Why Cape Clear Dark Skies event is not to be missed, May 24 – 26th, 2019

Cape Clear Dark Skies

1 min pitch for what you are doing now?

I moved to Cape Clear, to take up the position of permanent classroom teacher, in November 2018. Since then I have happily settled into living on the island, getting involved in the community and learning about the history, culture and scenery of the island. This past winter, I spent many weekends refurbishing and restoring an old sailboat that I bought last year.

I now have this boat at the pier on the island and spend many an enjoyable evening sailing the waters near the island, regularly seeing dolphins, seals and a range of birds including seagulls, oystercatchers, cormorants and many others. At present, I am completing my private pilot’s licence for fixed-wing microlights and finishing a Masters in Computer Science by Research, at University College Cork and, of course, trying to be part of a group that organises an enjoyable Dark Skies Weekend.

I am going to continue to enjoy island life, while teaching in Scoil Náisiúnta Inis Chléire. My standard of Irish is improving every day and I am enjoying the relaxed pace of life while also getting opportunities to enjoy sailing and seeing nature at close hand. I will continue to sail the boat that I restored and I aim to complete my pilot’s licence for planes during the summer holidays.

Dark Skies weekend

With regard to the Dark Skies weekend, I aim to continue to be involved with this as it grows. As a community, we wish to increase the awareness of the Dark Skies (particulary on Cape Clear) and we hope to register as an official Dark Skies Community in the coming months, becoming the first island commuity and the most southerly community in Ireland to be registered as a Dark Sky.

Buy tickets here

https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/cape-clear-dark-skies-tickets-61111372761

https://capecleardarkskies.home.blog/

The community hopes to continue to work with Cork Institute of Technology, Blackrock Castle Observatory, University College Cork, Údarás na Gaeltachta, Cork County Council and Fáilte Ireland in the coming months in order to make this happen.

Dark Skies

What inspired you to organise it?

Cape Clear experiences some of the darkest skies one can find in Ireland. Working on the south side of the island during last winter, gave me uninterrupted views from the south of the island, with the next area that can cause light pollution being La Coruna (Spain), which is over 500 miles south. During my winter evening walks home from school, I immediately became aware of the clarity of the night-sky. Before Christmas last, I witnessed shooting stars, planets and, one particular evening, around six o clock, I saw a large white dot slowly move across the Cape Clear Sky.

Pondering on what it could be, I turned to the internet and I was amazed to see that it was, in fact, the International Space Station. From this one experience, I kept a tab open on my phone to keep up-to-date with the International Space Station and other celestial events. I wanted to share this experience with others *which I did) so we started the conversation, and it grew from there. I was delighted with the enthusiasm from everybody and we decided to organise the first Dark Sky weekend on Cape Clear.

How to learn more

Which influencers and websites do you follow to keep up to date with the latest developments?

I generally look to https://space.com for updates on what is happening at the moment, I also keep track of the International Space Station on https://spotthestation.nasa.gov/sightings/view.cfm?country=Ireland&region=None&city=Cork#.XM1yluhKhdh .

I also find https://earthsky.org helpful to catch up with relevant articles.

How can people find out more about what you are working on?

People can find more out about the event on the designated page http://capecleardarkskies.home.blog

Twitter is @CapeSkies

See this interview with one of the featured speakers too.

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