President's Desk - March 2024
President’s Desk
Let me start by celebrating the success of Oxford Forest Conservation Area Park in having 113.5 square kilometres of New Zealand’s night skies protected through the DarkSky International (formerly International Dark Sky Association, IDA) certification as an International Dark Sky Park, which was announced on 31 January 2024. This is the first step in the Dark Sky Certification process to protect the entire 1,300 square kilometres Oxford Subdivision of the Oxford-Ohoka Ward of the District. The article on page 10 of the March newsletter by RASNZ Member Raul Elias-Drago gives more details on this.
Talking about dark skies, after 7 years in the making, the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) has published The World At Night authored by leaders in the global Dark Sky movement including experts from DarkSky International (formerly International DarkSky Association, IDA) and RASNZ Councillor, John Hearnshaw, FRASNZ – see page 13 of the March newsletter for his article on this subject. With the rapid propagation of light pollution leading to the deterioration of New Zealand’s pristine natural night skies, now is ever more the time for action. Jointly with the Aoraki Mackenzie International Dark Sky Reserve, RASNZ is organising the October 2024 Starlight Conference (page 22 of the March newsletter) with a theme of Dark Skies for All: A Call for Action!
RASNZ also needs to celebrate yet another pleasing milestone. This year marks the 90th year of publication of RASNZ’s prestigious journal, Southern Stars. Currently it is published four times a year and our current Editor, Bob Evans, FRASNZ, has been publishing it for the past 20+ years. Bob continues the tradition of dedicated RASNZ volunteers working hard for the benefit of the New Zealand astronomic community in various ways. Bob has also been working to have the past issues of Southern Stars placed on the SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS). This digital library portal for researchers in astronomy and physics is operated by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) under a NASA grant. The Southern Stars issues from March 2001 are already in the database. An index of all the articles in past issues since 1934 has been compiled by RASNZ Archivist and Property Officer, Chris Monigatti (see https://www.rasnz.org.nz/rasnz-info/southern-stars-1 ). This index is expected to fast track the exercise to get the older issues of Southern Stars (from 1934 to 2000) in the database.
RASNZ Fireballs Aotearoa Section Director, Professor James Scott’s article on the findings from a geological analysis of the 4-billion-year-old meteorite that crashed into an Auckland home on 12 June 2004 is featured in this Newsletter’s NZ Science today section (see page 6 of the March newsletter). It puts into context the ultimate goal of RASNZ Section ‘Fireballs Aotearoa’ which is to discover New Zealand’s 10th meteorite by deploying an ever-expanding nationwide citizen science meteor camera network.
It is that time of the year when, in preparation for the 15 May 2024 Annual General Meeting (see Notice on page 24 of the March newsletter), the RASNZ Council’s focus has been on finalising the 2023 Annual Report (with no less than 31 contributions) and the audited Performance Report. In keeping with tradition, the AGM will take place at the RASNZ annual conference hosted by RASNZ affiliated Society, Nelson Astronomical Society. The Chair of RASNZ Standing Conference Committee, Glen Rowe, FRASNZ, advises that registrations to participate, present a talk or submit a poster at the May 2024 RASNZ Annual Conference are now open (see page 15 of the March newsletter).
Finally, I would like to encourage you all to make room in your diaries for the RASNZ Conference, the AGM and the Affiliated Societies Meeting. Each of these is a very special occasion providing a forum where astronomers from all over New Zealand can once again gather to improve their astronomical knowledge, exchange ideas, meet old friends, form collaborations, build support networks, and have an astronomy-focussed fun weekend in the company of likeminded people.
Clear skies!
Nalayini Davies, FRASNZ, MSc (Astronomy)
President – Royal Astronomical Society of NZ