Archive for category: Events

Outreach Team Finishes a Huge August Program

The Outreach team had a massive month of events in August 2019. Nearly half the month had something on! We did: 7 scout groups 2 interest groups (adults) 1 private booking 1 Public Viewing night 1 Fashion shoot 1 Film shoot for Prof. Alan Duffy 2 off-site events – one at McCleland Sculpture Park and one at Coolart Homestead as part of Science in the Park on August 11th. Thank you all those Outreach members who turned up and made an effort. Some of us also had Young Observers, two committee meetings, Science Week, the Pro-Am workshop, the work bee and Friday night members nights! Whew! If some of us are looking a little tired at the moment, now you know why.

Telescopes offsite at McCleland Sculpture Park

At Coolart Homestead for Science in the Park

Our activity sheets all ready for Science in the Park

Part of our Moon exhibition at Coolart Homestead.

The fashion shoot!

Neil Creek does a quick lesson on image processing for a photography group.

Looking at Jupiter through thin cloud with the 18″ telescope.

Peter shows some scouts how a Dobsonian works.

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Australians Have a Chance to Name a Star and Exoplanet

As part of the 100thAnniversary celebrations of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) every country in the world is being given the chance to name their own star and an orbiting exoplanet. This is the IAU100 Name ExoWorlds project. The star chosen for Australia to name is currently known by its catalogue number HD 38283. It is a 7thmagnitude yellow-white dwarf star in the constellation of Mensa, the Table Mountain. At that magnitude, this star is not visible to the unaided eye. Mensa contains part of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) within its boundaries, which is the largest satellite galaxy to our own Milky Way, but HD 38283 is definitely within the Milky Way, lying only 125 light years away. By comparison the LMC is 180,000 light years distant. Mensa is named after Table Mountain at the Cape of Good Hope on the southern tip of Africa. The misty star cloud of the LMC is reminiscent of the cloud that often sits atop the real mountain at the cape. The exoplanet, currently designated HD 38283 b, is a gas giant type planet with 0.4 times the mass of Jupiter. It orbits the star at roughly the same distance as the Earth does the Sun (1.02 AU) and in 363.2 Earth days. There are several rules to be considered in naming the star and exoplanet, and these can be accessed via the competition website. Since it is also the International Year of Indigenous Languages, speakers of Australian Indigenous languages are encouraged to submit names. Website: name-exoplanet.net.au Contact Information: James Murray exoplanets@mbo.org.au m: 0409703929  
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MBO Visits the Avalon Air Show

Two days, thousands of people, lots of very loud planes… and MBO! Our team of Jacquie, Peter, Romy and Tony did a wonderful job over the two days. MBO was invited by the State Government to join their pavilion and what an opportunity to showcase what we do best! James      
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Science Week 2012

2012 was the first opportunity for MBO to participate in National Science Week, and we did it by running a series of public lectures at the observatory in association with the ARC Centre of Excellence for All-Sky Astrophysics (CAASTRO). We were very lucky to have 5 enthusiastic and knowledgeable researchers from CAASTRO come out to Emerald to speak. An on-going feature of MBO has been our close ties with Melbourne’s astronomy research community which has both inspired young members of our community to pursue astronomy as a career but also allowed researchers to share their excitement about their subject.

The program was

Monday 13th August: Professor Warrick Couch (Swinburne)

“ELTs: the next generation of very large optical/infrared telescopes”

Tuesday 14th August: Stefan Oslowski (Swinburne)

“Pulsars – clocks in space”

Wednesday 15th August: Dr David Lagattuta (Swinburne)

“Holding up a (gravitational) lens to the Universe”

Thursday 16th August: Dr Edward Taylor (University of Melbourne)

“The cosmic perspective”

Friday 17th August: Professor Stuart Wyithe (University of Melbourne)

“The first galaxies”

It was also the opportunity for Bendigo Bank to present MBO a cheque for $2295 to purchase some Dobsonian telescopes to create our Astronomy classroom. Those telescopes are still in use and have been used to introduce thousands of people to astronomy.

Introducing Bendigo Bank to the dome
Alfred Klink thanks Stuart Wyithe
Warrick Couch introduces ELTs
The certificate marking the Bendigo bank grant for our portable telescopes
Stefan Oslowski introduces pulsars as clocks
The audience fascinated by Stefan’s talk
Professor Warrick Couch, Director of AAO
Professor Warrick Couch talks about ELTs
The Wednesday night audience at MBO
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