An exhibition at Armagh Observatory and Planetarium traces the life of astronomer Ernst Öpik, who fled Estonia in 1944 ahead of the Soviet Red Army advance and settled in County Armagh.

Öpik worked at the Armagh Observatory for the second half of his career until his death in 1985. Eric Mervyn Lindsay, director of the observatory and from Portadown, invited Öpik to join after learning of his situation in a German refugee camp.

Maddy Kennedy, a public history student at Queen's University Belfast, researched Öpik's background during an internship at the planetarium. She organized 305 letters and documents, established dates for his journey from Tartu to Hamburg by cart, and clarified his path to Northern Ireland after visa delays.

Kennedy used Russian-language sources and collaborated with academics from the University of Tartu and former astronomer Dr John Butler. The exhibition draws on this material to present Öpik's personal history.

Matthew McMahon, museum collections officer at the observatory, stated that Öpik remains known in Estonia but merits greater recognition in Armagh and Northern Ireland as an example of contributions by refugees who resettled locally.