President’s Desk

The ongoing activities of RASNZ continue to strengthen its position as a ‘broad church’ promoter and supporter of all aspects of astronomy, both at a national and grassroots level. This is illustrated by our many activities over the past month, which have seen us:

• Make two submissions to the government on behalf of the astronomic community of New Zealand - one on Space Policy and the other on Aerospace Strategy.
• Support the New Zealand arm of the Global Meteor Network, being managed by Associate Professor James Scott of the University of Otago, through our Kingdon-Tomlinson fund.
• Launch an Amateur Research Survey to gain insights to support and enhance amateur research activity.
• Encourage then welcome a new RASNZ Section, the Historical Section, with its 35 founding members and goal to record NZ’s astronomic history, led by Professor Wayne Orchiston and Glen Rowe FRASNZ.
• Undertake jointly with Auckland Astronomical Society yet another successful New Zealand Astrophotography Competition.
• Present our annual ‘Dark Sky Award’ at the annual gathering of the New Zealand Chapter of the Illuminating Engineering Society of Australia and New Zealand.
• Continue to progress our initiative to provide access to astronomy to the Blind and Low Vision community, working in collaboration now with the current President of the World Blind Union.

Ongoing support by RASNZ for its Affiliated Societies continues, and includes:

• Facilitating monthly meetings to exchange ideas and discuss ways to support their activities.
• Providing Gifford-Eiby Memorial Fund grants to Tauranga Astronomical Society and Omaka Observatory Charity Trust.
• Enabling Hamilton Astronomical Society, Northland Astronomical Society, Hawkes Bay Astronomical Society and Wanganui Astronomical Society to join the Global Meteor Network.
• Compiling a list of expert speakers available for Gifford-Eiby funding, to enable Affiliated Societies to make the appropriate selection for their upcoming events.
• Showcasing the work and achievements of individual Affiliated Societies through a regular monthly feature in this Newsletter.

Work on the 2023 RASNZ Conference continues apace. This will be held in Auckland on 2-4 June 2023 with a Workshop on 5 June 2023, hosted by the Auckland Astronomical Society which will be celebrating its centennial in 2023. The conference will also celebrate Canterbury Astronomical Society’s 75^th anniversary and Wellington Astronomical Society’s 50^th anniversary.

The ‘Observing with Intent’ initiative continues to be progressed with vigour. In addition to participating through the Meteor Network, which was also extended to a number of RASNZ members with observatories, we are working with the Variable Star South, Occultations and Comets & Meteor sections to provide resources and mentoring to encourage and support amateur astronomers interested in observing with intent. The findings of the recently launched Amateur Research Survey are expected to help further with this initiative.

RASNZ appointed Amit Kamble as the new Director of the Astrophotography Section. Amit is well known to the New Zealand astrophotography community and amongst many achievements he has had two of his images featured by NASA for its popular Astrophotography Picture of the Day (APOD). The recently completed astrophotography competition attracted 360 high quality entries demonstrating growing interest in this area. The RASNZ 2023 calendar, prepared in collaboration with RASNZ corporate member ASTRONZ, will showcase many of these images. It is also a must own for all with an interest in observing the night sky as it contains Alan Gilmore’s monthly charts for 2023, a long-standing go-to resource for New Zealand’s astronomical community.

We are now calling for nominations for the RASNZ Murray Geddes Prize, Bright Star Award and award of a Fellowship to honour those who have made outstanding contributions to New Zealand astronomy. Details of these and other happenings highlighted above are to be found in greater detail elsewhere in this Newsletter and on our website: www.rasnz.org.nz

Many of you will have enjoyed viewing, providing outreach, imaging and studying the recent lunar eclipse. Of course our universe has astronomical events happening all the time but mostly they are not so obvious and easy to access as a lunar eclipse. Our mission at RASNZ is to facilitate access for everyone to the marvels of our universe and to support astronomical science to improve our knowledge of its elements and many mysteries. So, if you are not already a member of RASNZ, I heartily encourage you join us now and help us progress our mission by clicking on the following link: https://www.sporty.co.nz/viewform/201452

Nalayini Davies, FRASNZ, MSc (Astronomy)

President – Royal Astronomical Society of NZ

president@rasnz.org.nz

Article added: Wednesday 16 November 2022