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Meetings, Activities and News
March
2012 Newsletter 
Secretary Designate
At last we have someone to take the weight off the shoulders of our long serving and overworked Jim Barrowclough. Jonathon Palmer has
volunteered, I think that's the word to use, to take over the secretaryship and has indeed started to do just that. Welcome aboard Jonathon, you have big shoes to fill.
With the kind assistance of the "Weekend Sun" newspaper the Society has commenced a monthly column in that newspaper appertaining to matters astronomical. It will appear in the first issue of each month, hopefully in the printed hard copy, but if space is short it may be relegated to the Sun Live web site. As they say, "watch this space".
AGM
Yes, its time once again, for our Annual General Meeting. It will take place during the public evening of Tuesday 22nd May. The official business
shouldn’t take up too much time. Come along - have your say.
Team plans to stop asteroid from hitting Earth / Size comparison of the planets / Orreries / Measuring star distance / Back page
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| Photograph - Bay of Plenty Times |
Daniel Hughes, from Aquinas College has been selected to attend the distinguished London International Youth Science Forum Programme in August.
Read more... Bay of Plenty Times article, 26 April 2012
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| Mike O'Rourke |
April Meeting
Committee member Mike O'Rourke spoke about "Human Factors in Astronomy".
From his knowledge as an opthalmologist, Mike talked about the anatomy and physiology of the eye. He described the processes involved in dark adaptation and mentioned common eye diseases that can affect sight and night vision in particular.
Society president Toby Tobias mentioned that the interview with Toby Hendy about her trip to the US Space and Rocket centre at Huntsville, Alabama in July, will be shown as part of "The Erin Simpson Show" on Wednesday 18th April 2012 on TV2. Read more ...
March Meeting
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| Photograph - Jonathon Palmer |
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| Photograph - Norm Izett |
Our guest speaker at the March meeting was Norm Izett, president of the Whakatane Astronomical Society. Norm showed a slide show of photos entitled "Fifty Years of Progress - a slideshow from soon after the beginning".
The pictures recorded the history of the Whakatane Astronomical Society and the development of their observatory site.
Earlier in the day he set up the Whakatane Society's 152mm Lunt solar telescope to demonstrate how he has been obtaining photographs of the sun's surface and solar prominences.
January Meeting
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| Wally Gifford (left) shows his Meccano orrery to Society members |
Our January meeting was held at the observatory on Tuesday 24 Jan. Wally Gifford showed his orrery (mechanical solar system model). The model, showing the sun, earth and moon was constructed over the last two months. It is built almost entirely with original Meccano parts, including a genuine Meccano electric motor. He used plans found on the internet, but as these were incomplete, he had to improvise and use his imagination to complete the model.
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| Brian Cox |
After Wally Gifford spoke, Stuart Murray showed the video "Aliens"' from the BBC series "Wonders of the Solar System" presented by Professor Brian Cox.
Professor Cox, the keyboard player for pop band D:Ream turned scientist, has travelled the world for the BBC TV series "Wonders Of The Solar System". In the final episode, "Aliens", he finds life in the most unlikely and inhospitable places. The particle physicist from the University of Manchester explains why it really is possible that we are not alone.
Toby Hendy
Society member Toby Hendy was interviewed recently by TV2 about her trip to the US Space and Rocket centre at Huntsville, Alabama to attend the USA International Space Camp in July. Read more ...
TV2 have notified us the programme is likely to be shown on Wednesday 2 May at 4:30pm
International Starlight Conference
The New Zealand International Starlight conference will take place at Lake Tekapo, New Zealand in June 2012.
The conference will be the third in a series, following meetings in La Palma in April 2007 and on Fuerteventura in March 2009. It will address themes concerning the defence of the quality of the night sky, the right to observe the stars, the heritage of starlight, the issues of light pollution, the protection of observatory sites, the benefits of public outreach in astronomy and the cultural aspects of visual astronomy. Read more ...
November Meeting
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| Gordon Hudson |
On Wednesday 16 November Gordon Hudson presented his lecture on Peter Read - "the People's Astronomer". Gordon spoke about Peter and his time as a young adult with his first telescope through to his last telescope, a 6" Cooke Refractor.
He described Peter’s time with the NZBC presenting "the Night Sky" for eleven years, some of his collections of telescopes and guns, his travels to Antarctica and to the USA, where he visited NASA and watched the Apollo 15 launch. He showed video interviews with Peter Read's two sons Christopher and Adam Read who both live in Australia.
On display were several of Peter’s telescopes, a double star micrometer and many of his paintings and scrapbooks and some of his NASA badges. Also his 16mm original films in canisters. Gordon Hudson is the Carter Observatory 'collections officer' which includes: curator of instruments, archivist, service technician and caretaker of the buildings. He has presented many talks for societies throughout NZ and in Australia and two lecture tours and has become a specialist on the history of the late Peter Read.
September Newsletter:
Local student attends space camp in the USA / TAS receives Trustpower community award / Annual president's report / Deborah Hambly's Skydome observatory Read more ...
September Meeting
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| Dr Jeff Tallon |
Were were fortunate to have internationally renowned and distinguished scientist Dr Jeff Tallon as guest speaker at our 27th September meeting. Dr Tallon, whose awards include the Rutherford Medal and the inaugural Prime Minister's Prize for Science, has gained a world-wide reputation for research, development and commercialization of high-temperature superconductors in many industrial applications.
The topic of Dr Tallon's talk was: "At the crack of dawn - the very early universe". A large audience heard Dr Tallon describe how many of the properties of superconductors are mirrored in the properties of the early universe, in the first instants after the "big bang".
August Meeting
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| Toby Hendy |
Our August meeting was held on Tuesday 23rd. Toby Hendy talked about her exciting trip to the US Space and Rocket centre at Huntsville, Alabama to attend the USA International Space Camp in July. Read more ...
Stuart Murray showed a DVD about four hundred years of telescope making. At the July meeting a video of "Earth's Evil Twin" (the planet Venus) was shown.
AGM
Our AGM was held on the 24th May. Guest speaker was Katikati student, Toby Hendy. She was selected by the Royal Society to go to the US Space and Rocket centre at Huntsville, Alabama to attend the USA International Space Camp in July. Along with Otago Girls’ High School student Lisa Craw, Toby was selected by the Royal Society of New Zealand to attend the event. See the Bay Sun newspaper report: http://www.sunlive.co.nz/news/12692-katikati-space-mission-to-alabama.html President George Stewart presented Toby with a cheque to help her on her travels. George announced he would not be standing for re-election this year. He has been our president for the last four years and the strength and achievements of the Society over this period are a testament to his guidance and hard work.
George's report for the year follows:
"It gives me much pleasure in presenting this Annual Report for the Tauranga Astronomical Society. It has been a year of challenges, great excitement and satisfaction, culminating with the installation of our telescope, just 11 months ago. I would like to pay a compliment to my committee, which has put in an enormous amount of time and effort into getting the observatory fitted out and and operational. The city of Tauranga can be proud of being able to boast of having a modern, up to date observatory, a magnificent telescope and we should continue to make this educational facility available to the wider community. During the year we have tried to maintain a programme of high quality speakers, both live and recorded...covering a wide span of topics involving astronomy, space, and the universe. To celebrate the opening of the observatory in June we were delighted to be able to bring our Patron, Dr Grant Christie, from Stardome Observatory to Tauranga. His address “For Love or Money” gave us a fresh insight into the outstanding work that many talented amateur astronomers in New Zealand are contributing to the discoveries of new planets and galaxies in our universe . In July retired Master Mariner, Captain Tim Wood took us through the exacting science of how he was trained in Celestial Navigation. And In September the curator of instruments for the Carter Observatory in Wellington, Gordon Hudson showed us how he goes about the meticulous work of restoring many ancient telescopes and allied instruments to “as new” condition. This year, in March, Grant Christie returned, with a fascinating talk about “How the first stars were formed” And just last month, astro-photographer John Drummond traveled from Gisborne to show and tell us how he captures his amazing photographs of deep space objects. I am sure you will agree, it’s been a great year and I am so grateful for the time and effort that our guests put into arranging their visits. I would also like to acknowledge the assistance of the Tauranga Community Grants Organisation, COGS, which funded the majority of our guests’ travel and accommodation. And of course during the year we have hosted visits from a number of organisations, including a grants donor - Pakeke and Mount Lions, as well as pupils from both Matua Primary school and Tauranga Intermediate. Next month is already looking extremely busy, with both Matua scouts and Whakamarama pre-schoolers booked to visit. Looking to the future. I would hope that some funding can be arranged by the Otumoetai Sport and Recreation Club to engage an engineer, to improve the acoustics of this hall. The addition of acoustic tiles to the ceiling and walls, along with some heavy drapes over the windows, would go a long way to canceling out the delay and echoes, when we are trying to hear our guests speak ! This is my final year as president, and I am not accepting nomination for the committee. After 4 years in the chair I feel that I have achieved what I set out to do and I strongly believe that its time for some new blood and possibly new directions to lead the Society forward."
George Stewart.