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.


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Categories : Events, General Meeting, Meetings, Theory Group

David Malin is our speaker for the Nov General Meeting next Tuesday the 15th

11 11 2011

Next Tuesday the 15th is the NSAS November GM. If you haven’t been making it to the GMs, maybe you want to make an exception for this one, as David Malin, the man who invented modern three-colour astrophotography while a scientist-photographer at the AAO, is our guest speaker. Those of you who have heard him speak before know that he is a very entertaining and knowledgeable speaker, and will have points of interest for anyone who is an amateur astronomer. David will be speaking to NSAS on the history of astrophotography, and I recommend everyone in the Society who can get to Regis Hall next Tuesday to make it for this exceptional event. As usual, visitors are welcome, and the GM starts at 7:30 PM. See the home page of our website for directions if you haven’t been before.


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Categories : General Meeting, Meetings, News, Speakers

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.


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Categories : Events, General Meeting, Meetings, Observing, Speakers, Theory Group

September General Meeting

20 09 2011

The September GM will be tonight at Regis Hall, 7:30 pm, as usual. Our speaker is Dr. David Frew, from Macquarie Uni. His abstract follows:

“In this talk I will describe the latest discoveries and research on planetary nebulae, emphasizing the huge diversity of their central ionizing stars, which is only now being appreciated on the basis of recent discoveries. I will relate some of these recent finds to stellar evolution theory, noting how the formation of some rare central stars is still a mystery.”


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Categories : General Meeting, Speakers

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.


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Categories : Events, General Meeting, Meetings, NAG, Observing, Speakers, Theory Group

NSAS August General Meeting

13 08 2011

The NSAS August General Meeting will be on Tuesday the 16th of August at Regis Hall, Regis Campus, St Ignatius College. Please note that we are using a classroom under Regis Hall due to a scheduling conflict. Our speaker this month is Daniel Yardley from University of Sydney who will speak on detecting gravitational waves. His abstract follows:

A millisecond pulsar is a rotating magnetised neutron star that completes several hundred rotations every second. This leads to remarkable stability in its rotation, which provides a wealth of applications, such as improving the accuracy of terrestrial time standards, improving our measurements of the parameters of solar system bodies and studying gravitational waves. This talk describes my recently-submitted PhD thesis, which addresses the problem of gravitational-wave detection using radio timing observations of millisecond pulsars. In particular, I will present recently-published results from the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array.


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Categories : General Meeting, Meetings, Speakers

NSAS Activities for August

8 08 2011

We start out August with the Theory Group on Tuesday the 9th, and the August General Meeting will be Tuesday the 16th. Our speaker this month is Daniel Yardley, a Ph.D candidate at University of Sydney, who will talk on “Detecting Gravitational Waves Via Radio Timing of Millisecond Pulsars” (should be interesting to those who toured the Dish in June!). On Tuesday the 23rd the New Astronomers Group will meet, and the subject should be Astrophotography. Observing this month at North Turramurra will be the Fridays 19th and 26th. As usual, all meeting start at 7:30PM at Regis Hall, Regis Campus, St. Ignatius (see directions on our website).


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Categories : General Meeting, Meetings, NAG, Observing, Speakers, Theory Group

NSAS July General Meeting

18 07 2011

Tomorrow night, 19th July, is the July GM. As is now the case, the meeting will be at Regis Hall, St Ignatius, starting at 7:30PM. Our speaker for July is Dr Baerbel Koribalski, from CSIRO, who will talk on “The WALLABY Project – Exploring Nearby Galaxies”. Her abstract follows:

I will talk about nearby galaxies and galaxy groups, comparing their stellar and gaseous disks, while exploring their dark matter content. To get you involved I will start with “Astronomy QI” incl. questions related to past, current and future 21-cm sky surveys: HIPASS, LVHIS & WALLABY. So, tune your eyes to a wavelength of 21-cm to explore the sky as only radio telescopescan see it.


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Categories : General Meeting, Meetings, Speakers

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.


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Categories : Events, General Meeting, Meetings, NAG, Observing, Speakers, Theory Group

NSAS June GM Tuesday 21st

18 06 2011

NSAS will have the June GM this Tuesday night, at 7:30 PM, and in our new venue, Regis Hall (see the website for directions if you didn’t get them previously by email). If it’s a cold night, dress warmly, as there is no heating. The speaker this month is Dr Jonathon Horner, a post-Doc at Uni of NSW. His presentation is “Jupiter: Friend or Foe”, and his abstract follows:

“It has long been believed that the planet Jupiter has played an important role in the development of life on Earth. Without the particular size and placement of Jupiter, it is argued, the Earth would have experienced a greatly enhanced flux of impacts from asteroids and comets, hindering or entirely preventing the development of life. Despite the vigour with which this belief is held, very little work has been performed to examine the effect of Jupiter on the terrestrial planet impact flux. We have now completed the first detailed study of the effect of Jupiter’s mass on the impact rate of the three types of potentially hazardous objects – the Near Earth Asteroids, the Short Period Comets, and the Long Period Comets, and have found that the situation is, at the very least, significantly more complicated than was previously thought…”

All members and visitors are welcome.


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Categories : General Meeting, Meetings, News, Speakers

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