Auckland Astronomical Society Inc

Introduction to Astronomy - October 2020
2020-10-05 20:00 - 21:00 (Pacific/Auckland) | Online
The Andromeda Galaxy Halo – Discoveries from a recent study

Our nearest large spiral galaxy, Andromeda, is surrounded by an immense halo of gas. Recently, a group of astronomers, using the Hubble Space Telescope, studied light from distant quasars to characterise and map this gas out to two million light-years from the galaxy.
Tonight’s online talk by Chris Benton discusses Andromeda and how it relates to The Milky Way galaxy in The Local Group cluster. A review of main galaxy types and their general structure follows along with an overview of quasars and their central role in astronomical studies. A summary of the Andromeda galaxy halo study results then precedes comments on the significance of these new findings.
Join us online to review the basics of galaxies, The Local Group and quasars, followed by current knowledge on the halos of spiral galaxies. See how the inevitable Andromeda-Milky Way galaxy-merger is now underway!

Practical Astronomy/Asrophotography - Imaging Mars
2020-09-21 20:00 - 21:00 | Online
With Mars opposition coming up in mid October, Shaun Fletcher will explain his imaging and processing techniques for the planet Mars.
We have postponed the Planetarium Spring Night Sky review. This will hopefully be able to proceed for the October meeting.

AAS Youtube Channel – Live Monday 21 Sep 8pm

Monthly Meeting September - The Accelerating Universe: A personal journey with Professor Brian J. Boyle
2020-09-14 20:00 - 21:00 | Online
The Auckland Astronomical Society are privileged to host this talk for the September monthly meeting.
Professor Brian J. Boyle.
From my perspective as a team member, I recount the early days of The Supernova Cosmology Project which lead to the discovery of the accelerating Universe in 1998. I discuss the many observational challenges faced and reflect on lessons learned for ambitious projects in a skeptical community.

Now retired and settled in New Zealand, Dr Brian J. Boyle is a Scottish astrophysicist who was based in Australia since 1996. His primary research interests are in the fields of quasars, active galaxies and cosmology.
He was involved in science-direction setting in Australia for over 15 years, contributing the mid-term review in 2000, leading the development of the Australian Astronomy Decadal Plan ] and facilitating the development of the Optical and Radio Astronomy Investment Plan for the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy in 2007.
He was awarded the Centenary Medal for services to Australian Astronomy in 2003 and elected as a fellow of the Australian Academy of Science in 2006.
Boyle was CSIRO SKA Director as well as the Project Director for the Australia–New Zealand SKA bid. In these roles he played a major part both nationally and internationally in the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) program; a project to build the world’s largest cm-wavelength radio telescope.
Some career highlights:
Conceived and built the Australian SKA Pathfinder.
Secured Australia’s co-hosting of the international SKA project.
Awarded Public Service Medal in 2012 Australia Day Honours for this work
Awarded CSIRO Chairman’s medal in 2016.
Conceived and implemented the external Instrumentation program at the AAO.
Positioned AAO as most cited ground-based astronomical telescope in 1998-2003.
Awarded Centenary Medal in 2003 for this work
Founding Member of the Supernova Cosmology Team that discovered cosmic acceleration
– Nobel Prize for Physics awarded to Team Leader (Saul Perlmutter) in 2011.
– Awarded Gruber Prize for Cosmology in 2009.
– Awarded Breakthrough Prize for Fundamental Physics in 2014.

Introduction to Astronomy: Cosmic X-ray Astronomy – Historic Milestones 1960 to 1980
2020-09-07 20:00 - 21:00 | Online
Cosmic X-ray Astronomy – Historic Milestones 1960 to 1980

With Chris Benton
Observations of the universe in X-ray wavelengths with modern technologically advanced observatories is essential to understanding a diverse array of astrophysical objects and processes. Cosmic X-ray astronomy’s rich and early history from the 1960s and 1970s, however, is often neglected. This presentation identifies the pioneers, and principle observatories, technologies and discoveries over this period leading to the Chandra X-ray Observatory and XMM-Newton Observatory that still operate today.
Youtube Link: https://astronomy.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c73059aa79138e65ba47252c7&id=562188951c&e=465980bd9e

Film Night - August - Cancelled due to Covid19
2020-08-24 20:00 | Stardome Observatory, 670 Manukau Rd, Epsom, Auckland, 1345, New Zealand
Cancelled.

Practical Astronomy and Astrophotography Group August - The moon is big, our cameras are small with Stephen Dean.
2020-08-17 20:00 - 21:00 | Online
The moon is big, our cameras are small.
August’s group will be presented by Stephen Dean.
“Taking an image of the Moon with a high focal length telescope and a planetary camera is a great way to get a lot of detail, unfortunately this combination also results in a rather small field of view which makes taking an image of the whole Moon a rather tedious and time consuming process.
Record a video, move the mount, record a video, move the mount… What if this process could be automated?
That’s exactly what “Moon Panorama Maker” does.
MoonPanoramaMaker covers the current Moon phase with an optimal grid of single views and automatically steers the telescope mount and camera during their exposure.
In this talk I’ll be going through the basics of setting up and using Moon Panorama Maker with Firecapture.”

Monthly Meeting August - The Whole Story — 13.8 Billion Years of Expansion and 100 Years of Science in Under an Hour with Professor Richard Easther.
2020-08-10 20:00 - 21:00 | Stardome Observatory, 670 Manukau Rd, Epsom, Auckland, 1345, New Zealand
with Professor Richard Easther.
Cosmology is the scientific study of the origin and evolution of the universe. Modern cosmology began in the 1920s with the discovery of mathematical descriptions of the expanding universe along with the first observational evidence that our universe is – in fact – expanding. So, while the universe seems to be 13.8 billion years old, human beings saw the first hints that it began with Big Bang itself almost 100 years ago. I will give a quick tour of where our understanding of cosmology is today and where it might be heading as the field approaches the end of its first Century. The talk will not be technical.
Professor Easther grew up in New Zealand, and was educated at the University of Canterbury. After graduating with his PhD 1994, he held post-doctoral fellowships at Waseda University in Japan and at Brown and Columbia Universities in the United States.
He was a professor at Yale University from 2004 until the end of 2011, when he returned to New Zealand. He is now professor and Head of the Department of Physics here at the University of Auckland.

Junior Group Meeting - August with Margaret Arthur
2020-08-10 19:00 - 20:00 | Stardome Observatory, 670 Manukau Rd, Epsom, Auckland, 1345, New Zealand
The Junior Group for younger members discusses current topics in space exploration and astronomy.

Introduction to Astronomy - August with Peter Felhofer
2020-08-03 20:00 - 22:00 | Stardome Observatory, 670 Manukau Rd, Epsom, Auckland, 1345, New Zealand
“There is something odd about time” – Albert Einstein
With the understanding that the speed of light is constant for all observers, Einstein conducted one of his famous thought experiments using an imaginary ‘Light clock’ and uncovered the counter intuitive nature of Special Relativity.
In this presentation I review our basis for measuring time and explore how that might be different when leaving the comfort of Earth,before venturing into the strangeness Einstein found and heading toward 2018 where the ‘Light Clock’ became a real and its revelations due to General Relativity.

Practical Astronomy - July
2020-07-27 20:00 - 22:00 | Stardome Observatory, 670 Manukau Rd, Epsom, Auckland, 1345, New Zealand
TBA

Film Night - July - Large Hadron Collider
2020-07-20 20:00 - 22:00 | Stardome Observatory, 670 Manukau Rd, Epsom, Auckland, 1345, New Zealand
In 2019 Ken Hulls organized a guided tour of the Large Hadron Collider and was joined on the visit by Alistair Emerson. The LHC is the most powerful particle accelerator on the planet and uses that power to reproduce energy levels and particle collisions just as they were in the universe seconds after time began. Film Night looks at: the why and how of the LHC doing that, what the LHC has enabled us to discover and just as importantly what are the big questions which remain and how they might be solved. These questions directly relate to our understanding of how the universe evolved and why it is the way it is.

Astrophotography Group July - ASCOM
2020-07-20 19:00 - 20:00 | Stardome Observatory, 670 Manukau Rd, Epsom, Auckland, 1345, New Zealand
The Astrophotography Group discusses the practical aspects of astrophotography.
This session will focus on the vendor independent ASCOM software and how to use it to connect and control your astronomy related devices with a practical demonstration.

Film Night - September - Eye in the Sky
2020-07-19 20:00 - 22:00 | Stardome Observatory, 670 Manukau Rd, Epsom, Auckland, 1345, New Zealand
Eye in the Sky is a documentary about the development of telescopes from the 17th century outlining the discoveries made and the development of specialised photographic techniques and radio astronomy.

Film Night - April Jupiter Revealed
2019-04-22 20:00 - 21:00 | Stardome Observatory, 670 Manukau Rd, Epsom, Auckland, 1345, New Zealand
This months film is a 2018 documentary entitled “Jupiter Revealed” which gives an account of scientists current knowledge on Jupiter and how this has been added to by unmanned space probes, particularly Juno. It contains many interesting facts about the problems of sending spacecraft to this planet and about the importance of studying Jupiter to improving our understanding of the Solar System and its formation.

Practical Astronomy April - Celestial Navigation Basics.
2019-04-15 20:00 - 21:00 | Stardome Observatory, 670 Manukau Rd, Epsom, Auckland, 1345, New Zealand
The aim of the night will be on the basics of celestial navigation.
We will explore:

– Celestial Spheres and Coordinate systems
– Position of the Sun over the year
– Position of the stars over the year
– Navigational techniques

Astrophotography Group - April, PixInsight - A brief intro
2019-04-15 20:00 | Stardome Observatory, 670 Manukau Rd, Epsom, Auckland, 1345, New Zealand
Speaker/Host: Liam Murphy
Liam will introduce the popular astronomical image processing software PixInsight.
The talk will cover linear and non linear processing concepts, workflows and live demonstration of some stretching techniques.

Monthly Meeting - April - The Golden Age of Radio Astronomy
2019-04-08 20:00 - 21:00 | Stardome Observatory, 670 Manukau Rd, Epsom, Auckland, 1345, New Zealand
The Golden Age of Radio Astronomy: Telescopes, Arrays, SKA and Beyond
Sergei Gulyaev is Professor of Astronomy at the Auckland University of Technology and Founding Director of the Institute for Radio Astronomy and Space Research. In his talk Sergei will outline the current status of radio astronomy both as science and technology. New radio telescopes united into intercontinental and global networks, compact arrays of radio telescopes, new instruments in the phases of design or construction – all contribute towards better understanding of objects and processes in the Cosmos. The talk will update on recent discoveries, and on the status of the most ambitious radio astronomy project of our time – the Square Kilometre Array.
The meeting will be followed by supper.
