ASTEN in Wollongong

Posted on December 20, 2013 by southdome

Being a Science Centre with a planetarium is not unique in Australia. This is also the situation in Bendigo (Discovery), Perth (SciTech) and Melbourne (Scienceworks).

In November Wollongong hosted the Australasian Science Centre and Technology Exhibitors Network -ASTEN- conference. And we held most of the presentations in the planetarium (being the most comfortable room in the building and also the best AV equipped). With attendance from many states it was a most productive conference with many issues discussed which affect planetaria whether in a sciencecentre environment or not. The theme was Innovation and Issues such as new technology, funding and sustainability were high on the list.

Conference participants were treated to a preview of our most recent planetarium show – Dinosaurs at Dusk, the latest Robin Sip production.

The Science themed conference dinner was quoted as ‘something for future conferences to aspire to’! Perhaps APS might want to try something spectacularly astronomical for its next dinner 🙂

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Glen Moore is currently Vice President (Australia) of ASTEN

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APS2014 conference – Preliminary Program

Posted on December 19, 2013 by warikl

The APS2014 conference is now only two months away and is shaping up to be our biggest yet. While many details are still to be finalised I have already received several requests for the program. And so here is the preliminary APS 2014 Program.

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APS2014 conference – Hidden Universe 3D

Posted on December 19, 2013 by warikl

poster-HiddenUniverse

I am pleased to announce that the forthcoming APS2014 conference will include a screening of the IMAX film Hidden Universe 3D.

Hidden Universe 3D takes audiences on a breathtaking journey deep into space in the cinematic medium that transports audiences like no other. With the full power of IMAX 3D cinematography, the deepest reaches of our universe are brought to life with unprecedented clarity through real images captured by the world’s most powerful telescopes—seen on-screen and in 3D for the first time.

Narrated by Golden Globe winner Miranda Richardson, Hidden Universe 3D is a December Cinema Productions film produced in association with Film Victoria, Swinburne University of Technology, and the European Southern Observatory (ESO). The writer and director of Hidden Universe 3D, Russell Scott, has kindly agreed to give a presentation on the making of the film at the APS2014 conference.

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Queensland Premier Visits Brisbane Planetarium

Posted on December 18, 2013 by Aussie Starman

Queensland Premier Visits Brisbane Planetarium

This afternoon, Queensland Premier Campbell Newman enjoyed a relaxed holiday visit with one of his daughters to the upgraded Brisbane Planetarium and saw one of the fulldome shows. The Premier (left) is with Planetarium Curator Mark Rigby and the Zeiss Spacemaster star projector now on display in the foyer. The projector was used in the Cosmic Skydome from 1978 to 2010 and has been replaced with a state-of-the-art Sky-Skan digital planetarium system and the Megastar optical star projector.

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Correction

Posted on December 17, 2013 by Aussie Starman

Excuse my lapse in typing ‘Copernicus’ in the original posting about ‘A Bat Salutes First Full Moon With Chinese Lander’. I’ve corrected it on the blog – a case of the mind not in gear as I posted it. — Mark Rigby

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A Bat Salutes First Full Moon With Chinese Lander

Posted on December 17, 2013 by Aussie Starman

A Bat Salutes First Full Moon With Chinese Lander

I just shot a handheld camera image of the Full Moon tonight – the first Full Moon with a Chinese spacecraft operating on it. A bat flew past in salute! A fraction of a second later and I would have had an occultation of Tycho.

Mark Rigby

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Chang’e-3 Landing Site

Posted on December 16, 2013 by Aussie Starman

Chang’e-3 Landing Site

I’ve marked the actual landing site for the Chinese Chang’e-3 lander and Yutu rover based on a handheld camera shot I took on Friday, 13 December, that best shows the original target location and the final landing site. I also took a shot immediately after the landing on Saturday night.

Mark Rigby

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WISH: World Innovation Summit for Health

Posted on December 14, 2013 by Paul Bourke

Fancy using your planetarium for immersive remote surgery?

Just spent a week in Doha at the World Innovation Summit for Health. Besides being an amazing event I was commissioned to set up an iDome in the innovation hall. While I put together some content based upon medicine and biology, the main content was to demonstrate immersive remote surgery. One of the main organisers of the event (1000 delegates, invitation only) is the Imperial College of London where they have invented a surgical tool called the iKnife. In short it is an electric knife (i = intelligent) for surgery that extracts the smoke from the cut tissue and runs it through a mass spectrometer and tells the surgeon what type of tissue he/she is cutting through (healthy, cancerous for example). In short we demonstrated this at the conference, on a pretend patient of course … a selection of cow internal organs.

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A Night in the Museum

Posted on December 14, 2013 by Aussie Starman

A Night in the Museum

On my way to and from Gabon for the November 3rd total solar eclipse (successful), I went to the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) several times, including their special night to launch the Hayden Planetarium’s latest show ‘Dark Universe’ on 28 October 2013. This is the third major AMNH special launch for shows or exhibitions I’ve managed to get to over the years.

Some of you would know the two fellows on either side of me after the official function – Carter Emmart (left) Director of Astrovisualization at the Hayden Planetarium and Ryan Wyatt, Director of the Morrison Planetarium and Science Visualization at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. Always great to catch up. I went back the next night to watch Carter and Brian Abbott prepare and then present ‘Grand Tour of the Universe’ live using Digital Universe. It’s always great to spend time with Carter and last year the two of us literally spent hours into the night flying over and exploring the Moon and Mars in great topographic detail.

Mark Rigby

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Moon ready to receive Chinese lander

Posted on December 14, 2013 by Aussie Starman

Moon ready to receive Chinese lander

I took this handheld camera shot of the Moon last night from Brisbane. It was set at 50 times optical zoom on my Canon Powershot SX50 HS. The Chinese Chang’e-3 spacecraft makes its descent to the Bay of Rainbows tomorrow morning Brisbane time – a 700-second powered descent with 100 seconds of hover time 100m above the surface to select a smooth site. Then it drops the last 4m.

Mark Rigby

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