Recent Brisbane Planetarium News

Posted on January 4, 2013 by Aussie Starman

Coral01Apart from being busy preparing for the biggest upgrade since the opening of the Sir Thomas Brisbane Planetarium in 1978, Planetarium staff members were involved for the first time in the Brisbane International Film Festival during late November on a Friday night and a Saturday afternoon. Both sessions were sold out. Thanks are due to Warik Lawrance and Melbourne Planetarium for slicing the content for the Friday night.

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Brisbane Planetarium Upgrade

Posted on January 4, 2013 by Aussie Starman

STBP mega-pano 4 - screen

The Sir Thomas Brisbane Planetarium will be closing from Wednesday, 9 January 2013 and re-opening to the public on Easter Saturday, 30 March 2013. During this time, the Planetarium’s Cosmic Skydome projection dome will be replaced, a Megastar-IIB optical star projector and new console added, new projectors installed for the digital system, computers upgraded, seats refurbished and carpet replaced. The foyer, gallery and shop also will undergo major changes. APS members will receive a preview of all of this at APS 2013, which will be held on 23/24 March 2013.   N.B. APS 2013 has now been moved to 22/23 April.

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Tycho is back

Posted on December 21, 2012 by warikl

Tycho in the shop

It is with great delight that we can announce that Tycho has returned to the Scienceworks gift shop.   It has been quite a few years since a Tycho soft toy was available.  Many of the original soft toy Tychos were given away at the 2006 IPS in Melbourne and they have become quite rare since then. 

The new Tycho soft toy has poseable legs and ears, is fun to play with and cuddly to boot.  Welcome back Tycho!

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Eclipse Megamovie Project

Posted on November 1, 2012 by astrotanya

Hope everyone is gearing up for Australia’s solar eclipse. It’ll be my first chance of totality, so I’ve got fingers crossed that the clouds will stay away.

I wanted to let you know about the Eclipse Megamovie Project. It’s about using smartphones to upload images and videos of the Sun during totality and the Space Sciences Laboratory in California will combine the footage to create the first ultra-high time resolution movie of a solar eclipse. It’s sure to be spectacular, showing the evolution and dynamics of the corona and photospheric prominences, and we can help make it happen.

This project is supported by the US National Science Foundation and is a collaboration between the University of California and the High Altitude Observatory at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado. It’s the first time this has ever been attempted, and they’re got the technology side all sorted, now they just need to get the word out and encourage contributions!

Good luck everyone with your eclipse endeavours and please help spread the word.

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Fisheye filming

Posted on October 15, 2012 by Paul Bourke

Further to my earlier post on filming with the Red Scarlet and fisheye lens, we finally took it out on the road. The following with the gorilla mount is my favourite shot since it looks so parasitic on the front of the vehicle. In the end though it was to “wobbly” so the second option was used … rock solid.

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Summary: 30fps, 2300 circle fisheyes, 20 minutes on a 64GB SSD.

 

 

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Sir Thomas Brisbane Planetarium in 1977

Posted on October 14, 2012 by Aussie Starman

Sir Thomas Brisbane Planetarium in 1977

Thirty five years ago, this was the Sir Thomas Brisbane Planetarium under construction in Brisbane. It was officially opened on 24 May 1978.

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APS 2013 Meeting Preliminary Notice

Posted on October 13, 2012 by Aussie Starman

During the first three months of 2013, the Sir Thomas Brisbane Planetarium will undergo a major upgrade, which will culminate with APS 2013 on either the weekend of 23/24 March or the Sunday/Monday, 24/25 March. APS members will preview the upgrade a week before the public. Major aspects of the upgrade include a new projection dome and installation of the first Megastar-IIB optical star projector in the APS region. We hope to see you at APS 2013.  N.B. APS 2013 has now been moved to 22/23 April.

Mark Rigby
Curator, Sir Thomas Brisbane Planetarium
APS Treasurer

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Melbourne Festival

Posted on September 28, 2012 by warikl

The Melbourne Planetarium is pleased to announce that it will be involved with the upcoming Melbourne Festival. On Monday the 15th of October, the planetarium will be screening Lynette Wallworth’s entrancing fulldome film Coral: Rekindling Venus.

Australian installation artist Lynette Wallworth has spent the last five years surveying the majesty of our coral reefs for Coral: Rekindling Venus, an immersive, kaleidoscopic journey through the glowing underwater forests of Australia, Papua New Guinea and Indonesia. Coral: Rekindling Venus takes us deep into a world that only a handful of humans have ever seen before – the infinitely complex, vibrant aquatic kingdoms of this planet’s coral reefs.

Featuring jaw-dropping cinematography from Emmy Award-winner David Hannan and a hypnotic, ethereal soundtrack featuring specially recorded songs from Antony (of Antony and the Johnsons), legendary film composer Max Richter and our very own Gurrumul, Coral: Rekindling Venus is a staggering cinematic experience and an ecological call-to-arms.

For more information go to the Melbourne Festival

Tickets available through Ticketmaster

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Adelaide Planetarium comes to Melbourne

Posted on September 14, 2012 by astrotanya

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We had a great treat at the Melbourne Planetarium last night. Paul Curnow from Adelaide Planetarium was visiting and gave a fantastic planetarium lecture entitled “Beneath Australian Skies”.

The audience was mainly members of the public but also included many Melbourne Planetarium presenters as well as the team from Bunjilaka, the Aboriginal Cultural Centre at Melbourne Museum. Caroline Martin of the Boon Wurrung and also the Manager of Bunjilaka attended and shared many of her own stories with Paul.

It was also particularly inspiring for the Planetarium team and has renewed our energy for including more indigenous Australian stories into our own What’s in the Night Sky? presentations. And personally, it was lovely to see someone else take charge of “my” planetarium, allowing me to simply sit back and enjoy the experience! I highly recommend it! 

All told, it was a wonderful evening of building cross-cultural respect and understanding. There is so much we can learn from each other if we work together with respect to knowledge and people.

For extensive information on Aboriginal Astronomy see Paul’s website: http://sa.apana.org.au/~paulc/loreaussie.html

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Tribute to Neil Armstrong

Posted on August 31, 2012 by astrotanya

I was sad to hear the recent news that Neil Armstrong had passed away.

Neil Armstrong in Apollo Lunar Module after his historic moonwalk in July 1969.
Source: NASA

It was just last week that I had been talking about the Apollo missions to a group of Grade 3 students. It was my son’s class and they had asked me to talk about life on Mars. They were studying the idea that over time, living things need to adapt in order to survive, and so they were thinking about what people would need to live on Mars one day.

As we spoke about things like the need for water and oxygen, along with the differences between Mars and Earth, I asked if they’d ever seen what happened when the astronauts walked on the Moon. The group, including my son, looked at me blankly and I realised that they had never heard of the famous Moon landings.

So we checked out the NASA clips of Apollo 11’s landing and those great action shots of astronauts bouncing around on the Moon due to its weak gravity. The kids were astounded!

Apollo Lunar Module on the Moon with Armstrong’s shadow in the foreground.
Source: NASA

I was born just as the Apollo missions were coming to an end. Even so, it was always a part of my world. The Apollo astronauts were amazing men and my tribute to Neil Armstrong will be to make sure that young generations know of the incredible things he and his fellow astronauts did. May they always be an inspiration to all.

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