Outreach News

Published in the RSAA Lunations
Vol1 Issue50 1–30 April 2024

While the skies were not the clearest for our nights at Mulligans, at Lanyon Homestead the clouds parted for very dark views (better than Stromlo!) of the southern sky.  These events will now run monthly, with future dates for some already booked out.  We will run our public nights at Mt Stromlo on a Friday, and the Saturday after nights at Mulligans Flat and the following Friday at Lanyon Homestead (dates below).  These will run April - September/October.
 
For the first time, we held Enlighten up at Mt Stromlo. Enlighten is a weeklong ACT events festival which usually has buildings in the Parliamentary Triangle lit up.  On Saturday the 12th, and luckily one of the clearest nights we have had, about 2500 people came up to Mt Stromlo. In addition to talks in the Visitor Centre and stargazing outside, we had projections created by a variety of artists from the School of Art in the Yale-Columbia (pictured), on the 74” dome, inside the Director’s Residence, and inside the Director’s Residence garage. It was very popular, and we have already been asked to run it longer next year!
 
Next month, in addition to lots of school groups and private groups, we will run programs at Thredbo for school holidays!  It will be our first trial but will hopefully turn into an Astronomer-in-Residence program.
  
Public Nights at Mt Stromlo:
19 April 
10 May
14 June
12 July
9 August
6 September

Mulligans Flat Nights:
20 April 
11 May
15 June
13 July
10 August
7 September *
 
Lanyon Homestead Nights:
12 April
17 May
21 June
19 July
16 August
13 September
11 October

Image: Yala Columbia Dome at Enlighten with Jupiter visible in the sky above. Credit: Christian Wolf