NEW
Tutor: Rod Thompson
The ancient science of Astronomy is advancing at a runaway pace. With modern and better telescopes, (several in space) and new methods unimaginable 50 years ago, discoveries, new theories and wild conjectures are being reported daily. The night sky is full of amazing things some easily visible, most not. Stars, planets, moons, nebulae, galaxies, gas clouds, pulsars, black holes, dark matter - the list keeps growing. With the current rate of discovery, a subject like this cannot ever be complete, and we can expect new findings while we converse, so it will, by necessity be flexible in structure with participation included.
Venue: 288 Edward St
Monday 1.00pm - 2.30pm. Classes start 12 October, finish 7 December.
Cost: $45 (prepaid), 9 weeks
Current Enrolments: 20 (full capacity)
The science of Astronomy is our attempt to understand how these strange objects in the sky relate to one another, how they came about, and how they will evolve. It calls on many other disciplines such as Mathematics, Physics, Geology and more.
Breaking News! There could be a new type of "strange object" in the sky - the "Black Hole Star". This might be the missing link between the "Little Red Dots" and the Supermassive Black Holes - clearing up two mysteries in one go.
Think back to being a child and looking up at the truly dark night sky we had then. Stars, our home galaxy, planets, the moon, meteors all sharp and clear.
Our Mediterranean / Middle Eastern traditions saw heroes and monsters, but the custodians of this land saw the black emu. Once you see it, you cannot un-see it, and remember that dark clouds of gas such as the emu are the nurseries of generations of new stars and planets.
Seventy years ago when I discovered my interest in Astronomy, the incoming data came from a few big visible light telescopes and some impressive radio telescopes, including "The Dish" in Parkes.
Now we have ground and space based telescopes working in ranges from radio waves through the infra-red, visible light, ultraviolet, Xray, and gamma ray belts. More importantly these are being used in combination.
Importantly also, many of these devices are carrying out full-sky surveys on a regular basis, dumping massive quantities of data out for anyone to analyse. Some exciting results spring from this.
Observational Astronomers are smart! They have to be. To watch a star being born, grow, and die would take millions or billions of years and they are not patient enough for that.
They can't see what a galaxy looks like close up, or from the other side. Or what the Milky Way looks like from the outside. They have to work with the information that comes our way.
These Astronomers now use, in addition to the electromagnetic spectrum, gravitational waves, neutrinos, and cosmic rays, and use dark matter lenses to extend our limits of visibility. For example, we now have a telescope at the South Pole pointed at the northern sky right through the earth.
The result of all this is the number of new and exciting discoveries they are now making.
When I was a teenager, it was accepted that we were unique. Hardly any stars had planets circling them. Now it is clear that nearly all stars have planets.
Black holes were theoretical results coming from Einsteins general relativity and unlikely to exist in real life. Now they are being detected everywhere.
About the Tutor: Rod Thompson
Dr Rodney James Thompson has a B.Sc. Diploma of Computer Science and M. Eng. Sc. From the University of Queensland. He is committed to lifetime learning, obtaining his PhD from the Delft University of Technology at age 57.
His interest in Astronomy started pre-teens with a book on the subject, and when he joined the Astronomical Society of Qld.
He spent many cold nights with a small telescope in the backyard, and eventually built a 6 inch Newtonian telescope from first principles – hand grinding the main mirror over many hours of work.
Unfortunately enrolments in this class have exceeded room capacity and no new enrolments can be accepted at this time. You may contact the tutor to express your interest should a vacancy arise.
If you wish to obtain further information about this class before enrolling, you may send a message to the tutor using the Send Enquiry Message button below.