2026 Annual Burbidge Dinner
This is the Annual Burbidge Dinner held in honour of the principle founder of the Auckland Astronomical Society, Professor Percy Burbidge. Prior to the start of dinner we will be presenting the awards for the winners of the 2026 New Zealand Astrophotography Competition. The Dinner will be followed by the Burbidge Lecture, which will be delivered by Dr Culan Howlett from the University of Queensland.
Completing the Map of Our Universe
Most of our Universe is invisible, hiding in the form of dark matter and dark energy, mysterious ingredients that outweigh everything else combined yet have never been directly seen. Despite 50 years of effort, their true nature remains as dark as their name suggests. In this talk, we’ll go on a tour through this hidden Universe, from the Big Bang to today, to see how enormous maps of the positions and motions of millions of galaxies offer one of the most promising routes to shedding light on them. Drawing on an enormous international effort, we’ll explore some of the amazing structures these maps have revealed, examine tantalising new evidence that dark energy has been weakening over the last 3 billion years, and see hints that gravity on the largest scales may be departing from Einstein’s predictions. These departures from our previous best model of the Universe could be clues to the true nature of its “dark” components. Finally, we’ll look to the future, and how we hope to one day chart nearly every galaxy in the observable Universe, completing a map over 100 years in the making.Bio:
Dr. Cullan Howlett is Senior Lecturer in Astrophysics at the University of Queensland, and recipient of both the 2026 Pawsey Medal from the Australian Academy of Science and the 2024 Ruby-Payne Scott Award from the Australian Institute of Physics. His research focuses on mapping the positions and motions of millions of galaxies to understand how our Universe has evolved since the Big Bang. He holds leadership roles in some of the largest galaxy surveys ever undertaken across both the northern and southern hemispheres, using cutting-edge computational and statistical tools to make sense of these extraordinarily large and complex datasets.
Ticket Information
The price includes attendance and a buffet dinner. There will be a cash bar available. The final booking date is 8th November 2026.
Earlybird price for members and their guests $65 pp until 31st October 2026. After 31st October until 8th November, the price for members and their guests is $75 pp.
Members may book tickets by logging in to the Hello Club Auckland Astronomical Society membership portal and select 2026 Burbidge Dinner from the Upcoming Events:
https://members.astronomy.org.nz/
Earlybird price for non members is $75 pp until 31st October 2026. After 31st October until 8th November, the price for non members is $85 pp. Note that non members are required to pay the ticket fee at time of booking. Non members can purchase tickets by emailing treasurer @ astronomy dot org dot nz