It's Easter Sunday at NACAA 2016. University of Sydney Law Building. I'm in Lecture Theatre 104 waiting for Murray Forbes to spruik on 3D printing and astronomy.
A good crowd, around 40 people.
David O'Driscoll is advising on evac procedures. Follow the person in front, out the door and down to the coffee shop.
Now on to DSLR photometry of variable stars in Centaurus and Scorpius, by Roy Axelsen of the AAQ and recipient of the Bereniece and Arthur Page Medal for 2016.
He gets flat fields by using a sheet of white perspex over the front of the C9.25 at dawn. Seems almost too easy !
Regards,
Tony Barry
WSAAG
Last edited by tonybarry; 27-03-2016 at 10:03 AM.
Reason: Typo, more info on the targets
The lecture theatre is filling up - maybe fifty people. More women than I've ever seen at an astro event. Yes. There are women in astronomy. Even more than what Peter discusses.
Ah. Steve was discussing the Indonesian eclipse. Trials and tribulations (and expense) of eclipse chasing. The scuba diving is some kind of inside joke to avoid bad mojo following the presentation.
David Dunham speaking on Gaia's mission, an eclipse, a lunar occultation and an asteroidal occultation from 1970 on. This stuff was done when these things were not commonly done. David wrote the first programs to predict such events. Riveting.
Dave Herald from Canberra - Overview of asteroidal occultations 2015.
The Big Story from Gaia - accuracy of predictions for asteroidal occs improve enormously.
The Lucky Star project from Paris Observatory - finding TNOs and tracking the big things out there. P9 from Brown and Batygin ? No answers as yet.
David Dunham reporting on an observation of Venus in occultation last year, seeking to elucidate the ashen light. Using video cameras the event was examined to see if there is any actual ashen light - or if the phenomenon is illusory.
Hi Tony,
I've just been reading through all your updates, very enjoyable and entertaining especially the Scuba one . Great job .
Steve has been into scuba diving for years. This year he decided to combine a diving trip with the eclipse trip so he would at least get to see some unbleached coral even if the eclipse was a fizzer. Referring to only the scuba diving is the continuation of the very old joke about astronomers attracting cloud and rain. Back in the mesolithic, when Steve and I were young, we were members of the same astronomy club. The club had it's own observatory and so the youth section organised 'Observing Weekends', where it inevitably rained. So they were renamed to 'Social Weekends' to fool the weather gods. That failed. So they we took to discussing them as 'Hermit Wednesdays'. It still poured. None-the-less we still pretend to believe that not openly discussing upcoming astronomical events increases the chance of good weather. We've outgrown the chicken entrails, ritual dances and metaloid demi-gods.
. Great job 
.
