Year 7 Astronomy Night

On Wednesday, 3 September, the Science Department hosted its annual Year 7 Astronomy Night which proved to be an absolute exceptional evening. The evening started with a delicious sausage sizzle that was prepared by the Science Department with the help of some Year 10 students who volunteered their time to give back to the Mazenod community. Many boys at Mazenod are passionate about Astronomy and Physics as evident by the many questions being asked to our guest presenters, Chris Lee, Alessandro Paduano and Callan Wood who are Mazenod Old Boys. Their passion and interests lie predominantly in pulsars, black holes and radio astronomy and they gave the most insightful presentation on their current area of research.

After the presentation, the Year 7 students along with their families were taken to the top oval where three telescopes were set up for the night. There were several volunteers from the Perth Observatory who arranged their high-tech telescopes so that each person could see the planets such as Jupiter, Saturn and the Moon, not to mention the amazing sight of the Southern Cross!  

All those in attendance learnt something new about the amazing and mysterious universe in which we live, thus achieving one of the goals for organising the night. I would like to sincerely thank the hard-working and dedicated Science team for all their help in creating a truly magical night, the Year 10 student volunteers, the Perth Observatory for setting up and explaining the use of their high-tech telescopes and Chris, Alessandro and Callan for their elaborate presentation on pulsars, black holes and radio astronomy.

I, along with the entire Science Department, look forward to hosting the Year 7 Astronomy Night again in 2026!

Andrew Rasano

Head of Science