Auckland Astronomical Society Inc

Astrophotography Group August
2022-08-15 19:00 - 20:00 (Pacific/Auckland) | Stardome Observatory, 670 Manukau Rd, Epsom, Auckland, 1345, New Zealand
Simple Narrowband imaging with DSLR and Telescope
For this months meeting I will run through the process I used to produce a clear noise-free Hydrogen Alpha image of M8 the Lagoon Nebula using an unmodified DSLR, Ha Filter and 200mm telescope.
Even this modest equipment, and no specialist software or knowledge, can produce an image to be proud of!

Practical Astronomy August - The Dobsonian Telescope
2022-08-15 20:00 - 21:00 | Stardome Observatory & Planetarium, 670 Manukau Road, Epsom, Auckland, 1345
This month we will be discussing the Dobsonian Telescope, one of the more common telescope types used by amateur astronomers, primarily for visual observing. The Dobsonian consists of a Newtonian OTA, mounted on a simple alt/az mount, named after the late John Dobson, “The Sidewalk Astronomer of San Francisco”, who popularised these for their ease of setup and use for visual observing.

Film Night August - Cosmic Radiation
2022-08-22 20:00 - 21:00 | Stardome Observatory & Planetarium, 670 Manukau Road, Epsom, Auckland, 1345
What are the different forms of radiation arriving on earth, where in the universe does it come from, how is it detected and what can it tell us. August film night looks at these subjects with contributions from various research centres and observatories.

Introduction to Astronomy September 2022
2022-09-05 20:00 - 21:00 | Stardome Observatory, 670 Manukau Rd, Epsom, Auckland, 1345, New Zealand
Relativity – The Layman’s Guide
Part 1: Historical Background and Special Relativity
Guest Speaker: Nick Odom
Nick starts with a brief description of physical knowledge in the 1890s and the problems that led to relativity, in particular with regard to measuring the speed of light. He will describe the basic axioms that underpin the theory and the effects on time and distance, including the relevance of inertial frameworks, the Doppler effect and the twin paradox. Concluding, he addresses the relationship between mass and energy and finishes with an introduction to spacetime.
Nick keeps mathematics very simple and uses plenty of diagrams to explain the main points, making this fascinating topic accessible to everyone. We look forward to seeing you all there.

Monthly Meeting September - Dark Star: The Invisible Universe of Brown Dwarfs
2022-09-12 20:00 - 21:00 | Stardome Observatory, 670 Manukau Rd, Epsom, Auckland, 1345, New Zealand
This month will be a screening of one of this years Silicon Valley Astronomy Lectures.
Presented by Dr. Adam Burgasser (University of California, San Diego)
In this illustrated talk, Dr. Burgasser explains what happens when a newly forming star doesn’t have “what it takes” to produce energy in its core in an ongoing way. This results in “failed stars” or brown dwarfs — objects that were predicted in theory, but only discovered in the 1990’s. Today, many thousands of these brown dwarfs are known, spanning a wide range of temperatures and masses, and occupying a unique niche at the intersection of stars and planets. Dr. Burgasser discusses how such faint objects are discovered, highlights their exceptional properties, and describes what this (mostly) invisible population can tell us about the formation and history of our Milky Way Galaxy.

Practical Astronomy September - The Spring Night Sky
2022-09-19 20:00 - 21:00 | Stardome Observatory, 670 Manukau Rd, Epsom, Auckland, 1345, New Zealand
This will be one of our seasonal Night Sky reviews. We will use the Digistar Planetarium to explore the constellations and deep sky objects of the Spring Night Sky. Weather permitting we will follow up with Telescope viewing using the EWB Zeiss telescope.

Film Night September 26th
2022-09-26 20:00 - 21:00 | Stardome Observatory & Planetarium, 670 Manukau Road, Epsom, Auckland, 1345
We have two exciting short films tonight:
Artemis I – Path to the Pad: The Rocket

Have you ever wondered what it takes to assemble the most powerful rocket NASA has ever built? This is the lead up to Nasa’s test flight in anticipation of the next Manned space flight to the moon.

BBC The Sky at Night 2022 – The James Webb Road Trip
The Sky at Night team meets the scientists in the UK researching the astonishing new data returned by the James Webb Space Telescope.

Introduction to Astronomy October 2022
2022-10-03 20:00 - 21:00 | Stardome Observatory, 670 Manukau Rd, Epsom, Auckland, 1345, New Zealand
Relativity – The Layman’s Guide
Part 2: General Relativity & Gravity
Guest Speaker: Nick Odom
Relativity and Newton’s law of gravity are mathematically incompatible. Einstein realized that the local effects of gravity and acceleration are equivalent, and that gravity is a distortion of spacetime. An analysis of the effect of gravity on light reveals that time runs slower in gravitational fields and that light bends. The bending is increased by the curvature of space. We briefly examine black holes and end with the observational consequences of the theory.
This is a fascinating topic and not to be missed. We look forward to seeing you all there.
This meeting will also be live streamed to the AAS YouTube channel
https://www.youtube.com/c/AucklandAstronomicalSociety

Practical Astronomy October - Astronomical Object names and Catalogues.
2022-10-17 20:00 - 21:00 | Stardome Observatory, 670 Manukau Rd, Epsom, Auckland, 1345, New Zealand
This month, we will be exploring astronomical naming conventions and object catalogues commonly encountered by amateur astronomers.

Film Night October 24th
2022-10-24 20:00 - 21:15 | Stardome Observatory & Planetarium, 670 Manukau Road, Epsom, Auckland, 1345
We have two exciting films tonight

Life of a Universe – Part 1

In this two-part special, Professor Brian Cox tackles the biggest story of them all – how did the Universe come into being?

BBC The Sky at Night – The Sky at Day

The Sky at Night team reveals how stargazers can overcome cloudy weather by pointing their telescopes at the sky when it’s still light.

Monthly Meeting October - The Habitability of Planets, Galaxies and Universes
2022-10-31 20:00 - 21:00 | Stardome Observatory, 670 Manukau Rd, Epsom, Auckland, 1345, New Zealand
Finding other Earths and potentially other life forms is a major, increasingly reasonable scientific goal. Our search for habitable planets and inhabited planets is now in high gear. But what is life? And what is the best way to look for it. Are there specific places and times in our galaxy where life is more probable? I will review the general idea of habitability as it applies to planets, galaxies and universes in the multiverse scenario.
Dr Charley Lineweaver is an honorary associate professor at the Australian National University’s Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics and Research School of Earth Science and this year’s Burbidge Din-
ner speaker.

Introduction to Astronomy November 2022
2022-11-07 20:00 - 21:00 | Stardome Observatory, 670 Manukau Rd, Epsom, Auckland, 1345, New Zealand
Hazards of Human Spaceflight to Mars
Things You Need To Know
NASA and Elon Musk’s Space X recently announced their intention to send astronauts to Mars in the 2030s. Why go to Mars, and what are the challenges to the human body with this pioneering journey? Dr. Chris Benton will discuss these questions and outline the physical hazards of human long-duration spaceflight, proposed countermeasures and current research in this field, answering the question as to whether it will be safe.
It could be your close relatives or friends travelling on these pioneer missions. Come along and discover what you need to know for spaceflight to our neighbouring planet and possibly humanity’s second home.

Monthly Meeting November - The Fast Radio Sky: A New Window on the Violent Universe
2022-11-14 20:00 - 21:30 | Stardome Observatory, 670 Manukau Rd, Epsom, Auckland, 1345, New Zealand
This month we will be screening a recent Silicon Valley Astronomy Lecture with Dr. Victoria Kaspi (McGill University)
The Fast Radio Sky: A New Window on the Violent Universe
In this illustrated introduction, Dr. Kaspi introduces us to a brand-new mystery in the skies — superfast bursts of radio waves whose source is still unknown. These energetic bursts come from all over the sky (and all over the universe,) pack a huge amount of energy, and typically last a few thousandths of a second. Like a detective in the middle of a case, Dr. Kaspi fills us in on the story of how new observations (especially with the CHIME telescope project which she heads) have been revealing tantalizing new aspects of these bursts, without yet giving us a solution to their ultimate cause. She shares both the thrills and frustrations of a new phenomenon in science, still in the process of being explored.
Victoria Kaspi is the inaugural director of the McGill Space Institute and holds the Lorne Trottier Chair in Astrophysics and Cosmology at McGill University. She is the winner of the 2021 Shaw Prize in astronomy and the 2022 Albert Einstein World Award in Science.

Astrophotography Group November
2022-11-21 19:00 - 20:00 | Stardome Observatory & Planetarium, 670 Manukau Road, Epsom, Auckland, 1345
Tonight we have an introduction to DeepSkyStacker by Eric Chiu. DeepSkyStacker is a freeware for astrophotographers that simplifies all the pre-processing steps of deep sky pictures.
This will be followed by a light discussion of the group meetings going forwards:

Subjects that we would like to cover off over the next 12 months. Subjects such as

Practical sessions
Theory sessions
Introductions to other software

If anyone is interested in covering a subject please let the group know
Do we want to form a small committee to coordinate the sessions.

Practical Astronomy November - variable stars
2022-11-21 20:00 - 21:00 | Stardome Observatory, 670 Manukau Rd, Epsom, Auckland, 1345, New Zealand
Variable Stars.
Observation of variable stars has a long history with amateur astronomy. We will discuss the types of variable stars and how to observe them to obtain scientifically useful data. This is still a valuable activity even with the large survey telescopes as amateurs can obtain data for stars that are too bright for the large telescopes, or for certain types of variable stars where changes are happening rapidly, the survey scopes cannot be dedicated for short cadence observing of a single star.

Monthly Meeting December - Big Science From a Little Country
2022-12-12 20:00 - 21:00 | Stardome Observatory, 670 Manukau Rd, Epsom, Auckland, 1345, New Zealand
Speaker: Professor Richard Easther

Doing astronomy is as easy as stepping out and looking up. However, ever since Stonehenge astronomy has been at the forefront of what is now called “big science” — branches of knowledge whose development relies on large, shared research facilities rather than individual laboratories. Two examples of this are the European Space Agency’s LISA mission which is slated for launch in the early 2030s, and the Legacy Survey of Space and Time – or LSST – which is currently getting underway at the new Vera Rubin Observatory. New Zealand scientists (including me and my group) are contributing to LISA and the LSST and I will explain what we hope that this will tell us about the universe. And I’ll talk about how little countries like New Zealand can contribute to big projects, how we can get involved, and what we get out of it.

Astrophotography Group December - Optimising PHD2 Guiding - 65 Tips and Tricks to get better Guiding with PHD2.
2022-12-19 19:00 - 20:00 | Stardome Observatory, 670 Manukau Rd, Epsom, Auckland, 1345, New Zealand
It will be of special interest to Kumeu users of PHD2 because some of those tips and tricks were derived from Kumeu experience.

Tony Cooper

Practical Astronomy December - The Summer Night Sky
2022-12-19 20:00 - 21:00 | Stardome Observatory, 670 Manukau Rd, Epsom, Auckland, 1345, New Zealand
This will be one of our quarterly reviews of the seasonal Night Sky. This will be held in the Planetarium at the Stardome Observatory. If the weather is clear we will follow with Telescope viewing.

Introduction to Astronomy February 2023
2023-02-06 20:00 - 21:00 | Fickling Convention Centre, 546 Mt Albert Rd, Three Kings, Auckland, 1042
Auckland Astronomical Society Annual Fun Quiz Night!
It’s time we reflect on the topics covered over the previous year and do some revision in the form of a fun-filled quiz. Most importantly, there are loads of chocolates to win!
The Quiz is designed for those who attended all, some or none of the talks during the year, so there’s no excuse to miss out! Come along and have loads of fun reviewing the main points of each monthly session.
Eight multiple-choice questions, each designed to lead into a brief teaching discussion, will include the topics: Measuring Distances In Space Parts I & II, The James Webb Space Telescope, The Hazards of Human Spaceflight to Mars, Hunting Massive Stars, The Expanding Universe and Life In The Solar System Parts I & II.
We look forward to seeing you all there ready for chocolate!
Please note while the Stardome is undergoing renovations, our venue will be
The Lynfield Room at the Fickling Convention Centre, 546 Mt Albert Rd, Three Kings, 1042
This meeting will also be live-streamed on the AAS YouTube channel.
https://www.youtube.com/c/AucklandAstronomicalSociety

Monthly Meeting February - Auckland Astronomical Society, The First 100 Years.
2023-02-20 20:00 - 21:00 | Fickling Convention Centre, 546 Mt Albert Rd, Three Kings, Auckland, 1042
In this meeting, Society Vice President Dr Grant Christie will do a presentation on the significant events of the first 100 years of the Auckland Astronomical Society.
Venue Address
As the Stardome Observatory is closed for renovations, the meeting will be held at the Fickling Convention Centre.
546 Mt Albert Road,
Three Kings,
Auckland 1042

Film Night February
2023-02-27 20:00 - 21:15 | Fickling Convention Centre, 546 Mt Albert Rd, Three Kings, Auckland, 1042
We have two exciting films tonight:
Can Nuclear Propulsion Take Us to Mars?
There are different propulsion systems available for space flight however each has advantages and limitations. This film will help us understand the differences.
The Cosmic Clock
The cosmic clock effects everything, from the far reaches of the universe to right here on Earth, from the beginning of our universe to now. Witness the steady ticking of the universe’s clock through the eyes of creatures on Earth. Narrated by Morgan Freeman.

Monthly Meeting March - Breakthrough-Listen Search for Intelligent Life
2023-03-13 20:00 - 21:00 | Fickling Convention Centre, 546 Mt Albert Rd, Three Kings, Auckland, 1042
For centuries, humans have gazed at the night sky and wondered if any intelligent life forms like us might be out there. In 2015, the Breakthrough Foundation gave a $100 million grant to the University of California at Berkeley to undertake the most comprehensive search for signals from an extra-terrestrial civilization. Dr. Croft describes the project, introduces the many radio telescopes around the world it is using in the search, and explains how modern technology, including AI, is being used to include more stars, more frequencies (channels) and more ways a signal might be sent.
This is a rebroadcast of a recent Silicon Valley Lecture Series Lecture presented by Dr. Steve Croft (University of California, Berkeley).

Practical Astronomy - The Autumn Night Sky
2023-03-20 20:00 - 21:00 | Fickling Convention Centre, 546 Mt Albert Rd, Three Kings, Auckland, 1042
This meeting will be one of our seasonal Night Sky reviews. As the planetarium is unavailable until the Stardome reopens, we will review the Autumn Night Sky using desktop open source planetarium software. We will also investigate some of the features of the software that you can use for your own observation planning and learning the Night Sky.

Film Night
2023-03-27 20:00 - 21:30 | Fickling Convention Centre, 546 Mt Albert Rd, Three Kings, Auckland, 1042
We have two great films running tonight. We look forwards to seeing you there.
How Earth Moves
This is a well worth watching documentary, explaining the movement of the Earth in an easy to understand format.
It gives an easy to understand explanation on the Solstice also clarifying Sidereal time, Julian time and why we use Gregorian time. All relative to “How Earth Moves”

Eight Wonders Of Our Solar System | The Planets | BBC Earth Lab
Discover the most memorable events in the history of our solar system. Travel to the surface of these dynamic worlds to witness the moments of high drama that uniquely shaped each one

Introduction to Astronomy April 2023
2023-04-10 20:00 - 21:00 | Fickling Convention Centre, 546 Mt Albert Rd, Three Kings, Auckland, 1042
A Modern Perspective of the Solar System
What’s there and why
The Solar System comprises a central star, eight planets of varying sizes and composition, and three regions of small bodies. Chris Benton will outline a modern perspective of the Solar System structure, then discuss how and why it formed and evolved as it did, explaining what we see today.
Come along and learn why we see four small rocky inner planets, four giant gaseous outer planets, plus collections of asteroids and comets. Furthermore, discover why astronomers demoted Pluto from its status as a planet.
All attendees will receive a comprehensive handout on the topic, changing your view on the Solar System. We look forward to seeing you all there.

Practical Astronomy April - Getting Started with Astrophotography
2023-04-17 20:00 - 21:00 | Fickling Convention Centre, 546 Mt Albert Rd, Three Kings, Auckland, 1042
In this meeting, Eric Chiu will explain how to get started with Astrophotography.

Film Night April
2023-04-24 20:00 - 21:30 | Fickling Convention Centre, 546 Mt Albert Rd, Three Kings, Auckland, 1042
We have two great films running tonight, we look forwards to seeing you there.

Are We Alone in the Universe | By Professor Charlie Lineweaver
Charley will present the results of a worldwide survey asking people “Are We Alone?”. He will try to figure out if this question makes any sense…and discuss what the words “we” and “alone” mean.
Charley is one of the guest speakers at this years RSANZ Conference, hosted by the AAS at Waipuna Lodge Conference Centre.

The Search for Alien Life | BBC The Sky at Night 2023
The Sky at Night team investigate the latest science in the hunt for extraterrestrial life.
Presented by Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock and Professor Chris Lintott.
Professor Chris Lintott is also a guest speaker at this years RSANZ Conference.
Please visit https://www.astronomy.org.nz/2023-rasnz-conference for further information about the conference. Note that as a Society member, you are entitled to a discount off the full price of the event.

Introduction to Astronomy May 2023
2023-05-01 20:00 - 21:00 | Fickling Convention Centre, 546 Mt Albert Rd, Three Kings, Auckland, 1042
The Building Blocks of the Universe
(and how they relate to astronomy)
Guest speaker – Jonathan Park MSc (Astronomy)
This is a fun, basic introduction to how the universe works at the smallest scales. In this talk, we start by describing the structure and size of the atom for anyone new to the topic. You will then be equipped to join the journey down the rabbit hole to the smallest, weirdest particles. After hearing about these intriguing objects, we learn how the building blocks of the universe apply in astronomy. What are cosmic rays? How does the Sun really turn hydrogen into helium to provide sunlight? There are trillions of (harmless) particles from space travelling through you right now – what are they? Whether your knowledge of this topic is limited or if you know all about the tiny particles of the universe, you will be fascinated by this talk.

Monthly Meeting May - Join the Universe: We want YOU to become a Citizen Scientist
2023-05-08 20:00 - 21:00 | Fickling Convention Centre, 546 Mt Albert Rd, Three Kings, Auckland, 1042
Join the Universe: We want YOU to become a Citizen Scientist

I’ll share my journey from a very amateur astronomer to a Citizen Scientist active in the various Unistellar/eVscope network Citizen Science programmes, and to my own asteroid occultation observations. Citizen Science is real science, and my observations have ended up in scientific databases and been included in papers in Nature, the Minor Planet Bulletin and others. Along the way I’ll share some observation highlights from the year, including the DART mission, and I will introduce some of the many facets of Citizen Science astronomy.
There is a whole Universe waiting to be discovered from your sofa or back yard – anyone, with or without equipment, can be a Citizen Scientist.

Michael Camilleri has had a long a varied career in Science and Technology and Data and Analytics. Originally studying Astrophysics (MSc) he switched to Atmospheric Physics (PhD) and built a research career in Climate Change and Energy Efficiency, before leaving the scientific work for the business world of Data and Analytics. After a lifelong casual interest in Astronomy that went no further than binoculars (Astrophysics didn’t require a telescope), I started observing with a small visual telescope during Covid, moved into Electronically Assisted Astronomy (EEA) and ended up with an eVscope which opened up the Citizen Science Universe to me.



Practical Astronomy May - Variable Stars
2023-05-15 20:00 - 21:00 | Fickling Convention Centre, 546 Mt Albert Rd, Three Kings, Auckland, 1042
Observation of variable stars has a long history with amateur astronomy. We will discuss the types of variable stars and how to observe them to obtain scientifically useful data. This is still a valuable activity even with the large survey telescopes, as amateurs can obtain data for stars that are too bright for the large telescopes, or for certain types of variable stars where changes are happening rapidly, the survey scopes cannot be dedicated for short cadence observing of a single star.
