Seeing stars: awestruck by wonders of the universe

It’s amazing to think we were all forged in the heart of a great star about 10 billion years ago. The gold ring you are wearing was forged in the heart of a supernova – which is when a star explodes. If you are wearing a gold earring, that’s a bit of a supernova on your ear.

Brian Mac Gabhann is Chairman of the Galway Astronomy Club – he’s also its Education and Outreach Officer. And given that he’s so good at explaining the universe, he’s the perfect man for this position.

“There are amazing objects out there and what is more amazing is that you can go out at night and look up at that world,” says the former army man, who now works for the Money, Advice and Budgeting Service (MABS) in its Tuam office.

Gazing up at the night skies sounds like a wonderful pastime, but it must be frustrating for people living in Galway, a place where rain is the norm.

“You have to have a masochistic streak to be a stargazer living in the West of Ireland,” Brian acknowledges, “but that’s universal – everybody moans about the weather.”

Two things are helpful for watching the sky at night; clear weather and lack of light pollution.

Unless you live deep in the countryside, light pollution can be an issue but, explains Brian “you have to learn to work around it – look for bright objects such as the moon or star clusters”.

Alternatively, “get a rig that’s relatively portable and go to a darker site”.

And despite our mixed weather, Ireland had many sites that are free of light pollution, which offers huge potential for off-season tourism, he says.

Dark Sky Star Parks – places certified by the American-based International Dark Sky Association – are a major draw for astronomy enthusiasts in countries such as Spain.

Currently Ireland’s only designated Dark Sky Park is on the Skelligs, but places such as the Burren could meet the criteria and this is worth exploring, he says.

Brian was first inspired to look skyward as a teenager, influenced by the English astronomer Patrick Moore.

“I wrote to him and he replied,” he recalls, adding that Moore, who died three years ago, replied to every letter he received.

Fifteen-year-old Brian who lived in the “middle of Dublin city”, bought a small telescope and “was hooked”.

He subsequently joined the army, “which wasn’t conductive” to stargazing, although there were fantastic opportunities to see clear skies in some of the countries to which he was posted, including Lebanon.

“There are different skies, depending on what part of the world you are in,” he says.

Brian joined MABS in 2007 – which was “spectacularly bad timing”, as the recession hit shortly afterwards – but it allowed him to indulge his passion for astronomy.

He lives in Corofin where he has set up a home observatory, and outside that, he is a key member of the Galway Astronomy Club, which hosts a series of guest speakers at its monthly meetings, as well as having regular observing sessions.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.