Astronomy Programs

[Shnoz (Sophie)]

Hi peoples

I'm doing the Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award at the moment and I need to spend a week (five days) away from home doing something constructive. Because I like astronomy I figured I might as well do something around that. Does anyone have any ideas on what I could do?

[Rhino1980 (Ryan)]

A trip to Coonabarabran to learn about the Siding Spring Observatory would be first on my list.

[renormalised (Carl)]

It really all depends on what equipment you have, but the sky's the limit. Tell us what you've got and we can figure out what you can do

Another thing you can do is have a talk with one of the universities that has an observatory and see if you can do a week as a cadet observer.

[Shnoz (Sophie)]

I've got a 15cm aperture newtonian reflector on a computerised eq-mount. (It took me forever to save up for it!)
I haven't heard about being a cadet observer before. Is that spending however long at an observatory and learning how to be an astronomer?

Siding Springs would be cool to get into, but I'm not sure if they do any work experience (or cadet observing). I've emailed them, but they said they don't have any programs running for high schoolers any more.