Heritage Status for NSW Sky? March 27, 2008
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The Australian has an interesting report that the NSW National Trust is to give heritage status to the sky in NSW. I cannot find specific mention of it on the Trust’s website at present though it has a notice that it is undergoing a major upgrade due for completion in May/June.
I have to agree with these quotes from the article:
National Trust NSW president Zeny Edwards said the sky viewed from NSW had extraordinary aesthetic, historic, social and scientific significance for all Australians.
and
“A clear view of the sky is the right of every Australian and should be preserved.”
Dr Edwards said the Milky Way and Southern Cross were defining symbols for Australians.
“Our sky predates life on earth and is known to have been highly significant to the Aboriginal people who have depicted the sun, moon and stars in art and dreamtime legends,” he said.
I’m not sure as to how effective heritage listing of the sky will actually be or even if it has any legal standing but I admire and respect the symbolism. It will be interesting to see how this proposal develops and how people respond to it.
My first NACAA March 27, 2008
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So, how was NACAA? This was my first experience of this biannual convention of Australian amateur astronomers but hopefully not my last. I didn’t manage to attend the workshops on the Friday or Monday or the dinners on Saturday and Sunday but got along to many of the daytime sessions on Saturday and Sunday. Fortunately my talk about the PULSE@Parkes project was well attended and I received lots of positive feedback and comments. The panel session on the International Year of Astronomy 2009 on the Saturday afternoon also went well and generated lots of lively discussion and ideas from the amateur community. Due to the number of submissions for sessions the program ran parallel sessions for much of the weekend so of course I couldn’t get to all the sessions I wanted. Overall though I was very impressed with the event, the turnout and the mix of presentations. As is typical of any conference some sessions or talks are more relevant or interesting to an individual than others but there was enough to choose from and the fact that the presentation rooms were only a short distance apart made swapping between talks easy.. Over 100 participants attended which I believe is a record.
The conference began with a Keynote address by Prof Matthew Colless, Director of the AAO on the Future of Optical Astronomy in Australia. Australia’s contribution to the wider global community was clearly outlined specifically through the development of multi-fibre spectroscopy in instruments such as 2dF, 6dF and AAOmega. The challenges and opportunities of the next generation ELTs such as GMT are exciting. Antarctica also offers an outstanding site that will be explored using the proposed PILOT 2.4m telescope.
The funniest talk I attended (and the one that probably attracted most envy) was from Ray Johnston who runs the observatory on Hamilton Island in the Whitsundays. His Astronomer (to a) Royal was hot of the press or more accurately straight off the boat. The Royal in this case referring to the Cunard ship the QE2 which has just toured Australia on its final round-the-world voyage. Ray was jammy enough to get a berth on the Australia to Singapore leg as a guest lecturer!
Ian Maclean’s talk about his work with Aboriginal students and homeland schools in Arnhem Land was inspiring and encouraging. Visit his blog to see what he is up to. His work resonated with the Wildflowers in the Sky project I was involved with in outback WA last year.
Martin George, Immediate Past-President of the International Planetarium Society, Director of the Launceston Planetarium in Tasmania gave an interesting overview of planetaria of the world.
The plenary by Dr Arne Henden, Director of the AAVSO (American Association of Variable Star Observers) discussed the role of the amateur scientist in modern society, focusing on the fine work done by many members of the AAVSO with some examples of professional-amateur collaborations. Astronomy is one of the few areas of science where amateurs still make a valuable contribution and can make significant discoveries.
I was inspired by the willingness of amateur astronomers to develop new skills and push the capabilities of their instruments and techniques. One such example was David Gault from ASNSW who used his 10 inch telescope to take part in observations of an occultation of Pluto to study its atmosphere.
A large part of an event such as this is the chance to meet old friends, meet new people and discuss ideas over lunch or coffee. I was not disappointed in this regard at NACAA.
The 2010 event will be in Canberra. I’ll certainly try and get along.
Off to NACAA March 20, 2008
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Every two years the amateur astronomy community in Australia gets together for NACAA – the National Australian Convention of Amateur Astronomers. Being dedicated, passionate and perhaps fanatical observers they don’t want to miss good viewing time so the conference always falls on the Easter weekend. I’ve never been to one before but I’m going this time to meet old friends, make new ones, learn and give a couple of presentations.
My talk is about the PULSE@Parkes project run by CSIRO ATNF that gives high school students the opportunity to control the Parkes radio telescope remotely over the Internet to observe pulsars. I’ll post more about this project shortly. My other session is as part of the IYA2009 National Working Group for Australia. We will be running a forum on how amateur astronomers can get involved in IYA2009. Hopefully there will be lots of discussion and some great ideas generated. I’m looking forward to seeing the energy of the amateur community.
There are lots of interesting talks and workshops at NACAA. Have a look at the program here.
Talk Like a Physicist Day: March 14 2008 March 11, 2008
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Friday 14 March happens to be Einstein’s birthday. In the US they write this as 3.14(2008) so 3.14 is the first three digits for pi. Combine the two, mix with the inspiration of Talk Like a Pirate Day and you have Talk Like a Physicist Day! This is the chance for you to celebrate your inner Nerd, baffle your dinner party guests or just earn a strange look from the non-Physics members of the community. This is a great chance to raise a conversation with students and answer the key questions in life:
- How can you tell who is a physicist?
- What is a giveaway phrase?
- Who can understand what you say?
- Is there a difference between physicist and other species of scientist?
What are some ways to celebrate? We had a lively discussion about this at work today, heavy physics speak ensued (strictly speaking the subspecies of astrobabble). One colleague casually mentioned how the sea in the harbour looked reddish the other day when he was out sailing. No, he wasn’t referring to the colour of the water, he was talking like a physicist. This type of talk does not seem unusual where I work. One suggestion was that we go out and have pies for lunch. What else can we do? What are you going to do?
Let me know your classic Talk Like a Physicist phrase for π day. I’d also recommend you visit the website, read up on some FAQs and immerse yourself in a like-minded community. Remember, this is a non-trivial request.
Look out below! March 4, 2008
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We often think of the Universe as unchanging, with celestial bodies not appearing to change much over human lifetimes. Sometimes though we see an image that dramatically reminds us that in reality it is a dynamic place. I came across one such image today that literally took my breath away.
The HiRISE camera orbiting Mars captured this stunning image of a series of avalanches on the North Polar scarps.
Caught in Action: Avalanches on North Polar Scarps (PSP_007338_2640)
Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
This cliff is over 700m tall with a 60 degree slope. The white material at left is solid carbon dioxide, ‘dry ice’, sublimating into gas as the Martian spring develops. As HiRISE has already taken images of this site prior to the avalanche geologists and planetary scientists have a wonderful opportunity to examine the before and after effects of an avalanche on another world. The high-resolution imagery and massive dataset from HiRISE provides them with the best orbital imagery yet for a Solar System object other than our Earth. I was fortunate to visit the LPL at the University of Arizona, Tucson, a couple of years ago and see a mockup of the HiRISE orbiter and see simulations of the imagery that the team hoped to obtain with it so it is great to see the actual orbiter sending back such a wealth of imagery.
This image has already excited people around the world with the phones running hot at the Canberra Deep Space Communication Centre at Tidbinbilla and similar sites. Bad Astronomy and CosmicVariance both have it on their blogs too.
