Hi All,
The Dept of Physics at Wollongong Uni offer a subject called '
Astronomy - Concepts of the Universe' which provides a non-mathematical introduction to astronomy. Most students taking the course are from a non-physics, even non-science background and they take it to do something different to the rest of their degree - something to broaden their education. As part of the course students get to spend a night on an observing field performing various tasks.
The observing night was held last Saturday at the WAAC observing area at Jerrara and they provided the majority of the telescopes (along with a few ring-ins like myself). The 200 students attending appeared to enjoy themselves, some very much so. I was there with a visual scope which spent the night looking at the Jewel Box; part of their assignment was to sketch the Jewel Box and identify the red super-giant. At the far end of the field were the imaging scopes, including some quite nice rigs, where the students got to see data capture first-hand. I believe some of the images captured on the night will be used in other student assignments.
All in all this was a very successful night which was fun to attend and raised the profile of astronomy, including amateur astronomy. My congratulations to the organisers and all the participants.
