| Stardate 2009 Review |
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Stardate 2009, a review The weather was dry and hot in the Hawkes Bay. The camp was buzzing already on the Thursday afternoon with people wandering around setting themselves up. Many had arrived the day before and managed to get in a good night’s observing which as it turned out to be was the best of all the nights there.There was a planetary theme running through presentations. Richard Hall started the ball rolling by talking about the search and conditions for finding life on other planets while David Sabiston talked about the importance of the Earth’s magnetism for life on our planet. Grant Christie gave a detailed account on the different techniques of finding extrasolar planets and John Drummond talked about his own and other NZer’s work in the search for other planets. But the highlight was Jennie McCormick’s presentation on juggling her daily routine of life as well as her nocturnal activities of being an amateur astronomer in a backyard observatory in the middle of the large city of Auckland. Yet she was making a remarkable scientific contribution to the discovery of new worlds thousands of light years away. Astrophotography was another theme with John Burt and Chris Picking giving presentations. John Drummond gave an overview of some of the most stunning and amazing photos taken by members of the RASNZ Astrophotography Section. With patience and modern digital photography astrophotographers are turning out images that not too long ago you would have thought came from the Hubble space telescope or some very large earth bound telescope. Ancient astronomy played another theme with a presentation on Celtic astronomy by Kay Leather and Gary Sparks talked and showed images of his trip to Peru looking at some of the Incan and pre-Incan astronomical sites. We also had historical accounts on the life of Galileo by Geoff Dobson and Carolyn Herschel by John Drummond, his 3rd presentation at Stardate. Charles Messier himself (aka Deborah Hambly), dressed in the attire of his day and with a French accent gave an account of his life and discoveries of what are now known as the Messier objects. Other presentations included an excellent talk on introductory optics for telescopes by Murray Forbes as well as Richard Hall’s exploration of the Moon, its origins and influence on human civilisation. Graham Palmer talked about the Hawkes Bay Society‘s building of a dark sky observatory at Pukerangi which, if all goes well, may be on the tour card for next year’s Stardate. Vicki Irons explored the connection between art, literacy and astronomical knowledge. Ian Cooper displayed some spectacular auroral images in his presentation about the upcoming and past solar cycles. Antony Gomez talked about the search for dark matter with neutrino telescopes and whether time can run backwards in other universes. 2009 is the International Year of Astronomy celebrating both 400 years since Galileo first looked through his telescope and the 40th anniversary of the first Moon landing. Jennie McCormick talked about her role as the international coordinator of the 100 Hours of Astronomy project set for early April and the many events being held during this time. Stardate 2009 was a successful start to IYA, one of the biggest we have held with over 100 people attending and the most number of presentations presented over the 4 days. There were many that were there for the first time including at least 3 babies under the age of one. A number of students from the local colleges attended for the first time too and hope to be back next year. There were new innovations on display at the Telescope trail as well as some of the familiar scopes of past years. However the best looking one was Ian Cooper’s TARDIS, the blue police box equipped with a blue flashing light painted up by Rhiannon McNish, also a first timer to Stardate. The warm weather was a bonus with many young and not so young frequenting the Tukituki river to cool down as well as trips to Splash Planet and Ocean Beach. Deliciously sweet peaches were supplied from a neighbouring orchard and several hundred sausages were barbequed to feed the masses. All and all a wonderful atmosphere and start to 2009, with everyone catching up with old friends, making new ones and looking forward to next year’s Stardate. ********* This year was my first Stardate and I definitely had a good time. The area is perfect to bring children along to with a good river real close and nice people everywhere. I brought my friend with me and we had an awesome time. We went swimming everyday and met some really nice people. We were never short of something to do, as the grounds were really cool with lots of open space. The best things to do there would have had to have been playing with the Areobie a type of soft frisbee that goes for miles, but we were kind of limited on that front because of all the telescopes, but we only ever hit one telescope and luckily we didn’t do any damage. Another cool thing to do at the campsite was to go swimming in the Tukituk River. My mate and I found Gary’s sunglasses in the river and he gave us $20 each. He showed us a cool swimming hole that was way over our heads, but there were also shallows for my little sisters to swim in. Mum also took us to the National Aquarium in Napier and Splash Planet in Hasting, which was really cool. But by far the best thing we did was meet a lot of really nice people and make some great friends. So if you are thinking of bringing you kids to Stardate it’s an awesome opportunity and I’m looking forward to meeting them next year. Jamie Vallance age 13 |
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