About
The Armagh Observatory was built in 1790 by the Archbishop Richard Robinson and has been in continuous use for astronomical research ever since. The Armagh Planetarium opened to the public in 1968 and is the longest running planetarium in the British Isles. Located on twenty acres of verdant woodland, the two organisations joined together in 2016 to form the Armagh Observatory and Planetarium, and now welcome over seventy thousand visitors a year to explore the cosmos and our amazing heritage.
The Observatory had dozens of different telescopes made by workshops in Ireland, the United Kingdom, and even farther afield. On European Heritage Open Day 2024 we will open our largest telescope dome to the public. This dome houses one of our large reflecting telescopes. The Calver was built in the early 1880’s and for a period was the largest telescope in Ireland. In 2022, the Calver telescope dome underwent some essential conservation, ensuring the dome remained accessible and in a fit state to help protect the telescope. The Calver telescope at Armagh Observatory has had quite a career in the hands of various owners. It was donated to the Observatory in 1918 by the Director, Rev. William Frederick Archdale Ellison, who had acquired the telescope while a clergyman in Wexford. The telescope was used by Rev. Ellison, and his son, Mervyn Ellison. In the 1950’s it was retrofitted as a Schimdt type camera, capable of making extremely high-quality glass plate photographs of the night sky. In this format it was used by Dr David Andrews to perform important research on flare stars. It was restored in 2006 by David Sinden, and with financial support from the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
As well as the Calver, we will also have the Grubb 10-Inch refracting telescope, built in Dublin in 1885, open. Housed in the Robinson Memorial Dome this telescope was used for some of most important astronomical work ever conducted on the Island of Ireland!
Join a team of our PhD students and volunteers as they showcase the Calver and the Grubb in our collection, in a bid to highlight the difference between historic and modern telescopes. They will also explain how these telescopes are being used today, along with what conservation work was carried out and how they operate!
Book Tickets
Guide Prices
| Ticket Type | Ticket Tariff |
|---|---|
| Ticket | Free |
Note: Prices are a guide only and may change on a daily basis.
