INSAP XIII: Celestial Connections Across Time and Space 

Queen’s University Belfast 9-13 June 2025 

 

 

PROVISIONAL PROGRAMME 

➡️ Please note that this programme is provisional and therefore subject to potential changes during the organisational phase.

 

 

➡️➡️➡️ Sessions from Monday 9th to Thursday 12th will be held in the Canada Room/Council Chamber at Queen’s University Belfast. Sessions on Friday 13th will be held at Armagh Observatory and Planetarium. Transport to and from Armagh has been arranged for all delegates. 

 

 

Sunday 8th June  

 

18:00 – 21:00 Welcome Reception and Guided Tour at Belfast City Hall  

 

 

Monday 9th June  

 

8.45-9.10 Registration 

 

9.10-9.30 Welcome and Introduction 

John Hatch, Chair, INSAP 

Local organisers 

  

9.30 – 10.40 Session 1: Cosmic Harmonies 

Chair: 

 

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 UMR 7219, University of Sorbonne) 

 

 

10.40-10.55 Coffee break 

 

 

10.55 -12.05 Session 2: Illuminating the Unknown: Art, Grief and the Cosmos in a Changing World

Chair:  

 
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) 

 

 

12.05-13.15 Session 3: Solar Symbolism and Divine Justice 

Chair: 

 

The Sun as Divine Witness and Punisher: Celestial Justice in Ancient Greek Tragedy 

Andreas Prasinos (University of Glasgow) 

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) 

 

 

13.15-14.05 Lunch provided at the venue 

 

 

14.05-15.45 Session 4: Visualising the Cosmos: Art, Architecture and Scientific Discovery  

Chair: 

 

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) 

 

 

15.45-15.55 Coffee Break 

 

 

16.00-17.00 Keynote Professor Clive Ruggles (University of Leicester) 

Sighting the Sun — and Moon? — at Stonehenge? 

Presenter: 

 

 

17.00-1800 Wine Reception at the Great Hall 

 

18.00-19.00 Great Hall - Organ Concert: The Astral Assonances between J.S. Bach and M. Reger: The Contrapuntal Multiplicities of their Compositions by Professor Maestro Gianluca Petagna 

 

 

Tuesday 10th June  

 

9.00-9.20 Coffee, tea and pastries 

 

9.20-10.50 Flash Talks 

Chair: 

 

Science Fiction's Contact Zones 

Heather Clitheroe (University of Calgary) 

The Zodiac and Mary. Stellar Metaphors and the Marvellous in the Work of Serafino Montorio 

Antonio Pio di Cosmo (University of Modena and Reggio Emilia/ISACCL Bucarest) 

Comet the Hour, Comet the Man 

Senan Joseph Molony (Independent Scholar) 

No Planet B – The Pressing Need to Assess the Climate Impacts of Astronomy 

Dylan Kenneth John Magill (Queen's University Belfast) 

 

 

11.00-13.00 City Bus Tour  

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

 

 

Wednesday 11th June  

 

9.00 – 9.15 Coffee and Refreshments 

 

9.15 - 10.25 Session 1: Skyscapes and Pathways: Navigating Prehistoric Landscapes 

Chair: 

 

Re-evaluating Prehistoric Avenues in Britain: Landscapes, Skyscapes, and Cosmological Connections 

Mike Efstathiou (Bournemouth University) 

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) 

 

 

10.25-10.40 Coffee Break 

 

 

10.40-12.15 Session 2: Celestial Knowledge Across Cultures: Navigation, Cosmology, and Temporal Cycles 

Chair: 

 

“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) 

 

 

12.15-13.15 Lunch Break (Lunch provided at the venue) 

 

 

13.15-14.25 Session 3: Myth, Landscape and Celestial Symbolism 

Chair: 

 

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) 

 

 

14.30-15.40 Session 4: Celestial Influence: Astrology, Art and Religion 

Chair: 

 

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) 

 

 

15.40-15.50 Break 

 

 

15.50-17.00 Session 5: Comets and Portents: Arts, Science and Apocalyptic Imaginations 

Chair: 

 

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) 

 

 

17.00-17.20: Annette Lee - Ancient Echoes: Soundscapes Across Worlds exhibit 

 

19.00-23.00 Optional Irish Pub Evening at Dark Horse with Live Traditional Irish Music 

 

 

Thursday 12th June 

 

8.45-9.15 Coffee and refreshments 

 

9.15-10.25 Session 1: Mapping Time and Cosmos: Astral Imagery and Temporal Systems in Early Islamic Thought 

Chair: 

 

Astronomical Works from the First Centuries of Islam and the Genesis of Islamic Gnomonic 

Fathi Ali Jarray (University of Tunis)  

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) 

 

 

10.25-10.35 Coffee Break 

 

 

10.35-11.45 Session 2: Lunar Reflections, Observations and Myths 

Chair: 

 

‘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) 

 

 

11.45-12.55 Session 3: Cosmology, Myth and Power: Celestial Narratives in Medieval Thought 

Chair: 

 

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) 

Of Stars, Wolves and Giants: Some Insights into Viking Lore about the Sky and Constellations 

Concetta Sipione (Department of Humanities - University of Catania) 

 

 

12.55-13.55 Lunch Break (lunch provided at the venue) 

 

 

13.55-15.05 Session 4: Cosmic Devotion: Astronomical and Cosmological Symbolism in Late Medieval and Early Renaissance Thought 

Chair:  

 

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 Belfast) 

 

 

15.05-16.15 Session 5: Divine Order, Art and Astro-Poetry 

Chair: 

 

The Heavens as a Reaction of Divine Order: Sir Richard Blackmore's Cosmology in ‘Creation’ (1712) 

Benedetta Burgio (Catholic University of Milan)   

The Rhythms of the Skies: What the Poets and the People Knew about the Heavens 

Terry Moseley (Irish Astronomical Society) 

Stellar Strokes: The History of Painting Stars with Stars

Kelly Grovier (Poet and Cultural Critic) 

 

 

16.15-16.30 Coffee Break 

 

 

16.30-17.30 Keynote Professor Tom Ray (Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies) 

From Newgrange to the Extremely Large Telescope: Monuments of Ingenuity in the Quest to Understand Our Universe 

Presenter: 

 

 

19.00-23.00 Reception and Banquet at Belfast Castle, followed by Cabaret Performance by Lynda Lovon 

 

 

 

Friday 13th June  

 

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

 

9.00-10.10 Session 1: Stargazing and Society: Exploring the Role of Irish Observatories, Astroparks, and Planetariums in Shaping Place and Democracy 

Chair: 

 

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 1980's 

Matthew McMahon (Armagh Observatory and Planetarium and Queen’s University Belfast) 

 

 

10.10-10.30 Coffee Break and visit of the Observatory 

 

 

10.30-12.10 Session 2: Exploring Cultural Astronomy: Global Perspectives and Institutional Collaborations 

Chair: 

 

Introducing IAU Commission C5 Cultural Astronomy 

Steven Gullberg (University of Oklahoma)  

Title TBC 

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) 

 

 

12.15-12.50 Screening of Pacific Standard Universe: Art, Cosmology, and California  

 

 

13.00 – 14.00 Lunch Break (lunch is provided at Armagh Observatory) 

 

 

14.00-15.40 Session 3 Cosmic Connections: Art, Science, and the Celestial Imagination 

Chair: 

 

How the Stars Made us 

Roberto Trotta (SISSA and Imperial College London) 

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) 

A Light in the Dark Matter: Art and the Cosmos Beyond Perception 

Ashar Mobeen (Western University) 

 

 

15.45- 16.55 Session 4 Exploring the Cosmos: Metaphors, Imagination, and the Space Age 

Chair:  

 

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) 

 

 

17.00-18.00 Keynote Professor Jocelyn Bell Burnell (University of Oxford) 

Astronomy and Poetry 

Presenter: 

 

 

Concluding Remarks