European City of Science Lecture The Big Bang and Birr Telescope Tonight's fantastic public lecture is to celebrate Dublin being the European City of Science in 2012. Dr Cormac O'Raifeartaigh will describe the advent of the Big Bang Theory and how the world’s largest telescope at Birr Castle aided in the development of the Big Bang model of the Universe. In times past it was thought that the Universe was a stationary, non-changing place, that consisted only of our own galaxy, The Milky Way. With the dawn of giant telescopes, such as the Birr Telescope, astronomers learned that there were other galaxies dotted around the Universe, and very far away from our own galaxy. This discovery fundamentally changed how we saw our Universe as we realised that it was an ever-changing place. If the Universe was always changing and expanding, it dawned on scientists that at one point in the past, all matter and energy - the Universe itself - emerged from a single energetic event: The Big Bang. Using the Leviathan Telescope at Birr Castle - the Hubble Space Telescope of its day - the latest scientific theories of the Universe were forged that ultimately led to the Big Bang theory of the Universe, which will be explained in this talk. David Moore featured on Today With Pat Kenny on RTE Radio One this morning in an astronomy round-up and to talk about tonight's amazing lecture. You can listen to it online at www.astronomy.ie/audio The lecture will take place in the Fitzgerald Building in Trinity College Dublin at 8pm. To order DVDs or tickets please click HERE. To give people a chance to avail of our Summer School offer after hearing about it on Today With Pat Kenny, we are extending our offer of €20 off the enrolment fee until this Friday! For more information and to avail of this offer visit www.astronomy.ie/summerschool Astronomy Ireland The world's most popular Astronomy Club www.astronomy.ie ( subscribe / unsubscribe )