The Festival Opening Event takes place at 7pm on Friday 1 November 2024 in Ballycroy Visitor Centre. This event will include a drinks reception, followed by a short performance by renowned fiddle player Julie Langan and harpist Laoise Kelly. We will conclude the evening with some stargazing and a guided dark sky walk (weather permitting). Due to limited capacity at the venue, entry will be by pre-booked ticket only, price €5
Schedule:
19:00 - welcome and official opening of festival
19:15 - musical performance by Julie Langan (fiddle) and Laoise Kelly (harp)
20:00 - refreshments in Ginger & Wild Cafe
20:30 - dark sky walk and stargazing (weather permitting!)

WEATHER PERMITTING (!), join Derek Dempsey and members of Newport Astronomy Club for some stargazing at one of Mayo's premier stargazing sites.

Come along for a laser-pointer tour of the early November sky. The sign-post stars in the Summer Triangle and the Big Dipper will be used to show you how to easily navigate around the night sky. At the same
time, you can view the beautiful double star Albireo, and the planet Saturn and its rings, through a 9.25" SCT telescope. Suitable for all ages and levels of expertise.

Stargazing sessions will take place from 8pm to 9pm on both Friday AND Saturday, 1 & 2 November.

Free event, no booking required

Stunning night-time photographs by Josh Matthews and Aisling McGuire will be on display in Ballycroy Visitor Centre throughout the festival weekend. Entry is free and no booking is required. Josh and Aisling will also be giving an astrophotography workshop at 12 noon on Saturday 5 November - places are strictly limited and must be booked in advance

Understanding of the occurrence and environmental impacts of artificial light at night is growing very rapidly. This talk will highlight how artificial light has become an increasingly pervasive impact on the natural world, how it needs to be considered in those terms rather than as simply having localised effects on some particular kinds of plants or animals, and how we need to respond accordingly.

While visiting Ballycroy Visitor Centre, make sure to check out our specially curated Mayo Aurora Gallery of recent photographs from some impressive Aurora sightings in 2024!

The exhibition will be open all day during visitor centre opening hours

This practical workshop will aim to convey how light pollution is caused by poor illumination. It will explore the important qualities of light along with key design considerations which lead to successful dark sky applications.

STS-41-D was the 12th flight of NASA's Space Shuttle program, and the first mission of Space Shuttle Discovery. It was launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on August 30, 1984, and landed at Edwards Air Force Base, California, on September 5, 1984. Three commercial communications satellites were deployed into orbit during the six-day mission, and a number of scientific experiments were conducted, including a prototype extendable solar array that would eventually form the basis of the main solar arrays on the International Space Station (ISS).

The mission was delayed by more than two months from its original planned launch date, having experienced the Space Shuttle program's first launch abort at T-6 seconds on June 26, 1984

Derek's talk will take a look back at Nasa's space shuttle programme, which lasted 30 years, launched hundreds of astronauts into space, and built the International Space Station - but at what cost?

Author Anna Levin brings her new book 'Dark Skies' to Ireland for a talk and writing workshop on sharing our dark sky stories. 'Dark Skies' explores the importance of the night sky and the stars in an over-lit world. Anna invites you to share your own experiences of dark skies through gentle and accessible writing exercises. All materials will be provided but feel free to bring a notepad and favourite pen!

Advances in our ability to manipulate the fundamentals of the biology of life gives us the potential to construct whole new lifeforms which can be tailored to survive or even thrive in extreme environments. At the same time, steps towards propulsion systems which can, at least in principle, accelerate small payloads to significant fractions of the speed of light, offer the possibility of accessing thousands of worlds within a human lifetime. For the first time in the history of our species the conversation is on the verge of moving from "could we" to "should we".

The StarDome, BCO's portable planetarium will be making an appearance once again at our Dark Sky Festival! Shows will run on Saturday and Sunday (11:00, 11:30, 12:00, 12:30, 14:00 and 14:30 each day), and will give you and your family the chance to discover the wonders of the night sky.

​Each show lasts 20 minutes and is FREE. With a limited capacity of 25 people per session, we suggest getting there early. If you do miss a show or it is full, you can always come back for the next one!

There is plenty of free parking at Newport National School.
Unfortunately the Dome is not wheelchair accessible

Eoin will bring us on a journey of wonder through some of the natural worlds that he has experienced while making Irish wildlife documentaries. From mid-winter nights on uninhabited offshore islands to free diving in the underwater world off our coasts.

As one of the greatest science and astronomy communicators, Carl Sagan left us a rich legacy of quotes. From Pale Blue Dots to Spirituality, his quotes and insights still have resonance today - perhaps even more resonance than when they were crafted. While we strive, and sometimes struggle, to understand our Universe, Sagan's quotes give us helpful signposts as we debate the evidence.

Rowing 3,000 miles across the Atlantic Ocean in 80 days, meant 80 variable night skies and night rowing conditions. It is these memorable night skies that will be the main focus of this presentation

Experience how a piece of silk and 5 wooden balls come to life. The WORKSHOP lasts approx one hour and costs 10 euros per child. Places are strictly limited to 10 children, and all children must be accompanied by an adult (but don't worry, accompanying adults go free!)
Afterwards children can dance their own puppet on the stage at the PUPPET SHOW, along with the Miracle Puppets cast of characters, including Hans, Ann Caithlin, Little Hans, Hugo and Reinhard.

WORKSHOP places are strictly limited, PUPPET SHOW open to all and free

Michael will be your expert companion on the guided walks around Ballycroy Visitor Centre in Wild Nephin National Park on Saturday and Sunday
Meet at the Visitor Centre at 12 noon on Saturday 2nd November or Sunday 3rd November

We'll be talking through the basics of landscape astrophotography. We'll cover what's good to photograph in Ireland, when to photograph it (including forecasting and planning) and basic setup. We'll give practical examples from our own experiences and talk a little bit about camera settings at the end. We'll leave time after the presentation so that if you like, you can bring your own camera and we'll look through the right astrophotography settings together.

An Out of this World experience through the world of Lego! This fun workshop is aimed at children from the age of 6 - 12. It will take place in the workshop of the Mulranny Arts Centre, and last one hour.

This workshop is suitable for children age 5 plus (Lego is provided), so children can get to step out of this world and experience the dark skies through Lego.

You can build your own astronaut - or why not fly to the moon on your rocket ship (you can check out some of our Lego displays) or just simply show us your idea of what you can see in our dark skies so maybe it’s through your own lego-made telescope showing us the biggest star or planet in the sky or a rocket ship on wheels with an alien on board. Let your imagination take you beyond this world into our skies... so let’s get building!

Michael will be your expert companion on the guided walks around Ballycroy Visitor Centre in Wild Nephone National Park on Saturday and Sunday
Meet at the Visitor Centre at 2pm on Saturday 4th November or Sunday 5th November

As a bonus...
At 12 noon on Saturday 4 November, Michael will give a short talk in the Visitor Centre about the bones discovered (by him!) in the Nephin Beg caves

At 13:00 on Sunday 5 November, Michael will also host an Introduction to stargazing especially aimed at children (a hands-on interactive event)

The Birth of a New Science: Gravitational-Wave Astronomy.

In 2016, hill walker Michael Chambers discovered a boulder chamber on Bengorm Mountain. Human bones were visible on the cave floor, which prompted Michael to contact the relevant authorities. This led to an archaeological excavation of the site, which revealed that the cave had been used during the Neolithic, about 5,500 years ago, for mortuary rituals. Over several centuries families brought the corpses of their dead up the mountain and placed them in the cave for a period of time. Marion's talk will explore the fascinating evidence for the death rituals that took place in this dark mountain space in prehistory.

UPDATE 31 OCT - this event cancelled due to family illness

The Photo Nightscape Awards are one of the most important photo awards in the world. This 9th edition saw more than 500 photographs submitted from more than 20 countries. Any photographer can enter in the 5 categories offered: Nightscape, In Town, Black & White, Smartphone and Timelapse. For the first time, the winners are exhibited in Ireland at the Mayo Dark Sky Festival - the festival's official partner.
In 2023, the Chasseurs de Nuits association, which organizes the Photo Nightscape Awards, will celebrate its 10th anniversary, so follow us on our social networks and prepare your cameras, we have a lot of nice surprises in store for you!

An introduction to Ireland's nocturnal biodiversity, how our wildlife can be impacted by light pollution, and the positive steps we can take to protect the darkness.

Éanna will explore how changing light levels are affecting Ireland's marine habitats - full abstract to follow

Over the course of the past 70 years, much of Ireland's blanket peatlands, including those in North Mayo, have been fragmented and degraded through the planting of non-native conifer plantations for timber production. We now know that this practice has had negative impacts on many of our iconic peatland bird species, such as red grouse and golden plover.

As we begin to attempt to undo some of the damage caused by peatland afforestation, this talk will examine what we can learn from some of the earliest attempts to restore from ‘forest-to-bog’ and the effect that these projects have had on our peatland bird communities, with a view to the future and increased restoration in our landscape

In 2023, with the successful launch of EIRSAT-1, Ireland became an internationally recognised space-faring nation. However, the voyage from idea to reality was fraught. Hard work, diplomacy, resilience and dedication was needed over a 6 year period from a core student team of physicists, engineers, mathematicians and computer scientists; all supported by the European Space Agency’s ‘Fly Your Satellite’ programme and UCD staff. In this talk, Prof. Lorraine Hanlon recounts just what it took for Ireland to reach orbit, for the team to put a 2kg CubeSat into orbit, and, importantly, why it all matters!