Heritage Status for NSW Sky? March 27, 2008
Posted by astroed in Astronomy.add a comment
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
Posted by astroed in Astronomy, Education.add a comment
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.
