Auckland Astronomical Society Inc

Film Night - August - Cancelled due to Covid19
2020-08-24 20:00 (Pacific/Auckland) | 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.
