b'Look again at that dot.Thats here.Thats home. Thats us.On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human beingwhoeverwas,livedouttheirlives.The aggregate of our joy and suffering,thousands ofconfidentreligions,ideologies,andeconomic doctrines, every hunter and forager,every hero andcoward,everycreatoranddestroyerof civilization,every king and peasant, every young couple in love,every mother and father, hopeful child,inventorandexplorer,everyteacherof morals, every corrupt politician, every superstar, everysupreme leader, every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived thereon a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.an excerpt from Astronomer Carl Sagans A Pale Blue Dot Project TA RA and math. The program allows them to taketo space via radio waves. The CIT Blackrock is an Irish-led collaborative program designed to encour- data from the telescope in California whileCastleObservatoryandProjectTARAare agecrossculturalrelationshipsbetween alsointeractingwiththesistertelescopefully interactive and are proudly instilling a studentsaroundtheworldthroughthe there in Cork.passion for science and astronomy.inspiringtopicofastronomyandspace ThankstoTheIrelandFunds,weve Theexchangeofknowledgeandscience.LedbytheCorkInstituteof enabledoverathousandchildrento shared-experiencebetweenSanFrancisco Technology (CIT) Blackrock Castle Observa- participateinProjectTARA,explainsand Cork (which are sister cities) has beentory, Project TARA gives students in IrelandClairMcSweeneyofCITBlackrockCastle cementedwithavisittoSanFranciscobyat the Blackrock Castle Observatory, and inObservatory.Astronomyforusisan severalCorkstudentstoexperiencethePortola Valley, California at the Ormondaleincrediblevehicleforlearning.NomatterCaliforniasatellite.Inaddition,avisitElementarySchool,mutualaccesstotwowhoyouare,whateveryourage,orwhereto Cork was made by San Francisco Mayor, telescopes in each location.youre from. Were all living under a sky thatEdwin Lee when he launched the program in Located in the Cork Institute of Technol- we share. Astronomy is something we find2013. The visit was of note as it was his first ogy (CIT) Blackrock Castle Observatory, theeverybody can relate to. official trip outside the USA as Mayor.Irish telescope is the center of a far-reachingThecriticalthinkingandastronomy The Ireland Funds support has been educationalprogramenjoyedbychildrenlessons delivered through Project TARA arecrucial to Project Tara,explains Dr. who visit from across Ireland. The late 16thclearly enjoyed by the schoolchildren (andNiall Smith, Head of Research at Cork In-century castle is a fascinating juxtapositiontheir teachers) that visit and participate institute of Technology. But it has also been tothemoderntechnologyhousedwithin.the project. Visiting classes not only climbsymbolic. This is really an Ireland/US project Schoolchildrenatboththeprimaryand the castle roof to see the TARA telescope,that is anchored between the two countries. secondarylevelcometotheObservatorythey also create their own moon photos, crawlIts a two-way conversation and it benefits so tobuildtheirknowledgeandexcitementinto an inflatable planetarium to see anima- many children who are under this one sky.aroundscience,technology,engineeringtions of the local night sky, and send email connect2015 | 39'