The Irish Astronomical Society’s Christmas gathering is coming around again, this year in anew and enhanced format and in co-0peration with University College Dublin.  Again, we are delighted to have Dr. Antonio Martin Carrillo, UCD Ad Astra fellow /AssistantProfessor in the School of Physics, as our guest speaker.  (It has become a bit of a traditionfor Dr…

“Cats, Newts, Specs and OGs: the world’s most important telescopes” The optical telescope has been the single greatest invention in the development of astronomy. Although Galileo did not invent it, his first astronomical observations with his primitive home-made telescope opened the doors – or windows – to the universe. Since then there have been numerous…