Auckland Astronomical Society Inc

Emerging Astronomers - How does a telescope work? And let's look through one.
2025-11-17 19:00 - 20:00 (Pacific/Auckland) | Stardome Observatory & Planetarium, 670 Manukau Road, Epsom, Auckland, 1345
You might have seen or used a telescope, but how do they actually work?
This Monday, we will explore how telescope could make a dot in the sky look much more special like magic.
If the weather is good, we will run the EWB Zeiss telescope half way into the meeting and look at objects such as Saturn, Alpha Centauri, Tarantula nebula and more.
Hope to see you there!

Practical Astronomy November - Telescopes
2025-11-17 20:00 - 21:00 | Stardome Observatory & Planetarium, 670 Manukau Road, Epsom, Auckland, 1345
In this talk, AAS curator of instruments, Steve Hennerley will explain the various types of telescopes, how they were developed and how to use them.

Film Night November 2025
2025-11-24 20:00 - 21:00 | Stardome Observatory & Planetarium, 670 Manukau Road, Epsom, Auckland, 1345
The Planets 25 Years Later : Atmosphere
The atmosphere of the Earth transforms our planet into our world. The great cycles of the gases of the air and water allow us to understand that home.
To understand the planets, we need to understand their atmospheres. We start with the venture of the late Col. Joe Kittinger, who travelled to space without needing a rocket, under an ultra-high atmosphere balloon.
Mikhail Lomonosov discovered the atmosphere of Venus during a rare transit. Soviet exploration of Venus needed to pressure-cook the Venera planetary probes, making them tougher than battle-tanks, so as to survive landing, and take the first photos on its overpowering atmospheric conditions, and the unending lighting of the ‘Veneran Electric Dragon’
Dave Grinspoon (who writes for Sky & Telescope every once in a while, and got asteroid 22410 named after him recently) introduces us to the nature of the atmospheres of other planets, moving through Venus,
to Mars. Andy Ingersoll discusses the Ecosphere of a star, and then turns to the Gas Giants. Dr. Alvin Seiff has in turn designed Galileo’s atmospheric probe of Jupiter’s clouds.
Saturn is next, with the coming exploration by Cassini, and the moon Titan, the only moon in our Solar System with its own thick atmosphere.

Since 1999, there have been many developments in understanding the atmospheres of the planets and moons of our Solar Systems, and the exoplanets beyond:

Huygens has landed on Titan, and the atmospheric conditions are now well described.
We know a lot more about the great cycles of Venus’ atmosphere
We have been able to confirm the comet-like tails of planets like Venus, where the atmosphere is being stripped away by solar winds.
With the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope, it is now possible to sample those ‘tails’ by IR Spectroscopy, and measure their content.
In some cases, we can even detect if those atmospheres contain bio-markers for those present in the Ecosphere of their parent stars.

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Introduction to Astronomy December 2025
2025-12-01 20:00 - 21:00 | Stardome Observatory, 670 Manukau Rd, Epsom, Auckland, 1345, New Zealand
Annual Fun Quiz Night!
As we approach the end of the year, it’s time for our annual quiz. We’ll have fun reflecting on topics covered over 2025, including the search for exoplanets and extraterrestrial life, the Vera Rubin Observatory, lunar science and the Apollo moon landings, stellar and exoplanetary spectroscopy, and NASA’s Clipper mission to Europa. Most importantly, there are loads of yummy 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 fun reviewing and learning the main points from our regular sessions.
We look forward to seeing you all there, ready for chocolate!
This meeting will also be live-streamed on the AAS YouTube channel.
https://www.youtube.com/c/AucklandAstronomicalSociety

Emerging astronomers - Scavenger hunt & quiz
2025-12-08 19:00 - 20:00 | Stardome Observatory & Planetarium, 670 Manukau Road, Epsom, Auckland, 1345
Are you ready for a recap of this year?
This month, we’re launching a scavenger hunt based on the topics we tackled this year.
Let’s work together, solve cosmic clues, and race the clock.
After that, be sure to bring your devices for a Kahoot.There’s something for the top team!
Don’t miss it, this is the final emerging astronomers meeting of the year!

Monthly Meeting December - The Modern Epicycles of Cosmology
2025-12-08 20:00 - 21:00 | Stardome Observatory & Planetarium, 670 Manukau Road, Epsom, Auckland, 1345
Cosmology is in crisis. We know very little about dark energy and dark matter, two things that cosmologists believe
are fundamental to the Universe and integral to the standard model of cosmology. With each new set of high-
precision observation, disagreements between data and the standard model grow. This year experiments like the
DESI survey have cast doubt on the nature of dark energy and how the Universe changed over time. Now the lead-
ing suggestions are that the strength of dark energy changes with time, adding yet more mystery to the phenome-
na. While these new models fit the data, are they true, or are they adding more complexity to a flawed concept? In
this talk we will explore the current landscape of cosmology and question the foundational assumptions of modern
cosmology.
Dr Ryan Ridden is a Rutherford Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Canterbury. His research is fo-
cused in the time domain of astronomy and covers a wide range of topics including supernovae, solar system ob-
jects, exoplanets, active galaxies, and cosmology. Ryan is leading the international Cosmic Cataclysms Collabora-
tion, using space telescope data to search for the fastest explosions and variable objects in the Universe. Earlier this
year Ryan was part of a collaboration which used supernova data to test models of the Universe that did not use
dark energy. Alongside research, Ryan has engaged in public outreach and education, frequently giving public lec-
tures and mentoring future scientists.

Practical Astronomy December - The Summer Night Sky
2025-12-15 20:00 - 21:00 | Stardome Observatory & Planetarium, 670 Manukau Road, Epsom, Auckland, 1345
This will be one of our seasonal Planetarium sessions. We will use the Planetarium to explore the Summer Night Sky. This is a great way to improve your knowledge of the Summer constellations and learn about some of the deep sky objects to be found in them.
