Francis Andrews of Trinity College Dublin leaves £3,000 in his will for the construction of an Observatory at Dunsink.
1785
Dunsink Observatory opens with Rev. Henry Ussher as Director.
1791
The Observatory is placed under the management of the Royal Astronomer of Ireland.
1792
Rev. John Brinkley takes over as director and records his work on the transits of stars in five large leather bound books.
1827
William R. Hamilton is appointed as the Andrews professor of astronomy in Trinity and becomes director of Dunsink before he has even completed his undergraduate degree in maths and classics.
1829
William Wordsworth first visits Hamilton and his sisters at Dunsink.
1843
On a walk from Dunsink along the canal into town Hamilton has a flash of inspiration and carves his Quaternion equation into Broombridge.
1862
12″ lens is donated to Dunsink by Sir James South.
1868
Grubb builds the South Dome Telescope to mount the South lens.
1874
Robert Ball becomes Director of the observatory, he completed research on Screw Theory.
1880
Dunsink provides the official time for Ireland (Dublin Standard Time).
1916
Ireland moves from DST to GMT, however Dunsink Observatory is still used to maintain accurate clocks throughout the city.
1919
Eclipse expedition to Sobral proves Einstein’s Theory of Relativity with the Grubb coelostat.
1940
Eamon de Valera founds DIAS, it is the second institute of advanced studies in the world after Princeton, USA.
1947
de Valera sets up the School of Cosmic Physics in DIAS and acquires Dunsink Observatory from Trinity.
1949
The ADH (Armagh-Dunsink-Harvard) telescope is built by Perkin Elmer Corporation.
1958
Ellison becomes director of the Observatory and Dunsink becomes a world renowned solar physics research centre.
1977
The Meridian room burns down and a piece of moon rock is lost to the Finglas dump.
1985
Patrick Wayman publishes his history of Dunsink Observatory.
2018
Peter T. Gallagher appointed Director.
Latest News
Read all about the new Astronomical Observatories of Ireland partnership here.
Latest Blog Post
Read about our new STEAM project Space Crafts here!
Dunsink Timeline
1774
Francis Andrews of Trinity College Dublin leaves £3,000 in his will for the construction of an Observatory at Dunsink.
1785
Dunsink Observatory opens with Rev. Henry Ussher as Director.
1791
The Observatory is placed under the management of the Royal Astronomer of Ireland.
1792
Rev. John Brinkley takes over as director and records his work on the transits of stars in five large leather bound books.
1827
William R. Hamilton is appointed as the Andrews professor of astronomy in Trinity and becomes director of Dunsink before he has even completed his undergraduate degree in maths and classics.
1829
William Wordsworth first visits Hamilton and his sisters at Dunsink.
1843
On a walk from Dunsink along the canal into town Hamilton has a flash of inspiration and carves his Quaternion equation into Broombridge.
1862
12″ lens is donated to Dunsink by Sir James South.
1868
Grubb builds the South Dome Telescope to mount the South lens.
1874
Robert Ball becomes Director of the observatory, he completed research on Screw Theory.
1880
Dunsink provides the official time for Ireland (Dublin Standard Time).
1916
Ireland moves from DST to GMT, however Dunsink Observatory is still used to maintain accurate clocks throughout the city.
1919
Eclipse expedition to Sobral proves Einstein’s Theory of Relativity with the Grubb coelostat.
1940
Eamon de Valera founds DIAS, it is the second institute of advanced studies in the world after Princeton, USA.
1947
de Valera sets up the School of Cosmic Physics in DIAS and acquires Dunsink Observatory from Trinity.
1949
The ADH (Armagh-Dunsink-Harvard) telescope is built by Perkin Elmer Corporation.
1958
Ellison becomes director of the Observatory and Dunsink becomes a world renowned solar physics research centre.
1977
The Meridian room burns down and a piece of moon rock is lost to the Finglas dump.
1985
Patrick Wayman publishes his history of Dunsink Observatory.
2018
Peter T. Gallagher appointed Director.
Latest News
Read all about the new Astronomical Observatories of Ireland partnership here.
Latest Blog Post
Read about our new STEAM project Space Crafts here!
Events
Check out our upcoming events at dunsink.dias.ie/events.
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