Brisbane Planetarium and IYA August 31, 2008
Posted by astroed in Astronomy, Education.Tags: IYA
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On Friday morning I flew to Brisbane. The main reason for my trip was to help run the Mission Astronomy teacher workshop at the University of Southern Queensland but you’ll have to read a later blog posting for details about that. Before going to Toowoomba for the workshop I participated in a meeting at the Sir Thomas Brisbane Planetarium in the grounds of the Botannical Gardens in Brisbane. This was my first visit to the planetarium and I was impressed by the design of the building as well as the lovely setting in the gardens.
The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the International Year of Astronomy 2009 with interested stakeholders from Queensland. It was a productive meeting with representatives from several amatur socieities, the planetarium, the Science Teachers’ Association of Queensland, universities and the Queensland Museum. Following an overview of IYA then how it is structured and what is already planned for IYA in Australia we had a lengthy discussion about possible events and activities in Queensland. I llok forward to following up ideas with the group over coming months.
Near the entrance to the planetarium is an engaging new addition – a bronze statue of rocket pioneer Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, donated to Brisbane last year by a Russian trade delegation. It is almost whmsical but also quite touching.
Before our meeting we had a chance to see the planetarium in action. It still uses a Zeiss optical projector plus a newer digital one. The 12.4 m dome seats about 120 people and hosts up to several shows a day. They have an active education program and the place certainly seemed buzzing with enthusisatic school students during my visit.
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