By John Sarkissian
CSIRO Parkes
Observatory
Last weekend's 100 Hours of Astronomy activities were a wonderful success, both in the Central West and around the world.
This was one of the cornerstone events for the International Year of Astronomy and many millions of people around the world joined together in celebrating astronomy.
On Saturday morning, the "Around the World in 80 Telescopes" live webcast went well. In all, five Australian observatories were featured with the Parkes Observatory being highlighted at 11.20am.
The webcasts have been archived and you see the Parkes Observatory’s segment, along with all the other 80 observatories, at URL: http://www.100hoursofastronomy.or g/component/webcast/webcast/6
I n addition to the webcasts, CWAS members organised, or took part in, several sidewalk astronomy events throughout the region. On Saturday night, the events in Parkes and Forbes attracted many families and interested passers-by.
All around the world, people were doing the same thing - viewing the Moon and Saturn.
In Parkes, telescopes were setup along-side Galileo's statue, oops! I mean, Henry Parkes' statue on Clarinda Street.
Well over 100 people availed themselves of the opportunity to view the Moon and Saturn. CWAS President Laurie Crowley, and members Peter Cannon and I had telescopes set up and ready to go from 6.30pm.
We stayed until 10.30pm.
It was wonderful to see so many families attend.
Several even phoned other family members to race on over and check out the fantastic views of the Moon and Saturn.
We were pleased that Mayor of Parkes, Cr Ken Keith, was able to attend and lend his support.
In Forbes, CWAS members Alex Abbey and Paul Clarke setup on the corner of Lachlan and Templar Streets from 8pm till about 10.15pm.
Like Parkes, they had a great response with lots of families and revellers attending. CWAS members also setup telescopes in Mudgee, attracting lots of interest there.
On Sunday night, 5 April, CWAS member Ken Engsmyr and I travelled to Wellington and gave a public viewing for the attendees at the Wellington Historical Society's Heritage Festival gathering.
As on the previous night, we viewed the Moon and Saturn, It was a great night.
We were very lucky to have wonderfully clear skies on both nights.
On the previous night, the thunder and heavy rain gave us no confidence that the weekend would be successful.
But, we were pleasantly surprised to be greeted with a perfect, cloudless sky in the morning and it stayed that way all day. Fantastic!
There'll be more such events in the coming weeks and months, beginning with a viewing on Tuesday, 14 April, at the Parkes Historical Society’s Heritage Festival meeting. It will be held at the Henry Parkes Museum from 7.30pm.
Please contact the museum for further details.
Next weekend is Easter. As many may be aware, the date of Easter has an astronomical basis.
Easter is always held on the first Sunday after the first Full Moon after the vernal equinox, which is taken to be on 21 March.
I wish you all a very happy and safe Easter.
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