NSAS Events for February

25 01 2012

On Tuesday the 14th the Theory Group will pick up where it left off with “Understanding the Universe”, at the revised time of 7:45 PM. The General Meeting will be at 7:30 PM on Tuesday the 21st. Our speaker for February is Francisco Di Mille from the AAO, who is recently returned from Chile. He and a colleague have been recently in the news regarding their discovery of stellar jets from Sanduleak’s Star, which he will discuss, along with the Magellan Telescope, where he did his work in Chile. All meetings are at Regis Hall, St Ignatius.





Christmas Party Tomorrow Night the 20th

19 12 2011

For anyone not checking their emails, the Christmas Party is tomorrow night, the 20th, at Regis Hall, at 7:30PM. The format is to bring a dish, and the Society will supply drinks. See you there.





December Events and Saturday’s Lunar Eclipse

7 12 2011

Just to remind those of you who might have forgot, this coming Saturday night the 10th there is a total lunar eclipse visible from Eastern Australia. It starts at 10:45 PM and is at totallity about midnight. Hopefully the weather will be better on the night. The Society will not run any program for this, as it is so late at night.

I’ll take this opportunity to remind you of the events for December. Next Tuesday the 13th will be the Theory Group at 7:45, and on Tuesday the 20th we will have the Society Christmas Party, which will revert back to the old format of “bring a dish”. I’ll get back to you with more details later. All meetings are at Regis Hall, as usual.





NSAS Events for November

1 11 2011

NSAS this November will have the Theory Group on Tuesday the 8th at the new time of 7:45. The Nov General Meeting will be Tuesday the 15th at 7:30, and the speaker is David Malin, the famour AAO astrophotographer. If you ever make it a GM, you should make it to this, as David is a fascinating speaker who will talk on the history of astrophotography. All meetings are at Regis Hall, St. Ignatius. Observing this month is Friday the 18th, and would have been on the 25th, however the Field Trip to Coonabarabran will likely take our Observing Officers away, but there could be Observing if someone is available. Finally, the second Field Trip of the year will take a group to Coonabarbran for a tour of the AAO, followed by dark-sky observing with either own scopes or at a commercial observatory. It’s not too late to join up, so just let me know.





NSAS Activities for September

3 09 2011

We start off September tonight with the NSAS Public Star Party for the Lane Cove Cameraygal Festival. If you’re not involved, and want to come along, the details are on the NSAS website. Tuesday the 13th the Theory Group will meet at the new time of 7:45. Tuesday the 20th is the General Meeting, where we will vote for the Geoff Welch Prize winner(s), and our speaker is Dr David Frew from Macquarie University. The topic is something related to planetary nebulae, his specialty (details later). The NAG finished up last month for this time around, so we will have to wait for a new group of budding observers next year to start up again. Observing at N. Turramurra this month is the 23rd and 30th.





Parkes Video

22 08 2011

For those interested, the very nice video of the Parkes field trip is now on the Media page of the website. Depending on your browser, it will launch there or in a YouTube page.





NSAS Activities for July

7 07 2011

After the great success of the Parkes trip, I’m afraid July may be a let-down, but we’ve got a great speaker, and our other programs will continue. Next Tuesday the 12th the Theory Group continues it’s series of lectures on Understanding the Universe. On Tuesday the 19th, we have our GM, and our speaker is Dr. Baerbel Koribalski, who will speak about the WALLABY project she heads up. The NAG will continue its course of enlightenment on observing on Tuesday the 26th, this month looking at collimation and go-to scopes. Observing is scheduled for the Fridays of the 22nd and 29th. For those of you who haven’t been to a meeting last month, don’t forget that we have moved to Regis Hall for all our meetings, which start at 7:30 PM. Directions are on the website.





Alex Fillippenko Talk – Speaker Change (!)

16 06 2011

Alex Fillippenko has had to pull out at the last moment, and the Sunday talk at the Powerhouse will now be by Prof. Robert Kirshner (Harvard Uni), who also works on Dark Energy. The time is the same, and Fred Watson will introduce the speaker.





Seaforth Public School Outreach

10 06 2011

NSAS supported the opening of the Space Gallery at Seaforth Public School Thursday night the 9th with a table and our pop-ups.  The teachers and children (Primary) had done a wonderful job of putting together some very professional resources into a Space-themed hallway display, including some collections from serious collectors in this area.  The evening was attended by (it seemed) thousands (see pics), who crowded into the auditorium for various stands selling books, Oz Geographic, cakes, and, us.  David Malin opened the Space Gallery, and then drew the raffle tickets!  He seems as ubiquitous as NSAS at the moment.  Anyway, we got some “hits” from interested families, so it was all worthwhile, and we’ve offered to support any future Star Parties.





Parramatta Park Stargazing – Cloud and Rain

5 06 2011

The Parramatta Park Stargazing event on June 4th went ahead despite cloudy skies. Members from other clubs set up their scopes on the field. Four NSAS members attended, however we decided it was not worthwhile to set up our scopes. We only got to see one star (probably Sirius) through a gap in the clouds.

The talk by David Malin was held in a large tent and was well attended. The talk made it worth the trip.

Bob also set up a stand to promote NSAS and we handed out pamphlets.

And here’s a video…