Auckland Astronomical Society

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Welcome to the AAS

Founded in 1923 and now with over 600 members, the Auckland Astronomical Society is one of New Zealand's largest

We are based at the Auckland Observatory and provide for all levels of interest and expertise in astronomy. We are committed to educating our members in the science of astronomy and to keeping them up-to-date with current astronomical developments and discoveries.

The Society members provide voluntary support for the Stardome Observatory public programs.

The New Zealand Astrophotography Competition

2018 NZ Astrophotography Competition Entry Form

2018 NZ Astrophotography Competition Conditions of Entry

Calling all Astrophotographers! The 2018 New Zealand Astrophotography competition is now underway, this year we have changed things up a bit, the first thing you will notice is the new name of the competition, this is to reflect that the competition has now been officially recognized and endorsed by the Royal Astronomical Society of New Zealand, of course contestants will still compete for the highly coveted Harry Williams Trophy which goes to the overall winner of the competition.

This year we are honoured to have Michael A Covington as our judge, Michael is a pioneer of DSLR Astrophotography and is also the author of the text book "Digital SLR Astrophotography" which for a lot of people was the first text book that helped get them started in DSLR Astrophotography, the book was released in 2007 by the Cambridge University Press and the 2nd edition of this book is slated for a 2018 release in November which will contain many updates and revisions, for more information please check out Michael's website here ... http://www.covingtoninnovations.com/dslr/index.html

This year there has been some rule changes so please read over the competition rules carefully.

For this years competition, we are happy to have Optolong Astronomical Filters sponsor the overall winner again with one of their wonderful filters offered as a prize ( filter type yet to be determined ), we are also happy to announce that Astronz will also be sponsoring the competition again with a $300 Astronz gift voucher offered for the winner of the Solar System category, Australian Sky & Telescope have also generously offered to sponsor the competition again with two one year subscriptions to their prestigious magazine for both the Deep Sky and Artistc / Nightscape categories, the Auckland Astronomical Society is also giving each category winner a $200 cash prize, with hopefully more sponsors and prizes to be announced later on, so keep an eye out for updates.

The competition cutoff date is the 25th of August, 2018 and the competition awards will be announced at the annual Burbidge dinner which is the Auckland Astronomical Society's premier annual event, keep an eye out on the society website for details on the forthcoming Burbidge dinner. Looking forward to seeing all your images and wishing you all clear skies.

Upcoming Events

Film Night Sep - The Secrets of Quantum Physics
Monday 24 Sep, 2018 at 20:00Hrs
Venue: Stardome Observatory
Speaker/Host: Alastair Emerson

This Months documentary is:

The Secrets of Quantum Physics

An entertaining and understandable overview of ...more

Film Night Sep - The Secrets of Quantum Physics
Monday 24 Sep, 2018 at 20:00Hrs
Venue: Stardome Observatory

This Months documentary is:

The Secrets of Quantum Physics

An entertaining and understandable overview of quantum physics aimed at non physicists

We will also screen a Sky at Night episode

Death Star – the effects our sun can have on earth.

Burbidge Dinner 2018
Saturday 29 Sep, 2018 at 19:00Hrs
Venue: Ellerslie Events Centre
Speaker/Host: Emily Lakdawalla

Tickets are now available for the 2018 Burbidge Dinner.

Early Bird tickets purchased prior to the end of August will cost $60 per person and after that $65 per person.
    
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Burbidge Dinner 2018
Saturday 29 Sep, 2018 at 19:00Hrs
Venue: Ellerslie Events Centre

Tickets are now available for the 2018 Burbidge Dinner.

Early Bird tickets purchased prior to the end of August will cost $60 per person and after that $65 per person.

The venue will be the Ellerslie Events Center. We will be announcing the results of the Harry Williams Astrophotography competition and the awards for the Beaumont Prize for the best member submitted article to the AAS journal.

The after dinner lecture will be given by the Planetary Society Senior Editor, Emily Lakdawalla.

The Golden Age of the Solar System: Whats Up in Space

Many people think of the glory days of space exploration as being in the past, culminating in Apollo, but we are living in the golden age of planetary exploration right now. Twenty-odd robots are exploring worlds big and small throughout the solar system. Emily will show highlights of current space exploration activities, feature lots of amazing pictures, and explain how you can follow along with these missions every day.

Emily Lakdawalla is an internationally admired science communicator and educator, passionate about advancing public understanding of space and sharing the wonder of scientific discovery. Emily came to The Planetary Society in 2001 to oversee a portion of the Societys Red Rover Goes to Mars project, an education and public outreach program on the Mars Exploration Rover mission funded by LEGO. She ran worldwide contests that selected and trained high school students to travel to Pasadena to participate in rover operations training exercises in 2002 and then in actual Mars Exploration Rover mission operations during January and February of 2005.

She was awarded the 2011 Jonathan Eberhart Planetary Sciences Journalism Award from the Division for Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society for her blog entry about the Phoebe ring of Saturn. Asteroid 274860 was formally named "Emilylakdawalla" by the International Astronomical Union on July 12, 2014. She received an honorary doctorate from The Open University in 2017 in recognition of her contributions in communicating space science to the public.

Monthly Meeting Oct - Seeing the Solar System Through Robot Eyes
Monday 01 Oct, 2018 at 20:00Hrs
Venue: Stardome Observatory
Speaker/Host: Emily Lakdawalla

The Monthly Meeting normally features a talk by a guest speaker. This month is: Emily Lakdawalla

Seeing the Solar System Th ...more

Monthly Meeting Oct - Seeing the Solar System Through Robot Eyes
Monday 01 Oct, 2018 at 20:00Hrs
Venue: Stardome Observatory

The Monthly Meeting normally features a talk by a guest speaker. This month is: Emily Lakdawalla

Seeing the Solar System Through Robot Eyes.

In the last two decades, dozens of spacecraft have explored planets, moons, asteroids, and comets, returning a treasure trove of scientific data. Thanks to generous data release policies and the proliferation of high-speed Internet, the worldwide public has rapid access to huge quantities of spacecraft image data. Skilled amateur image processors produce stunning views of alien places, and represent a valuable and underutilized resource for increasing public support of planetary exploration. Ill present some of the beautiful work being done by these amateurs and discuss ways that they can benefit planetary science.

Emily Lakdawalla is an internationally admired science communicator and educator, passionate about advancing public understanding of space and sharing the wonder of scientific discovery. Emily came to The Planetary Society in 2001 to oversee a portion of the Societys Red Rover Goes to Mars project, an education and public outreach program on the Mars Exploration Rover mission funded by LEGO. She ran worldwide contests that selected and trained high school students to travel to Pasadena to participate in rover operations training exercises in 2002 and then in actual Mars Exploration Rover mission operations during January and February of 2005.

She was awarded the 2011 Jonathan Eberhart Planetary Sciences Journalism Award from the Division for Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society for her blog entry about the Phoebe ring of Saturn. Asteroid 274860 was formally named "Emilylakdawalla" by the International Astronomical Union on July 12, 2014. She received an honorary doctorate from The Open University in 2017 in recognition of her contributions in communicating space science to the public.

BHT Lecture 2018 - Dawn of Gravitational Wave Astronomy
Tuesday 02 Oct, 2018 at 18:30Hrs
Venue: University of Auckland
Speaker/Host: Dr Paul Groot

Beatrice Hill Tinsley 2018 Lecture tour.

The RASNZ Lecture Trust is pleased to announce that Dr. Paul Groot will be the 2018 BHT lecturer. The hosting Societies have put their hands up and ...more

BHT Lecture 2018 - Dawn of Gravitational Wave Astronomy
Tuesday 02 Oct, 2018 at 18:30Hrs
Venue: University of Auckland

Beatrice Hill Tinsley 2018 Lecture tour.

The RASNZ Lecture Trust is pleased to announce that Dr. Paul Groot will be the 2018 BHT lecturer. The hosting Societies have put their hands up and been accepted. Time and venue details will be shown below as they come to hand.

Paul Groot is professor of astronomy at Radboud University, located in Nijmegen, the Netherlands. He obtained his PhD in 1999 at the University of Amsterdam, among others on the first detection of optical afterglows from gamma-ray bursts. After a stay at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics as a CfA fellow he returned to the Netherlands in 2002 to co-found the Department of Astrophysics at Radboud University. He served as chair of the Department from 2006 - 2016 and as chair of the Netherlands Research School for Astronomy (NOVA) from 2012 - 2016. In this role he played a very active role in setting the research and instrumentation strategy for Dutch astronomy. His research is focused on compact binary systems, transients in the Universe and gravitational wave astrophysics. He has a keen interest in astronomical instrumentation, among others as Project Scientist on the VLT X-Shooter spectrograph and Principal Investigator on both the MeerLICHT telescope and the BlackGEM array. He is a member of the Virgo Collaboration for the detection of gravitational wave signals. He is the co-recipient of the 2002 EU Descartes Prize, the 2016 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics and the 2016 Gruber Prize in Cosmology.
Dr. Groots Lecture Title and Synopsis
Dawn of gravitational wave astronomy

The direct detection of gravitational waves by the LIGO and Virgo laser interferometers has opened a completely new field in astrophysics. The merger events of binary black holes and neutron stars have now been detected. The electromagnetic radiation from one event (GW170817) has also been detected in a world-wide effort by thousands of astronomers. After the current upgrades the LIGO/Virgo detectors will detect a gravitational wave signals at a likely rate of one per week. This amazing development also raises many questions and opens up new opportunities: How do these binary black holes form? Where and when were they formed? How do they link to massive stars? Are they really the production site of gold in the Universe. What is the highest and lowest mass black hole? What are neutron stars made up of? Can we find these events even without gravitational wave signals, by looking at short duration transients in the optical sky?

During the lecture I will give a short overview of the amazing results obtained so far and look ahead to the new possibilities for understanding black holes, neutron stars and the violent Universe.

Young Astronomers - Oct
Friday 05 Oct, 2018 at 19:00Hrs
Venue: Stardome Observatory - Matariki Room
Speaker/Host: Margaret Arthur

Young Astronomers is our group aimed for 7-13 year olds.
The session covers a range of current astronomy topics with plenty of Q&A and includes some telescope viewing (weather permitting). ...more

Young Astronomers - Oct
Friday 05 Oct, 2018 at 19:00Hrs
Venue: Stardome Observatory - Matariki Room

Young Astronomers is our group aimed for 7-13 year olds.
The session covers a range of current astronomy topics with plenty of Q&A and includes some telescope viewing (weather permitting).

View Our Other Upcoming Events