Outreach Activities

Published in the RSAA Lunations
Vol1 Issue957 24 August–23 September 2016

On Friday 19 August, we had another rainy Public Astronomy Night, but that did not stop 300 people from coming up to hear Brian Schmidt and Elise Hampton give their talks.  It was also the soft opening, or beta testing, of the new Mt. Stromlo Visitor Centre.  Thank you to the 15 people who helped out over the week to get it ready!

We have also had four school visits totaling over 100 students this month, from Tranby College in Sydney and Radford College here in Canberra.  

Our Private Stargazing Nights are proving to be popular, with two successful evenings despite the best efforts from our Canberra weather.

August is also the time when National Science Week occurs, and Mt Stromlo was all over it!  On Saturday the 13th, Naomi McClure-Griffiths and Ryan Ridden-Harper were on a panel, discussing just how accurate the movie Interstellar was.  Elise Hampton was on a similar panel for i,Robot on Sunday the 14th, and on Monday the 15th, Brad Tucker was on one for the Martian.   This is the first year these science movie screenings + panels have been done and they turned out to be very popular, hopefully they will continue.  On the 17th, Matthew Colless, Pete Kuzma, and Fiona Panther wowed the crowd at Smith’s Alternative Bookshop during Science in the Pub.  We also had a large group at Science in Action, held at the Bus Depot Markets, with displays and solar observing.