Old Observatory
Last night I went on a tour of the old Melbourne Observatory at the Royal Botanic Gardens with a bunch of people from work - even managed to convince husband to come.
Now, at the risk of becoming even more of a science nerd, astronomy is really cool. We got to look through two of the old telescopes as well as looking at the stars using night scope thingies they use in the armed forces (everything was green! I felt like I was playing Splinter Cell).
Last night we got to see the Jewel Box (near the Southern Cross, can't really see it with the naked eye) which is this awesome cluster of different coloured stars. We also saw two of the three stars that make up Alpha Centuri (the brightest of the two pointer stars, our closest neighbour at 4.4 million light years away, gooooo science!) which was quite special.
Because I've been working in the Planetarium quite regularly (I still get that South Park urge to say "Planearium") I actually learnt some stuff (shock horror) and am considering getting out the telescope I bought for husband a couple of years ago. Although the light pollution here is pretty terrible, probably won't see much!
I've been very proud of myself being able to translate the Planetarium to the actual night sky, although it would be much easier if I had a laser pointer to show people things.
I still remember the time Sherdy and I taught ourselves to use the Questy Skylab for a holiday program and then had a party in there afterwards - alcohol and moving stars make for an interesting evening!
Yay for science!
Now, at the risk of becoming even more of a science nerd, astronomy is really cool. We got to look through two of the old telescopes as well as looking at the stars using night scope thingies they use in the armed forces (everything was green! I felt like I was playing Splinter Cell).
Last night we got to see the Jewel Box (near the Southern Cross, can't really see it with the naked eye) which is this awesome cluster of different coloured stars. We also saw two of the three stars that make up Alpha Centuri (the brightest of the two pointer stars, our closest neighbour at 4.4 million light years away, gooooo science!) which was quite special.
Because I've been working in the Planetarium quite regularly (I still get that South Park urge to say "Planearium") I actually learnt some stuff (shock horror) and am considering getting out the telescope I bought for husband a couple of years ago. Although the light pollution here is pretty terrible, probably won't see much!
I've been very proud of myself being able to translate the Planetarium to the actual night sky, although it would be much easier if I had a laser pointer to show people things.
I still remember the time Sherdy and I taught ourselves to use the Questy Skylab for a holiday program and then had a party in there afterwards - alcohol and moving stars make for an interesting evening!
Yay for science!
posted by Miff at
9:03 am
1 Comments:
What? We did what now? Are you sure it was me? I'd never do such a thing at work. Beers? Toilets? What?
Heh heh.
That was a lot of fun.
Starlab, and therefore astronomy, has a dear place in my heart because I did one of my best shows ever in there - I was doing the standard Orion-Scorpio spiel, but somehow did it so well that when I finished there was breathless silence and then mad applause.
This, of course, was followed immediately after by a show where I couldn't even find the stupid Southern Cross and got all flustered and wanted to cry.
And that's what we call science, right?
ps you are such a NERD!
By
Sherd, at 10:18 am
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