Astronomy Center
Blackrock Castle houses Ireland's first fully interactive astronomy center developed by the award-winning multimedia company Martello Media. The exhibition is now open to the public and is themed "The Search for Extreme Life in the Universe". Highlights of the exhibition will include:
- A tour of the Universe using interactive floor-to-ceiling screens. Visitors will be able learn about the evolution of the universe, from the earliest moments to the present day and beyond, delving deeper into the interactive software if they wish, or taking a more leisurely tour where they can enjoy the experience as a spectator.
- Ireland's first "social software" cinema designed by Martello Media, with the digital post production by the award-winning Irish company The Farm, especially for visitors to Blackrock Castle. In our cinematic experience the audience directly influences the design of a space mission that may be needed to divert a comet from colliding with the Earth, using scientific principles to make critical decisions along the way.
- A radio telescope that will actually beam messages composed by school groups towards nearby stars, some with known planets in orbit around them. A simulator will allow users to follow their signal as it travels in real-time out of the solar system and on towards its selected destination.
- An optical telescope that will continuously search for very short flashes of light (lasting mere billionths of a second) that may be evidence for extraterrestrial intelligence. This technique, known as an "Optical Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence" (OSETI), will use state-of-the-art instruments built by companies in Cork, including SensL, a photonics company.
The castle already houses a team of astronomical researchers from Cork Institute of Technology who have been working on the development of the exhibition and the construction of Ireland's first robotic observatory. At the same time, the team are currently engaged in a number of astronomy projects.
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