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:  Stephen Chadwick – Hiding in Charles’s Tree: A photographic journey around a forgotten constellation

Throughout human history, people from all cultures have been fascinated by the shapes that can be formed from the positions of stars in the night sky. The International Astronomical Union currently recognises only 88 constellations, which were proposed by different people from different locations at different times. However, the process of selecting the 88 constellations was not straightforward. It required making additions, subtractions, end rearrangements. In this talk, Stephen Chadwick will introduce one of these lost constellations and, using his own astro photographs, showcase some of the deep-sky objects found within this remarkable patch of sky.

About the speaker: Dr Stephen Chadwick lives under the dark skies of coastal Manawatu. During the day he lectures in astronomy and philosophy at Massey University, Palmerston North. His research interests include the philosophy of photography, especially astronomical photography. During the night he is a keen astrophotographer. In 2011, his first book, Imaging the Southern Sky, was published by Springer. It contains over 150 of his own deep-sky images taken from the observatory he built in his garden. The book’s foreword was written by the famous UK astronomer, Sir Patrick Moore. His second book, The Great Canoes in the Sky: star lore and astronomy of the South Pacific, was published in 2016.

Stephen’s deep-sky images have appeared in international magazines, newspapers, and scholarly journals, and have been used on BBC TV. In recent years, Stephen has staged exhibitions of his work and held evening presentations showcasing his images using live musical accompaniments throughout New Zealand. He also hosts the annual New Zealand Astrophotography Weekend in Foxton Beach.