Public Outreach
In CAASTRO, we enjoy communicating our science to the public who can connect with CAASTRO researchers through a variety of activities that are designed to make our research accessible for everyone. Our researchers often give seminars and public astronomy lectures at the seven Australian node locations and elsewhere to advance the public’s awareness of science and the scientific process.
Wherever possible, these presentations are recorded on video and added to our YouTube channel. This is an important conduit for our Education & Outreach strategy, in that we are increasing the return on our public engagement activities and enabling the public to experience aspects of astronomy that often remain inaccessible. For instance, our facilities and pieces of equipment or our video press releases for selected publications (e.g. The Diamond Planet, WiggleZ large-scale homogeneity and the Man in the Moon tuning into Earth’s radio). So please stay tuned!
November 2014
The long awaited for complete movie of all the nine entrants into the “Pitch your Science” Smart Phone competition at the 2014 CAASTRO Annual Retreat. Each group had 1 hour to put together a 60 second video on their research. The videos were shown at the conference dinner and the winner declared by a clapping vote.
…And the winner is….
MWA the Movie.
August 2014
This year for National Science Week, Mount Burnett Observatoryheld the Stars in the Yarra Ranges Astronomy Festival over four nights in four towns. CAASTRO sent six astrophysicists along to give short public talks to the 400 festival attendees. All of the talks were filmed by Lindsay Stodden of Ultimate Edge Productions and are up on the CAASTRO YouTube channel. See talks from Pietro Procopio, Syed Uddin, Chris Power, Karl Glazebrook, Emily Petroff and Ewan Barr. The overview of the fesival can be seen by clicking the image on the right.
August 2014
As part of the Uluru Astronomer in Residence partnership with Voyages Australia we sent four of our prominent Astronomers to Uluru for a weekend during National Science Week. The event was hosted by Dr Karl Kruzselnicki and will be running again in 2015. This is a small teaser from Voyages highlighting the range of fantastic Astronomy activities over the weekend.
August 2013
We co-sponsored and co-hosted an expert panel discussion at the ANU in Canberra for National Science Week, learning from our international visitors about “Memes, blogs and videos: how social media has transformed the way we communicate science”.
April 2013
“Are We Alone? The hunt for ET” presentations by Dr Katie Mack and Dr Alan Duffy (both University of Melbourne) at this “The Age” evening event at The Edge in Federation Square.
February 2013
Astrofest, the “astronomically awesome event”, again attracted over 3,500 members of the Perth public. Popular topics in 2013 included the SKA, the Russian meteor, and our hands-on exhibit of the Murchison Widefield Array dipole antennas.;
here: Dr Chris Springob and Dr Chris Power (both UWA).
November 2012
“The Evolving Universe” Theme Scientist Dr Emil Lenc (University of Sydney) presented his “Time Traveller’s Guide to the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA)” at the Macarthur Astronomy Forum in Sydney on 19 November 2012. Photo by Roger Powell, Macarthur Astronomical Society.
August 2012
CAASTRO offered five public “All-sky Astrophysics” lectures at Mount Burnett Observatory as part of National Science
Week, 13-17 August 2012, delivered by our Melbourne-based researchers.
Here: Prof Warrick Couch.
August 2012
Having set up an antenna tile exhibition of the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) at the Western Australian Museum in Geraldton (on display in August & September), CAASTRO Associate Investigator and MWA Commissioning Scientist Dr Randall Wayth (Curtin University) also gave public talks and tours during National Science Week 2012.
March 2012
Astrofest 2012 in Perth, with CAASTRO members from Curtin University and the University of Western Australia handing out information material and CAASTRO merchandise (click for more photos);
here: Dr Marcin Sokolowski and Dr Wiebke Ebeling (both Curtin University).
March 2012
CAASTRO contributed pre-concert talks to the national concert tour of Musica Viva – Tafelmusik “The Galileo Project” in March 2012; here: Dr Jean-Pierre Macquart in
Perth (click for more photos).
September 2011
CAASTRO Associate Investigator Dr Tamara Davis gave her Women in Physics Lecture “The Dark Side of the Universe” at Sydney Observatory in September 2011 (click for more photos).
May 2011
Our Director Prof Bryan Gaensler at TEDxSydney in May 2011 (click for video).