Eoghan O'Shea - solar guides

Where did you grow up?

As you might guess from the name, I am Irish and was born in Dublin. My family came originally from Co. Kerry in the southwest of Ireland: one of the last remaining Gaelic speaking areas. Hence the Gaelic name, Eoghan. Eoghan apparently means 'Born of the yew tree' while O'Shea means descendant of the noble hawklike person. Weird or what?

This is Blarney Castle, County Cork, Ireland. The old celtic people of Ireland were worshippers of a Sun god called Lugh, long before Christianity arrived in Ireland. There is evidence that the celtic peoples in the other parts of Europe also worshipped this god, as the names of cities like London, Leon, Lyons are all thought to derive from the name of this ancient god.

How did you get interested in astronomy?

I went to the University College Dublin first and then later to Armagh Observatory.

That is a great place to study astronomy. Afterwards, I worked at the Queen's University of Belfast where I became interested in the heating of the Sun's atmosphere. I've been searching to see if I could find any signs of waves, which might carry energy up from the solar surface into the corona. I think I've found some!

Here's a photo of Hale Bopp comet over the Armagh Observatory.

Where do you work now?

I’ve been travelling around a bit. For a while I worked at ESTEC, in Holland, and then in Tenerife. After spending two years in the Sun (and on the beaches!) I have now moved back to Armagh, still looking for waves and oscillations in the solar atmosphere.

What hobbies have you got?

Not very many, I'm a bit lazy! I enjoy swimming, studying languages and travelling. If I'm feeling energetic, I also like to play basketball and indoor football if I can find enough people willing to put up with my lack of skill.

Where have you travelled?

So far I have been lucky enough to travel to Washington D.C. and Boston in the USA.

In addition, I have travelled to Florence in Italy, to Berlin and Potsdam in Germany. For the conference dinner in Potsdam, we were taken on a boat trip on the river Spree. This is the river on which Berlin is built. When the boat reached Berlin the mayor there had organised a massive firework display for the scientists at the conference. It was really amazing. Who said conference dinners were boring?

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