March 2023 Monthly Meeting

When: Tuesday 7th March at 7:30 pm.
Where: Wellington Museum, in the Draughtsman’s Room. Wellington Museum is at 3 Jervois Quay, Queens Wharf.
Or you can join the meeting via Zoom
Meeting ID: 898 5793 4315
Passcode: 12345

Speaker:  Tom Love – Creating A Dark Sky Reserve

Tom Love will talk about the work involved in certifying a dark sky place. Drawing upon the experience of developing an International Dark Sky Reserve in the Wairarapa, he looks at the different kinds of dark sky place that are recognised internationally and some of the work and techniques needed to characterise the lights in a dark sky place and the darkness of the sky. These activities are set in the wider context of efforts to fight light pollution in Aotearoa New Zealand.

About the speaker: Tom Love’s interest in astronomy first emerged in when at high school, sparked by Albert Jones’ discovery of Supernova 1987a (see image below). Tom was an active amateur astronomer in the Dunedin and, later, Canterbury Astronomical Societies in the 1980s and 1990s, and was the first observer for the MOA programme at Mount John in the winter of 1995. He has recently returned to astronomy and has been exploring the world of spectroscopy on small telescopes, working in particular on eclipsing binary and nova projects. Tom has lived in the Wairarapa since 2016, where he has contributed to the effort to make Wairarapa an International Dark Sky Reserve.

For more information about the dark sky reserve here’s a link to a TVNZ news item about it. Which also feature WAS member Matt and our new robotic observatory in the dark sky reserve.

Non members are welcome.

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