bookshops, then sent for books in the post – it was the pre-internet era.

The size of the universe and realisation that the earth was so tiny blew his mind, he recalls.

“And nobody was teaching us that in school. There is still very little astronomy taught in schools.”

Twenty-five years ago it wasn’t being taught in university much either, but now almost every Irish university offers it, thanks to the work of Astronomy Ireland.

For those who want to dip their toes in the mysteries of the universe, David will be in the Town Hall Theatre on Tuesday, September 29, at 8pm to discuss life, the universe and everything.

His aim is “to convert all six million people in Ireland to astronomy” and given his passion and knowledge, he’ll probably find several converts following his Town Hall talk.