6:00 – 9:00pm Welcome Reception and Guided Tour at Belfast City Hall.

7:30 – 8:00pm Poetry Reading

Darcey Dugan, Kali Cramer and Matthew Rice (QUB and Seamus Heaney Centre)

8:45 – 9:10am Registration

9:10 – 9:40am Welcome and Introduction

Janice Curruthers, Dean of Research in the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
John Hatch, Chair, INSAP
Marilina Cesario, Local Organiser, Chair

9:40 – 10:50am Session 1: Cosmic Harmonies

Chair: Chris Impey (University of Arizona)

Dancing with the Stars: Cosmic Order and Power in Court Ballets of 17th-Century France
Cybèle Arnaud (The Catholic University of America)

The Notes of Black Bile – Saturn and the Musical Description of Melancholy
Angelo Adamo (INAF / IASF Palermo) 

Celestial Harmony in French 14th-Century Culture
Philippe Debroise (SPHERE, Université Paris Cité)

10:50 – 11:05am Coffee break

11:05 – 12.10pm Session 2: Illuminating the Unknown: Cosmic Intersections of Art, Poetry and Climate

Chair: Chris Impey (University of Arizona)

Dark Skies and Cosmic Reflection: Grief, Time, and the Climate Crisis
Louise Jane Beer (Freelance Artist)

You, Darkness: A Collaborative Project in Eco-poetry, Art, and Astronomy at Berea College
Ansel Elkins (Berea College)

Sequential Lunar Observations 
Betsey Price (Glendon College, York University, Canada) 

12:10 – 1:10pm Lunch provided at the venue

1:10 – 2:00pm Session 3: Solar Symbolism and Divine Justice

Chair: Richard Poss (University of Arizona)

Sun Divination and the Twelve Days of Christmas
Marilina Cesario (Queen’s University Belfast)

Nothing but the Sun? Lightscapes and Liminality
Laura Hollengreen (University of Arizona)

2:00 – 2:10pm Break

2:10 – 3:45pm Session 4: Visualising the Cosmos: Art, Architecture and Scientific Discovery

Chair: Richard Poss (University of Arizona)

Scientific Discovery through Astronomical Illustration: A Visual History of the Ring Nebula
Alexandra Boelhouwer (United States Naval Observatory)

“The Stars Drew Near”: The Life of Georg Simon Plössl (1794 – 1868)
Richard Schmidt (U.S. Naval Observatory, Washington, DC)

Science in Stained Glass: Exploring the Space Window of Washington National Cathedral
Carrie Fitzgerald (Montgomery College)

Inspiration Poured in Concrete: Goetheanum Architecture Relating to Mind and Cosmos
Nicole Montag-Keller (University of Wales Trinity Saint David)

4:00 – 5:00pm Keynote 

Presenter: John Hatch (Chair, INSAP)

Sighting the Sun — and Moon? — at Stonehenge?
Professor Clive Ruggles (University of Leicester)

5:00 – 6:00pm Wine Reception at Great Hall

6:00 – 7:00pm Organ Concert at Great Hall

The Astral Assonances between J.S. Bach and M. Reger: The Contrapuntal Multiplicities of their Compositions
Maestro Gianluca Petagna

9:30am Excursion to Newgrange (Group 1)

Coach departs from Lanyon Building (Queen’s University Belfast)

11:00am – 1:00pm City Bus Tour

Bus departure: Lanyon Building (Queen’s University Belfast)

8:30 – 9:00am Coffee and Refreshments

9:00 – 10:10am Session 1: Skyscapes and Pathways: Navigating Prehistoric Landscapes

Chair: Terry Moseley (Irish Astronomical Association)

Re-evaluating Prehistoric Avenues in Britain: Landscapes, Skyscapes, and Cosmological Connections
Mike Efstathiou (Bournemouth University)E

Night Landscapes of the Bronze Age? Lunula as Navigational Device: A Working Hypothesis
Gloria Vallese (Accademia di Belle Arti, Venezia)

British Writers Grappling with Neolithic Wreckage
Holly Henry (California State University, San Bernardino)

10:10 – 10:25am Coffee Break

10:25 – 12:00pm Session 2: Celestial Knowledge Across Cultures: Navigation, Cosmology, and Temporal Cycles

Chair: Holly Henry (California State University, San Bernardino)

“O you who was born in Nu while the sky had not yet come into being, while the Earth had not yet come” - Ancient Egyptian Cosmologies and Philosophical Thought
Joanna Popielska Grzybowska (Polish Academy of Sciences)

Astronomical and Cosmological Concepts in Christian Ethiopia and Eritrea
Daria Elagina (University of Münster)

Chasing the Stars Naked Eye: The Benin Ton Shermen Challenging Modern Telescopes in Daily Navigation
Dafon Aimé Segla (Université d'Abomey-Calavi, Benin, West Africa)

Circumnavigation in Time
Maciej Lukasz Zapiór (Astronomical Institute, Academy of Sciences, Czech Republic)

12:00 – 1:00pm Lunch Break

(Lunch provided at the venue)

1:00 – 2:10pm Session 3: Myth, Landscape and Celestial Symbolism

Chair: Ciarán Walsh (Queen's University Belfast)

Reading the Milky Way Across the Southern Continents
Elleke Boehmer (University of Oxford)

Croagh Patrick: The Saint, the Serpent and the Sun
Frances Clynes (University of Wales Trinity Saint David)

Mesca Ulad and the Axis Mundi at Uisneach: Where the Land Reflects the Sky
Patrick McCafferty (Chemnitz University of Technology)

2:10 – 2:25pm Coffee Break

2:25 – 3:35pm Session 4: Celestial Influence: Astrology, Art and Religion

Chair: Elisa Ramazzina (University of Insubria and Queen’s University Belfast)

Horoscopes and Astrological Representations in the Art of Renaissance Popes: An Updated
Survey
Giangiacomo Gandolfi (INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma)

The Episcope
Arnold Lebeuf (University of Warsaw)

Heavenly Wonders in Ericus Erici Sorolainen’s Sermons
Niklas Hietala (Independent Scholar)

3:35 – 3:45pm Break

3:45 – 5.20pm Session 5: Comets, Meteorites and Portents: Arts, Science and Apocalyptic Imaginations

Chair: Ciaran Walsh (Queen’s University Belfast)

Giant Comets and Their Impacts Through Time
Mark Bailey (Armagh Observatory)

The Astrological Anthology of Wenceslas IV and the Comet of 1402: An Intersection of Art, Science, and Politics
Nerea Jimena Maestu Fonseca (Universidad Complutense de Madrid)

Comets, Monsters, and the Apocalypse: Examining al-Barzanjī’s al-Išā’a liašrãṭ al-sā’a and its Connection to Lubieniecki’s Theatrum Cometicum
Mai Lootah (Rice University USA)

When They Come: Reimagining Earth-Meteorite Relations Through Art
Monika Bakke (Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan)

5:20 – 5:45pm Flash Talks

Chair: Holly Henry (California State University, San Bernardino)

Celestial phenomena between the Russian and Polovtsian identities
Andrii Kepsha (University of Hradec Králové)

1977 → 2025: Representing humanity through a new Golden Records
Fernando P.S. Almeida, Nina R. Azambuja, Miranda P. Dieck, Melissa V.R. Domingues, Natalie Malas, Joāo Pedro O. de Toledo Piza (Avenues Sāo Paulo & AEON School)

No Planet B – The Pressing Need to Assess the Climate Impacts of Astronomy
Dylan Magill (Queens University Belfast)

7:30 – 11:00pm Irish Pub Evening with Live Traditional Irish Music
Dark Horse Pub, Cathedral Quarter

8:30 – 9:15am Coffee and Refreshments

9:15 – 10:10am Session 1: Mapping Time and Cosmos: Astral Imagery and Temporal Systems in Early Islamic Thought

Chair: Elisa Ramazzina (University of Insubria and Queen’s University Belfast)

Sun, Moon, and Qur’an: Arabic Solar Months, Jewish Calendar Traditions, and the Making of an Islamic Lunar Calendar
Erica Ferg (Regis University)

The Celestial Chronotope: Time and Relative Depiction in Space
Danielle Adams (Flagstaff Dark Skies Coalition)

10:10 – 10:25am Coffee Break

10:25 – 11:35am Session 2: Lunar Reflections, Observations and Myths

Chair: Erica Ferg (Regis University)

‘Moon Beauties’ in Medieval Arabic Sufi Poetry
Ayoush Sarmada Lazikani (University of Oxford)

‘The moon-wrought flow of womanhood’: Lunar Menstrual Myths in Victorian Pornography
Janice Niemann (Camosun College)

Moonlit Reflections: Italian Poets and the 1969 Moon Landing
Salvo Luigi Guglielmino (INAF - Osservatorio Astrofisico di Catania)

11:35 – 11:45am Break

11:45 – 12:35pm Session 3: Cosmology, Myth and Power: Celestial Narratives in Medieval Thought

Chair: Valerie Shrimplin (Independent Scholar)el

Oikoumene and Cosmos
Sinead O’Sullivan (Queen’s University Belfast)

Constructing a Narrative Cosmology: The Dream of the Rood and the Eccentric Diagrams of Byrhtferth of Ramsey
Rebecca Stephenson (University College Dublin)

12:35 – 1:35pm Lunch Break

(lunch provided at the venue)

1:35 – 2:45pm Session 4: Cosmic Devotion: Astronomical and Cosmological Symbolism in Late Medieval and Early Renaissance Thought

Chair: Marilina Cesario (Queen’s University Belfast)

Astronomical and Cosmological Symbolism in the works of Hildegard of Bingen
Valerie Shrimplin (Independent Scholar)

Devotional Dialectics: Condensing Cosmogony and Cosmology in a Late Medieval Bhakti Text from South India
Priyamvada Nambrath (University of Pennsylvania)

Celestial Metaphors in the ‘Songs and Sonets’: John Donne's Astronomical Imagination
Elisa Ramazzina (University of Insubria and Queen’s University BelfastE)

2:45 – 2:55pm Break

2:55 – 4:05pm Session 5: Divine Order, Art and Astro-Poetry

Chair: John Hatch (Chair, INSAP)

The Rhythms of the Skies: What the Poets and the People Knew about the Heavens
Terry Moseley (Irish Astronomical Association)

Stellar Strokes: The History of Painting Stars with Stars
Kelly Grovier (Poet and Cultural Critic)

My God, It’s Full of Stars: Abstracting the Astronomical Sublime in the Works of Alma Thomas and Aubrey Williams
Skye Weston (Independent Researcher)

4:05 – 4:20pm Coffee Break

4:20 – 5:20pm Keynote

From Newgrange to the Extremely Large Telescope: Monuments of Ingenuity in the Quest to Understand Our Universe
Professor Tom Ray (Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies)
Presenter: Mark Bailey (Armagh Observatory and Planetarium)

7 – 11pm Reception and Banquet at Belfast Castle

Followed by Cabaret Performance by Lynda Williams

Please note that today’s Conference is held in the Copernicus Hall at Armagh Observatory and Planetarium

9:00am – 10:10am Session 1: Stargazing and Society: Exploring the Role of Irish Observatories, Astroparks, and Planetariums in Shaping Place and Democracy

Chair: Ed Krupp (Griffith Observatory)

Engendering a Sense of Place through the Astronomical Observatories of Ireland
Michael Burton (Armagh Observatory and Planetarium)

Cosmic landscapes of Armagh Observatory Astropark
Oliver Dunnett (Queen’s University Belfast)

Democracy in the Planetarium - Armagh Planetarium in the 1980s
Matthew McMahon (Armagh Observatory and Planetarium and Queen’s University Belfast)

10:10 – 10:30am Coffee Break

10:30am – 12:10pm Session 2: Exploring Cultural Astronomy: Global Perspectives and Institutional Collaborations

Chair: Matthew McMahon (QUB and Armagh Observatory and Planetarium)

Introducing IAU Commission C5 Cultural Astronomy
Gullberg Steven (University of Oklahoma)

Scalable Space
Robert Hill (NI Space Agency)

Constructing the Universe: Henrietta Leavitt, Harvard's Global Observatories, and the Materiality of Scientific Empire
Adam Kaasa (Royal College of Arts)

Celestial Impact
Ed Krupp (Griffith Observatory)

12:15 – 12:50pm Screening of Pacific Standard Universe: Art, Cosmology, and California 

1:00 – 2:30pm Lunch Break and Tour of Observatory and Planetarium

2:30 – 3:40pm Session 3 Cosmic Connections: Art, Science, and the Celestial Imagination

Chair: Ciarán Walsh (Queen’s University Belfast)

What do Karl Marx, Rudolf Clausius, and Paul Cézanne have in Common?: The Unfolding Universe in the Art of Kazimir Malevich
John Hatch (Western University)

Tracing Celestial Bodies over Normandy: From Monet's Impression Sunrise to Hockney's Moon Room
Deborah Anne Jenner (Independent Arts Society)

Ancient Echoes: Soundscapes Across Worlds – Bridging the Gap between Past and Future, Science and Art, Individual and Collective Voice with Sound Art
Annette Lee (OSPAPIK and Native Skywatchers)

3:40 – 3:50pm Break

3:50 – 5:00pm Session 4 Exploring the Cosmos: Metaphors, Imagination, and the Space Age

Chair: Annette Lee (OSPAPIK and Native Skywatchers)

The Condicio Extraterrestrialis in Eighteenth-Century German Proto-Science Fiction Literature
Renata Gambino and Grazia Pulvirenti (University of Catania)

The New Space Age: Real and Imagined
Chris Impey (University of Arizona)

Space Exploration and the 500 Year Metaphor
Richard Lee Poss (University of Arizona)

5:00 – 5:10pm Introduction to Armagh Cathedral & Observatory

His Grace, The Most Revd John McDowell, Archbishop of Armagh and Chair, Board of Governors, Armagh Observatory and Planetarium

5:10 – 6:10pm Keynote

Astronomy and Poetry
Jocelyn Bell Burnell (University of Oxford)
Presenter: Michael Burton (Armagh Observatory and Planetarium)

6:25pm Concluding Remarks