Community Constellations of Culture Night presented by Mayo Dark Sky Park

MAYO Dark Sky Park is collaborating with the Ballycroy community to present a very special series of events for Culture Night 2024, on Friday, September 20, from 7 p.m. 'til late. Admission is free.

Ballycroy Community Centre will play host to the mobile planetarium Pale Blue Dot, presented for the first time in Mayo by the Wild Nephin National Park and Ballycroy Visitor Centre together with the team from Armagh Observatory and Planetarium.

The planetarium’s name, Pale Blue Dot, was inspired by American astronomer Carl Sagan’s inspiring quote describing the view of Earth from Space, captured in 1990 by the NASA’s Voyager Spacecraft. The name captures perfectly humanity’s place in space and time in the vastness of the universe and the delicate nature of our important relationship with our planet.

There will be five shows across the evening and screenings will be of approximately 20 minutes duration. Each show will be filled on a first come, first served basis with plenty of other activities to do during the evening.

Ballycroy Women’s Group will present World Food Night concurrently at the community centre, providing food and hospitality prepared especially for the evening. All are welcome.

For Culture Night, an especially designed 'Star Trail' will also be available to experience and it will guide visitors to enjoy ample stargazing (weather dependent), biodiversity and indoor activities, as well as a dark sky walk, adjacent to the visitor centre of the National Park.

At the Wild Nephin National Park Visitor Centre, Special Astronomy introductions, both English and as Gaeilge, will be screened on repeat adjacent to indoor astronomy activities, while at the Outdoor Classroom, will be the Under One Sky multi-sensory experience with sensory trail, telescopes and observation.

For the late night owls, there will be a Dark Sky/Stargazing Walk at 10.30 p.m., which will be a looped walk of approx. 1.5km (weather permitting).

Mayo Dark Sky Park, known as Wild Nephin National Park by day, has been collaborating with local communities to design and deliver the programme of events and collaboration is the ongoing theme for the Friends of Mayo Dark Skies Community group as it is partnering with Dark Sky Ireland to present the ninth International Scientific Conference of Artificial Light at Night in Westport next year, October 28-30, 2025.

The ALAN Conference will see academics, astronomers and night sky special interest groups gather in Mayo to discuss how and where light is produced and how it is interacting with ecology and the human experience of the Dark Sky at Night.

Mayo is one of the must-visit locations for Dark Sky enthusiasts across the globe due to the low levels of light pollution in the area and it is hoped the conference event will support the growing global movement towards preserving the Dark Sky at Night through its programme of talks and events ranging from science and governance to dark sky outreach, and lighting design.