Let me state at the beginning that no one in the Central West Astronomical Society (CWAS) is claiming that their annual AstroFest rivals the Parkes Elvis Festival in sheer scale.
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However, the 2015 AstroFest on the weekend of July 18 and 19, was clearly the most successful yet.
Well over 100 people registered to attend from all over Australia as well as the USA and Europe.
The festival of astronomy attracted many world-class speakers.
They included 2011 Nobel Prize winner Professor Brian Schmidt, international astrophotographer Babak Tafreshi (who works with the United Nations in this field), recently retired NASA expert Dr Everett Gibson (who commenced his career over 40 years ago studying Apollo moon rocks and has spent decades as a leader in the search for evidence of life on Mars) as well as the Parkes Radio Telescope’s own John Sarkissian (who gave a fascinating and topical account of the New Horizons spacecraft that recently flew past Pluto, almost 10 years after it left Earth).
Another important part of AstroFest each year is the judging of the annual CWAS David Malin Astrophotography Awards by the iconic and pioneering astrophotographer himself, Dr David Malin.
All of these events took place in the Coventry Room near the Parkes Shire Library on the Saturday.
However, the focus turned to the Parkes Radio Telescope (The “Dish”) on the Sunday where CWAS members were on hand to show visitors the Sun and “daytime stars” through special safety equipment,
Babak Tafreshi gave a public talk on astrophotography, and a permanent display of the 2015 CWAS David Malin Astrophotography Award winners was officially opened.
As mentioned earlier, the AstroFest doesn’t directly rival the Parkes Elvis Festival but consider this...
Some 200,000 people are expected to view a travelling exhibition of the 2015 CWAS David Malin Award winning photographs in museums, observatories and planetariums across Australia over the next year.
The CWAS is also grateful to its three long-term sponsors of AstroFest: Parkes Shire Council (who hosted a civic reception to welcome participants), CSIRO (for logistical support and for hosting the CWAS David Malin Astrophotography Awards exhibition at the Parkes Radio Telescope Visitor Centre), and Canon Australia (for making available a generous array of camera prizes for the astrophotography competition winners).
Further information about the CWAS can also be found on the society’s website www.cwas.org.au
