RASNZ Conference 2010 May 28 to 30
The 2010 conference will be held in Dunedin hosted by the Dunedin Astronomical Society who will
be celebrating the 100th anniversary of their foundation. You are invited to join us to mark
the event.
Conference Venue
 |
 |
| Otago Museum |
Hutton Theatre |
The venue for the conference is the
Otago Museum using
the Hutton Theatre. For more information about the venue follow the links to "about us" -
"facilities hire" - "facilities photo gallery" or go directly to:
facility pictures and information. The Hutton Theatre promises to be an
excellent conference venue, with plenty of seating room and room for poster displays. The
conference dinner will be held in the atrium at the museum.
The after dinner speaker is Michael Stedman, chief executive of Natural History New Zealand.
Michael will talk about the history of the unit and some of the projects the unit has in the
pipeline.
Accommodation for the Conference
There is plenty of accommodation available within a very short walking distance of the
conference venue. Information of some suitable locations is on the
LOC information page
Invited Speaker
This year's invited speaker will be Dunedin born
Dr Stuart Ryder
who is the Australian Gemini Scientist, managing the Australian Gemini Office hosted by the
Anglo-Australian Observatory in Sydney. Stuart will be presenting two talks over the
conference weekend, to conference attendees as invited speaker on Saturday and a more general
talk open to the public on Sunday.
Stuart grew up in Dunedin and first joined the Dunedin Astronomical Society in 1981 while
attending Kings High School. He spent the next 5 years helping out at public nights at the
Beverly Begg Observatory. Together with Mervyn Thomas he experimented with hypersensitised film
for astrophotography on the observatory's 30cm Newtonian reflector. In 1986 he moved to
Christchurch to pursue an Honours degree in astronomy at the University of Canterbury, followed
by a PhD in astronomy at the Mt Stromlo Observatory in Canberra. After postdoctoral stints in
Alabama, Sydney, and Hawaii he joined the staff of the Anglo-Australian Observatory in 1999 and
currently heads the Australian Gemini Office. Stuart's research interests embrace star birth and
death, using optical, infrared, and radio telescopes to study star formation in spiral galaxies
as well core-collapse supernovae.
The title of Stuart's invited talk is
"Supernovae Revealed by Gemini".
Dr Ryder writes "The twin 8 metre Gemini telescopes in Hawaii and Chile provide a range of
instruments ideally suited to the study, and even the discovery of supernovae. I shall begin by
describing our findings about Supernova 2001ig, which seems to have had a massive binary
companion. I shall also present our discovery of Supernova 2008cs, the first supernova ever
found using the cutting edge technology of laser guide star adaptive optics."
For his second talk, Dr. Ryder has chosen the title
"CSI Supernova".
He writes "Astronomers who study exploding stars, or 'supernovae', are a lot like police forensic
investigators. Alerted to a death in the neighbourhood, they train their telescopes on the scene
of the explosion to try and learn more about the star that died; how they died; whether there
were other victims, accomplices, or survivors; and perhaps even relive the events leading up to
the star's demise. In this talk I will explain how astronomers are using some of the largest
telescopes in the world to understand more about the violent deaths of the most massive stars."
Fellow's Lecturer
The fellows lecture will be given by Bill Allen, FRAS, FRASNZ who has a long association with
the Dunedin Astronomical Society. Bill's home site near Blenheim hosts the new 0.6m Yock-Allen
Telescope at the BOOTES-3 Observatory.
Bill's title is:
"50 Years as an Amateur Astronomer"
Bill writes: "I first became interested in astronomy while at school; however while studying for
an electrical engineering degree I joined the Canterbury Astronomical Society and helped
establish the West Melton Observatory. My first telescope was a 6 inch f6 Newtonian. The Fellows
talk will cover my experiences from this early beginning to the present day, the people I have
met, the telescopes I have built, the observatories I have visited and some of the observations
I have made, including my introduction to photoelectric photometry at the Beverly Begg
Observatory."
After Dinner Speaker
The after dinner speaker will be Michael Stedman, who is currently managing director of
Natural History New Zealand.
Michael started out as a film editor before moving into directing and producing. He has more
than 1000 credits as director and producer in a diverse range of television genres and has
produced over 1500 hours of television programs.
In 1979 he was appointed Executive Producer of New Zealand's Natural History Unit, where he
initiated a children's wildlife series. After a spell in Australia, Michael returned to
New Zealand in 1987 to head the Unit which has become the
world's second largest producer of wildlife programming and the largest producer of factual
programming in the southern hemisphere. The unit became Natural History New Zealand in 1997
and has a base in Dunedin. The company's productions now encompass science, medicine, adventure
and people as well as wildlife.
Michael is a current board member on the New Zealand Screen Council. In 2004 he was awarded
an ONZM for services to the industry and a year later received an Honorary Doctorate (Laws)
from Otago University.
Call for conference papers
Offers to present papers at the conference are now requested. Notice of an intention to give
a paper with a title should be sent to the
scientific conference committee
as soon as possible. Further details regarding lengths of papers, plus closing dates for
abstracts and submitting final papers are on the
submission form.
Members and other are invited to give tasks about the astronomical observing they have
been doing and the results obtained. Talks are normally have a 20 minute duration and may
be scheduled at any time during Saturday or Sunday.
Taieri Gorge Scenic Train trip
The LOC has arranged for a group booking on the Taieri Gorge train on the Friday afternoon of
conference. The return time leaves plenty of time for a meal before conference. More details
are on the
LOC information page. You can book your
seat on the
conference registration form.
Further details of the trip are available on the
Taieri Gorge site.
