Northern Sydney Astronomical Society » Theory Group

NSAS Events for February

bobsastro — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 22:00:37 +0000

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.

December Events and Saturday’s Lunar Eclipse

bobsastro — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 23:06:34 +0000

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

bobsastro — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 05:39:47 +0000

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

bobsastro — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 00:02:00 +0000

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.

NSAS Activities for August

bobsastro — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 08:19:55 +0000

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).

NSAS Activities for July

bobsastro — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 22:40:07 +0000

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.

NSAS Activities for June

bobsastro — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 00:31:40 +0000

Once again, another busy month for NSAS in June, with the high point being the field trip to Parkes and the Dish. Our month begins as usual with the Theory Group on Tuesday the 14th, followed by the General Meeting on the 21st. Our speaker will be Jonathon Horner from UNSW, and his talk will be “Jupiter – Friend or Foe”. The GM is followed by the trip to Parkes on the weekend of 25/26 June. This has been well-advertised, and we have about 25 people going, but if you’ve missed it, please contact us ASAP. Finally, we finish up the month with the New Astronomer’s Group on Tuesday the 28th. Observing will be on Friday the 3rd, and while we have it scheduled for Friday the 24th, everyone will be in transit to Parkes, so this will be cancelled.

As many of you know, from June NSAS moves to Regis Hall, Regis Campus, St. Ignatius for all future meetings. It’s very easy to find, and there will be directions on the NSAS website, and as well. It’s just as well, as we were outgrowing the Sports Pavilion with all the new members this year.

NSAS Events for May

bobsastro — Sun, 01 May 2011 22:54:24 +0000

We have the usual busy month ahead in May for NSAS, with the Theory Group meeting Tuesday the 10th, the New Astronomers Group restarting after a break at Easter on Tuesday the 24th, and Bob Roeth entertaining us again with one of his “fifth Tuesday” math-rated astronomy exercises on the 31st. The General Meeting his month is Tuesday the 17th, and we’re lucky to have been able to get Jason Spyromilio, from the European Space Organisation, who is visiting, to talk to us about the ESO’s new ELT (Extremely Large Telescope) project. As usual, all meetings are at St. Ignatius, starting at 7:30 PM. Also as usual, visitors are welcome to the General Meeting and NAG.

Alex Filippenko to speak in Sydney

bobsastro — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 10:25:33 +0000

Alex Filippenko, Professor of Astronomy and Richard & Rhoda Goldman Distinguished Professor in the Physical Sciences, University of California, Berkeley
Renowned supernova astronomer Alex Filippenko will give a public talk at Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum on Sunday 19 June from 3 pm. (The talk will run for about an hour, then time will be allowed for questions.)

The title of his presentation is Dark Energy and the Runaway Universe. For more details, see www.aao.gov.au/press/filippenko/ .

This is Professor Filippenko’s only scheduled public talk in Australia.

Professor Filippenko is a member of the US National Academy of Sciences, has coauthored over 640 publications and is one of the world’s most highly cited astronomers. Winner of the top teaching awards at UC Berkeley, he was named the National Professor of the Year in 2006. He produced several astronomy video courses for The Teaching Company and appeared in numerous television documentaries.
He is visiting Australia to take part in an international conference, Supernovae and Their Host Galaxies (http://www.aao.gov.au/southerncross/).

The talk is free after you have paid for entry to the Museum. Enquiries: Ali Gordon, Powerhouse Museum, tel 02 9217 0509, alig@phm.gov.au .
It is strongly suggested that you confirm the talk time closer to the event by calling the Museum on 02 9217 0111.

In case you don’t know who this is, the Theory Group has been watching “Understanding the Universe”, by Alex Filippenko (Bob Fuller)

Events at NSAS in March

bobsastro — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 06:17:05 +0000

NSAS has a full schedule of events for March, including:

Observing is scheduled at North Turramurra on Friday March 4th, and Linden on March 6th.

Tuesday the 8th of March the Theory Group meets again, and continues with it’s adventure in “Understanding the Universe”

Tuesday the 15th of March is the General Meeting. We have an exciting speaker for you this month, Jeremy Mould from the University of Melbourne, who was formerly Director of the RSAA in Canberra, then at NOAO in the USA. He was a member of the team that determined the
Hubble Constant using the HST to observe Cepheid variables, a process that took ten years, but which settled an argument that had lasted for decades. In 2009 the trio of Freedman, Kennicutt and Mould were awarded the Gruber Cosmology Prize for this work. His talk will be on “The Hubble Telescope and the Hubble Constant”.

Tuesday the 22nd of March will be the second meeting of the re-started NAG. Last month the new NAG members looked at telescopes, and this month the subject is “astronomical coordinate systems and finding your way in the sky”.

As usual, all meetings start at 7:30, and are located at the Sports Pavilion (Fr Mac Pavilion) at St. Ignatius College. Visitors are welcome to all.

The month ends with observing on March 25 at North Turramurra.