Hi Astronomers

A really good dark Sky observing night is planed for this weekend, with the great weather and Solar Activity on the rise this should be a great night. Meeting details can be found below.

1, Wellington Phoenix Meeting Details
2, Wairarapa Phoenix Meeting Details
3, WAS – Phoenix BBQ Observing Evening
4, WAS meeting Details
 
Thanks Edwin
 
 
Phoenix Meetings for March 2008
 Wellington Phoenix Meeting
Thursday the 27th of March
7:25pm @ Science House (Royal Society Buildings), Turnbull Street
http://www.astronomynz.org.nz/society-meetings/society-meetings.html
 
Wairarapa Phoenix Meeting
Friday the 28th of March
7:25pm @ the Phoenix clubrooms, Ahiaruhe, Wairarapa
http://www.astronomynz.org.nz/society-meetings/society-meetings.html
 
 
Program
 
7:30pm Society News
7:35pm International Year of Astronomy - presented by Marilyn Head
The United Nations has designated 2009 international Year of Astronomy to commemorate 400 years since Galileo first turned a telescope to the heavens. The International Astronomical Union has put together an excellent IYA organisation which has developed a number of cornerstone projects for he world to share and participate in. There are over 100 contributing countries of which Aotearoa NZ is , of course, one - see the excellent website developed by Roland Idaczyk at www.astronomy2009.org.nz.  Marilyn Head who is NZ's Single Point of Contact for IYA will give an overview of what has been developed and planned to date and is keen to hear members ideas for ways to contribute to and participate in IYA. So come with some good ideas!
 
8:00pm 'Bend it like Einstein' - a presentation by Aarno Korpela
Light rays bend in gravitational fields. This was already presumed by Newton, and correctly derived by Einstein. The effect is known as gravitational lensing, and it occurs in different scales, from entire galaxies lensing the images of more distant galaxies and quasars, to individual stars lensing the light from background stars. The smaller scale effect is known as microlensing, and it requires that the alignment of source, lens and observer is nearly perfect.  Such alignments are very rare, but can still be detected by regularly monitoring large numbers of stars. The MOA project uses telescopes at Mt John Observatory to search for such events by monitoring starfields towards the Galactic bulge and the Magellanic clouds. Originally microlensing observation programmes were started for searching dark matter, but currently one of the most interesting outcome is the detection of extrasolar planets. In this talk Aarno will touch on the history, physics and applications of light ray bending, including an update on the latest planet findings.
 
 9:00pm Supper
 
 
 
 
Combined Wellington Astronomical Society and Phoenix Society Fun BBQ and Observing Evening
 
Starting from 6pm everyone is welcome along for a BBQ and drinks. Observing will start from 8pm, and there will be a late night Science Fiction movie, 2001 A Space Odyssey from Arthur C Clark I'm sure would be a great pick.  
 
 
WAS – Phoenix BBQ & Observing Evening
Saturday the 29th of March
With Master Observers Ian Cooper and Chris Picking
6:00pm @ the Phoenix clubrooms, Ahiaruhe, Wairarapa
http://www.astronomynz.org.nz/observing/observing.html
 
 
Hi Wellington Astronomical Society members
 
The Phoenix Astronomical Society would like to invite the Wellington Astronomical Society to join us for a social gathering on the 29th March 2008 at the Stonehenge-Aotearoa site starting with BBQ at 6pm followed by an observing evening. 
 
Please extend this invitation to all your members. It is a BYO food and drink but we will put on some extra sausages. Coffee and tea will be provided too. Anyone is welcome to bring their own telescopes if they want to.  If the weather doesn't cooperate we will still go ahead with the BBQ and show a movie later in the evening.
 
We look forward to seeing you there.
 
Antony Gomez
on behalf of TPAS Council
E-Mail a.gomez@... Cell 021 2534979 
 
 
 
Wellington WAS Meeting
Please note change of Venue
Thursday the 3rd of April
7:25pm @ Level 3 Former dominion Building near the central public libary
http://www.was.org.nz/
 
 
The Meeting will start with drinks & nibbles
 
@7:25PM sponsored by the Alliance Francaise
 
 
Speaker: William Tobin 
 
Topic: M51 Silvered Glass and the Internet
 
M51, the Whirlpool, is the nebula in which spiral structure was first discovered, in 1845, by the Third Earl of Rosse using his 'Leviathan' reflecting telescope with giant, 6-foot bronze mirrors. 
 
A recently-unearthed drawing of M51 made in 1862 with Léon Foucault's newly-completed 80-cm silvered-glass reflector in Paris is better than all other 19th-century drawings of the nebula. 
 
However the superiority of metallized glass or ceramic mirrors over bronze ones comes as much from their greater rigidity and the faster focal ratios achievable via the sensitive optical testing techniques initiated by Foucault.
 
As for the internet, the burgeoning numbers of 19th-century texts available on-line with full-text search capability makes it possible to investigate questions such as how M51 acquired its 'whirlpool' epithet. Surprisingly, the astronomical appropriation of 'whirlpool' predates the discovery of spiral structure.
 
 
 
 
Thanks Edwin
 

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