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Astronomy Aotearoa shortlisted for book design award
22 May 2008
The Book Publishers Association of New Zealand (BPANZ) has announced their shortlist for the BPANZ Book Design Awards 2008. Astronomy Aotearoa is one of three titles nominated in the Educational Book category.
The list is dominated by beautiful books with
eco-friendly themes and a social conscience. The judges had a tough time narrowing
the field to just twelve titles,
and this was a process not without conflict, with a few books´ inclusion
splitting the team of three judges led by New Zealand Listener´s Guy Somerset.
They were looking for "the complete package: the book whose insides matched
their outside for the thought and care that had gone into them, striving for
something a little bit different, or a little bit better".
More info at bpanz.org.nz/.
Winners to be announced in July 2008.
More information on can be found on the Pearson Education New Zealand website:www.astronomyaotearoa.net/.
Palindrome promo online
21 March 2008Bonnevue Pictures has published a promotional video on Palindrome, which can be viewed online at bonnevuepictures.com/promo.html.
Astrophoto Competition: Deadline extended to 30 April 2008
19 March 2008/updated 31 March 2008
In celebration of the upcoming 2009 International Year of Astronomy, the
Oregon Museum of Science and Industry´s Kendall Planetarium is sponsoring an
astronomy photo contest. Winning astronomy photos will be published in
OMSI´s 2009 Kendall Planetarium astronomy calendar.
More information: http://www.omsi.edu/misc/astrocontest/.
Note: Contest deadline extended to 30 April 2008.
Gisborne Observatory clean-up
18 March 2008The Gisborne Herald reports ona major clean-up at Gisborne´s James Cook Observatory in preparation of IYA 2009. See online article.
Jules Verne monitored from Awarua
09 March 2008When the European Space Agency (ESA) launched their first Automated Transfer Vehicles (ATV) Jules Verne from Kourou in French Guiana, a tracking station in Awarua in the Southland region of New Zealand was monitoring the vehicle´s progress. The Southland region is quickly establishing itself as a southern centre of Radio Science.
New Zealand Film to celebrate IYA2009
28 February 2008
Bonnevue Pictures is producing Palindrome, which will be
the official motion picture event for New Zealand´s contribution
to the International Year of Astronomy 2009.
For a short description and information on the film makers visit
bonnevuepictures.com /movies.html.
New Solar System Found
15 February 2008An international collaboration including a number of New Zealand based scientist has published a paper of their discovery of a planetary system with two gas giants comparable Jupiter and Saturn in the Solar System. This discovery (OGLE-2006-BLG-109) dates back to March/April 2006. The paper titled Discovery of a Jupiter/Saturn Analog with Gravitational Microlensing appeared today in Science Vol. 319, no. 5865, pp. 927 - 930. A free copy of the paper is accessible at arxiv.org/pdf/0802.1920 [205 KB PDF].
Partial Solar Eclipse
07 February 2008
A partial solar eclipse will be visible from New Zealand (weather permitting)
in the late afternoon of Thursday, 7 February. There will be several events
to facilitate safe viewing of this phenomenon. For details please refer to
the entries on our Events page.
The Wellington crowd (Image: RI)
Colander pinholes (Credit: RI) Near maximum (Credit: Ron Fisher)
www.astronomy.net.nz
www.skyhigh-photography.com/Main/Sun_and_moon.php
www.pbase.com/image/92642770
www.flickr.com/photos/spaceman8815/
www.totalwebsolutionz.co.nz/zeissnut/pictures-animation-eclipse.html
Careering through Astronomy
10 January 2008
A presentation by Professor Jocelyn Bell Burnell facilitated by the
Royal Society of New Zealand in Wellington on the 24 January 2008.
For details please visit the Events page.
Professor Bell Burnell talking in Wellington (Images Credit: Roland Idaczyk)
New Year´s Honours for Professor Yasushi Muraki
01 January 2008
The Queen has been pleased, on the occasion of
the celebration of the New Year,
to make the following Honorary appointment, to
The New Zealand Order of Merit:
M.N.Z.M.
To be an Honorary Member of the said Order:
Professor Yasushi MURAKI, of Kobe, Japan.
For services to astrophysics.
Dated at Wellington this 31st day of December 2007.
DIANE MORCOM, Secretary and Registrar, The New Zealand Order of Merit.
Professor Yasushi Muraki on Mount John (Image Credit: Takashi Sako)
Dark Energy without Dark Energy
27 December 2007
Dr David Wiltshire (University of Canterbury, Christchurch) has published a
paper on Dark Energy (
arxiv.org/abs/0712.3984).
Read Marilyn Head´s
article on David Wiltshire.
UN proclaims IYA 2009
20 December 2007The 62nd General Assembly of the United Nations proclaimed 2009 the International Year of Astronomy. Please refer to the IAU press release.
The Point saved for now
21 September 2007
The Environment Court ruled today against the development of a marine education
centre at Te Rae Kai Hau Point, a prominent Wellington dark spot on the wild
Cook Straight coast. This concludes the year-long effort of a group of concerned
citizens, Save the Point, strongly supported by local residents and a number
of local astronomers around Vicky Irons and Paul Moss.
Save the Point are facing a huge legal bill and are contuining their
fundraising by selling their popular calendar and T-shirts. Please see the
Save
the Point web site for more information.
Discovery of Comet P/2007 Q2 (Gilmore)
22 August 2007
On 22 August 2007, Alan C. Gilmore of Mount John University Observatory discovered
a periodic comet of approximately 18th magnitude and slowly fading. Alan Gilmore comments:
I´m as surprised as anyone at the discovery. I noted an unlisted asteroid when I
was searching for an object (xy1125) on the NEO (Near Earth Object) confirmation page (NEO CP).
It was moving north-south where the target object was more east-west. I Reported it as
MJO181 then followed it up again two nights later so it would get a provisional
designation. Didn´t think anything more about it until I got a note from
Brian Marsden of the Minor Planet Center. He assumed that I had seen the orbit
was cometary and asked if I could see a coma in the 1-m images. It was only from places with
better seeing that the coma was noticed. Observers with 1-m telescopes at Siding Spring
in Australia and Guangzhou in China were able to see the faint fuzz around the star-like
nucleus, showing the object was indeed a comet. It´s not a bright comet -- in fact
it´s probably one of the faintest discovered! -- but it´s nice that it is periodic.
It returns to the sun every 13 years.
The discovery was reported in the IAU Circular
IAUC 8865 (subscription required for this link!).
Ephemeris data available at MPEC 2007-Q43 (free access).
Total Lunar Eclipse visible from NZ
28 August 2007
The first total eclipse for New Zealand since the year 2000 can be observed on Tuesday, 28 August 2007.
Details are available at the RASNZ web site. Observation events are held, among others,
at Wellington´ Te Rae Kai Hau Point (see Paul Moss´ web site for event details) and in Gisborne (see
John Drummond´s
Possum Observatory).
Southern Astronomy stamps
06 June 2007
NZ Post has just issued a wonderful edition of southern sky stamps featuring images by New Zealand
astrophotographers and telescopes. The release date was timed to welcome in the Māori New Year, Matariki,
the Māori name for the Pleiades. An accompanying booklet, written by Associate Professor Peter Cottrell
of the University of Canterbury, explains the images and details the background to the telescopes and
their observatories. The booklet and stamps can be purchased online at
the New Zealand Post web site until June 2008 or while stocks last.
StarLight Reserve - the World´s First Heritage Dark Sky Park
05 May 2007
The StarLight Reserve project is a project to obtain UNESCO recognition and protection for the dark skies
in the Tekapo region and above Mt John Observatory. The project was the brainchild of Graeme Murray,
director of Earth Sky Limited who, together with others in New Zealand´s astronomical and conservation
communities, has sought support from the World Heritage Committee of UNESCO. Following a favourable response
to Graeme´s initial presentation to UNESCO in April 2006, the Committee met in Christchurch 2007.
Support from the New Zealand government is also being called for and it is hoped to bring the proposal to
fruition by 2009, the International Year of Astronomy.
Read the article Return to the Dark Side by Rebecca Greatrex in The Listener.
Facilitated by
The Royal Astronomical Society of New Zealand (RASNZ)
Supported by
The Royal Society of New Zealand
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The Royal Astronomical Society of New Zealand
The Royal Society of New Zealand
International Astronomical Union