Mt. Stromlo Public Astronomy Night

Mount Stromlo Observatory in conjunction with the Canberra Astronomical Society invite the Canberra community to attend our public observing nights of 2018. Come and see the rings of Saturn, the craters of the moon, and beautiful star clusters and nebulae. On the night attendees will be taken on a ‘tour of the universe’ with talks by astronomers from Mt. Stromlo Observatory and observations on several telescopes.

Dr. Anais Möller is a cosmologist interested in understanding one of the biggest mysteries of our Universe, the nature of Dark Energy. Dr. Möller studies the effect of dark energy in our Universe using exploding stars called type Ia supernovae. She is currently leading the SkyMapper Transient Survey in Australia while working in other international collaborations such as the Dark Energy Survey. She is interested in citizen science and with the SkyMapper team launched a citizen science project, Supernova Sighting, where everybody could contribute to the discovery of supernovae.

Dr David Gozzard is an experimental physicist working to develop new technologies for astronomy and space science. Before coming to ANU David worked on the Square Kilometre Array, a radio telescope designed to study the furthest reaches of the Universe. David now works at the ANU node of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Engineered Quantum Systems where he is developing laser systems for navigation and communication with space craft.

Ryan Ridden-Harper came from the distant lands of New Zealand to do a PhD in astrophysics at the ANU. His research is focused on detecting stars exploding millions of light years away with space telescopes and telescopes dangling from high altitude balloons.

Bookings are essential and entry is by gold coin donation. Warm clothing is recommended. The café will also be open to serve food and drink.

In the event of cloudy/bad weather, stargazing will be cancelled (the talks will occur regardless of the weather). You can check out the weather at Mt Stromlo using our all sky camera. We will also post updates on our Facebook page.

2018 Dates: 20 April, 18 May, 15 June, 13 July, 17 August, and 14 September.