Australasian Planetarium Society

Clouds interfered with most of the eclipse for Brisbane and the planetarium and we did not have clear patches until two-thirds of the way through totality. There was plenty of lead-up media and we had been on standby for trying our first webcast on our Facebook page, but it was not to be. I grabbed a few shots during the evening. — Mark Rigby

Well, to those of you who heard about Starmus 2014 at IPS 2014 and wished to go, it was indeed an amazing astronomy/music festival.

I decided at the last minute to attend on the VIP package (expensive) and did the Brisbane-Sydney-Dubai-Heathrow/Gatwick-Tenerife (Canary Islands) in around 48 hours. My return last week was less successful and took nearly 70 hours after flying Tenerife to Madrid to Dubai, I misread the boarding pass departure time from Dubai for the boarding time (no announcements in the lounge) and missed my packed A380 flight to Sydney from Dubai – requiring the off-loading of my suitcase, a real financial sting and over a day’s wait for the only available seat via Perth to Brisbane. I’d never missed a flight in some 40 years of international air travel, except at the fault of an airline.

The conference hotel for Starmus was The Ritz-Carlton Abama – an amazing sprawling complex at Tenerife. There was also a visit to the world’s largest optical telescope, the 10.4m, 36-segment Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC) on La Palma.

The first Starmus was in 2011 and featured Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Jim Lovell, among many others – but the attendance was only around 60 delegates.

This latest one skyrocketed to, I think, over 700 when word got out about Stephen Hawking being the highlight, along with Alexei Leonov (the first person to walk in space), Apollo astronauts, Richard Dawkins, Robert Wilson, etc. As well as entertainers Brian May (also an astrophysicist) and Rick Wakeman who did an incredible two-performance late at night with hardly a pause. Some of the events required other venues and attendances of around 1,200. Plenty of European media as well.

It was good to meet up with our IPS President Thomas Kraupe throughout the week and Glenn Smith from Sky-Skan’s European office.

Rather than go into details, here is a direct link to my Facebook album, which should work even for those of you who do not use Facebook. It’s not complete, but will give you some of the visual flavour of the week.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10205114204323481.1073741827.1495299817&type=1&l=9c445fcac1

Image: Musician/astrophysicist Brian May, Greek composer Alexandros Hahalis, Mark Rigby, Greek Cypriot soprano Katerina Mina and Robert Woodrow Wilson, co-discoverer of the cosmic background radiation.

— Mark Rigby

These past 6 months have been an interesting journey for the Ballarat Observatory. We have been working hard at planning the future direction of the Observatory from expansions to refurbishments and maybe getting a planetarium (one can only dream!). Maintenance works on the buildings are helping keep the history of the observatory alive. In April of 2014, two of our staff presented a paper at NACAA outlining the exciting life of Captain Henry Baker, which was very well received. The event was packed with speakers and workshops to cater for a broad range of astronomical interests. Thanks to the organisers for a fabulous event! More recently, we decided to expand our weekly program by starting a monthly lecture series entitled: “Revealing the Cosmos”. These lectures aim to simplify the different aspects of current scientific research in astronomy and space-sciences to the general public. Our first lecture was held in August and the next one will be held on the 18th of September. It is a night when the public can interact with the presenter, ask questions and learn how new discoveries are enriching their lives. Following on from the success of the first ever Sci-Fi event earlier this year, we have commenced preparations for our second Sci-Fi Event that will be held on the 31st of January 2015. This event is aimed at demonstrating the long-standing relationship that science and science-fiction have had over centuries. We have had a good number of school groups coming up to observatory over the past few months and hope that this will increase over time as more of the community become aware of us. Our themed school holiday program due to start in mid-september will focus on Comets and specifically the Rosetta Mission. We have been gradually modifying our Introduction to Astronomy course to include a broader range of topics and have had requests to increase the frequency that we offer them. All in all, it has been a busy 6 months and we look forward to the second half of the year being as fruitful if not more!

The Melbourne Planetarium is very pleased to announce the launch of our latest fulldome production ‘Starlight’.

For thousands of years we have looked to the stars at night in wonder and awe. Their mysteries have inspired curiosity across all cultures and civilisations.

Narrated by multi-award winning Australian actress, Sigrid Thornton, Starlight is told through the eyes of Margaret, as she steps back in time to relive childhood fears of the dark that awoke her curiosity about the night sky. Join Margaret as she takes you on an out-of-this-world journey to discover constellations and ancient cultures, the birth and death of a star and the inner workings of our Sun.

Follow this link to see Tanya Hill presenting a sneak peek of the show:
http://media.smh.com.au/news/science/inside-starlight-at-scienceworks-planetarium-5696155.html