Science News

Last week Yr.12 Physics made their annual pilgrimage to Australia's largest telescope at Siding Spring Observatory for the two day Astronomy and Astrophysics excursion. The long drive was made easier with a bit of Tay Tay along the way. After many months of drought, the heavens opened up for some much-needed rain over Coonabarabran. The two day Astronomy and Astrophysics Depth Study at Siding Spring Observatory was still a success with lots of extension activities related to the Yr.12 Physics syllabus.

Over 60 Students from 6 different high schools took part in the annual event with presentations from Dr. Sarah Caddy, Associate Professor Chris Lidman and Dr. Laura Driessden. We also got to tour Australia’s largest optical telescope the 3.9m AAT as well as the spectrographs that analyse the light from distant stars and galaxies. Students also took part in group activities such as creating their own H-R diagram to take bring back to school, finding the surface temperature of stars using simulated black body radiation curves and using data from a telescope on site to calculate their own Hubble-Lemaitre constant from type 1a supernova events. 

To finish off the excursion on the Tuesday afternoon we hiked up the walking track to the trig point at the highest point on the observatory. The heavens decided to open up once again and leave us all cold, wet and trying to imaging the amazing view that would have been before us if it was not for the inclement weather. All in all it was great to get out and see how a research observatory works.

Mr.Dodds