Australian Sky & Telescope - 02.2019 - 03.2019

74 AUSTRALIAN SKY & TELESCOPE February | March 2019

NIGHT LIFE

Space celebrations

2019 will see a bumper crop of astrofests and other science events.

T

here’ll be lots of exciting events

coming up in 2019, especially

those in July associated with

the 50th anniversary of the landing

of Apollo 11 on the Moon— watch

this space and the AS&T website

(skyandtelescope.com.au) for details of

those events as they are announced.

The World Science Festival returns

to Brisbane in March, with an amazing

line-up of topics and speakers to suit all

tastes, and especially space exploration.

One of the headline presentations will

be ‘We will be Martians: Our Future

on the Red Planet,’ with a top-flight

range of speakers including: Professor

Brian Greene, renowned physicist and

World Science Festival co-founder;

Yvonne Cagle, Chief Scientist, Level II

Program Office Commercial Re-useable

Suborbital Research program at

NASA; Christin Charles, Professor

and Head of Space Plasma, Power and

Propulsion Laboratory at the ANU; and

Jon Clarke, Associate Member at the

Australian Centre for Astrobiology at

UNSW. Check out the event website

(worldsciencefestival.com.au) for more

details.

On the other side of the country, WA

will once again play host to a couple of

fantastic astronomy festivals, the first

of which will be the WA Astrofest itself

(astronomywa.net.au) in March. This

event regularly attracts up to 4,000

people, and it’s no wonder considering

the range of family-friendly activities

on offer (telescope viewing, guest

speakers, science presentations etc).

Smaller, but having the advantage of

some seriously dark skies, will be the

Astro Rock Fest (mtmagnet-astrorocks.

com), to be held in September at Mt

Magnet (inland from Geraldton). Now

in its seventh year, the event combines

astronomy and geology, which makes

a lot of sense considering the location.

Although a bit off the beaten track for

many, if you’re in the area make sure

you drop in and take part.

NASA

WA Astrofest

March 16

A family friendly astronomy festival held in

Perth.

astronomywa.net.au

World Science Festival Brisbane

March 20–24

Multiple activities, including a headline Mars

presentation.

worldsciencefestival.com.au

Earth Hour Open Night

March 30

Free family stargazing event with Sydney’s

Sutherland Astronomical Society.

sasi.net.au

Yuri’s Night

April 12

Annual worldwide celebration of space on

the anniversary of Yuri Gagarin’s flight.

yurisnight.net

South Pacific Star Party

May 2–5

Annual star party of the Astronomical

Society of NSW.

asnsw.com/spsp

RASNZ Conference

May 17–19

New Zealand’s annual astro gathering, this

year to be held in New Plymouth.

rasnz.org.nz/32-conference

Asteroid Day

June 30

A global day of education to help protect

Earth from asteroids.

asteroidday.org

National Science Week

August 10–18

Includes lots of astro events. Keep visiting

the website for the latest info.

scienceweek.net.au

Astro Rocks Fest

September 20–22

Family weekend of both astro and geo fun at

Mt Magnet, WA.

mtmagnet-astrorocks.com

WHAT’S UP? Do you have an event or activity coming up? Email us at [email protected]

This year will see the 50th anniversary

of the Apollo 11 lunar landing..