BERNICE HARRISONwith alternatives to movies and the mall
Deadly Moons
An impressive-sounding exhibition, The Footsteps of Galileo, opens on Friday at the Historic Science Centre at Birr Castle, in Co Offaly. Serious sky-watchers will appreciate the original observations from generations of hobby and professional astronomers. One of the best-known contributors is the astronomy guru Sir Patrick Moore, who has sent over several of his sketches.
Also in the exhibition will be more than 100 drawings and paintings of their “favourite moon” made by children as part of the Deadly Moons project, organised with the help of the Universe Awareness for Young Children (Unawe) organisation.
If you can’t make the exhibition – it runs until November 2nd – log on to the Unawe website (unawe.org) and take part in the brilliant What Do Children Think of the Universe? project, which encourages parents to ask children between the ages of four and 10 about their perception of the sky.
As prompters, and to get the conversation going, there are suggested topics to cover, from their opinions about a galaxy to whether they’d fancy being an astronaut. You can record their answers (on a mobile phone is fine) and forward them to Unawe, to be loaded on to the site.
** Birr Castle Demesne, Co Offaly, 057-9120336, www.birrcastle.com.