2008 National Science week

[Sharnbrook (Mike)]

Good Morning All,

Last night, I went to a film presentation and seminar in Brisbane given by a Peter McLeish, who is a Canadian Artist with a science background, who works in collaboration with scientists and NASA to provide an artistic rendition of scientific phenomena, especially in relation to Red Sprites.
It was unfortunately not well attended, probably due to Olympimania, which was a pity, because his first film was most interesting, and would appeal to most astronomers, especially as it give another string to the bow of Astrophotographers on stormy nights. He believes that a high speed video set-up, such as is used for planetary observing, could possibly record red sprites over thunderstorms

He is continuing his lecture tour over the next couple of days in Canberra, Sydney, and Adelaide, details here and I would recommend his presentation to anyone with an interest in Atmospherics. The presentation takes about 90 minutes.

[drmorbius (Randall)]

Sounds like it would have been interesting Mike. How did you hear about it in the first place?

[Sharnbrook (Mike)]

Our Club Secretary had been sent the details by QUT who were sponsoring the event, and she circulated them to all members of SEQAS. I registered, and went along. As it is National Science Week, I'm surprised more people didn't know about it. It really was a worthwhile evening, (well 90 minutes)

Out of interest, how many other people have heard of, or been to the seminar? Peter McLeish has spoken at just about every major centre in SE Australia, and it would have been a pity if there were only 15 attendees at each of the venues. (Actually at the published start time, there were only 4 people present, but I think a few Museum employees were press ganged into attending, and the talk started 20 minutes late.) Given that it is National Science week, it would be an embarrassment to the organisers, and an insult to the speaker if that had happened everywhere.