The Australian Bite

A Year for Stargazing

7 February 2009

Listen and download: MP3

To celebrate the International Year of Astronomy, this week’s Australian Bite features amateur astronomer Ian Musgrave, astrophysicist Professor Harvey Butcher, and artist Caitlin Goodall, whose designs are featured on two commemorative coins released by the Royal Australian Mint.

Stars on Show in Australia

Ian Musgrave is a keen amateur astronomer, that’s when he’s not doing his day job as a Lecturer in Pharmacology at the University of Adelaide.  He has his own webpage – Southern Sky Watch, as well as an astronomy blog.  He tells us about some of the wonders to be seen in the night sky of Australia. 

Southen Sky Watch http://home.mira.net/~reynella/skywatch/ssky.htm

Ian’s Astroblog  http://astroblogger.blogspot.com/

Mount Stromlo Observatory looks to the future

Canberra’s Mount Stromlo observatory came close to being totally destroyed in the 2003 bushfires. But despite the devastation of five of its telescopes, including the Great Melbourne Telescope, researchers at the Observatory are now looking forward to a new era of research using the Skymapper Telescope at Siding Spring in New South Wales. And other exciting collaborations are happening with partners around the world, as Professor Harvey Butcher, Director of the Australian National University’s School of Astronomy and Astrophysics tells Heather Jarvis.

More info about the ANU’s Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics here http://rsaa.anu.edu.au/

Starry Scenes for Coin Designer

Imagine trying to come up with an intricate and appealing design that’s small enough to fit on the face of a coin. Well that’s what Caitlin Goodall spends her work days doing. She is one of the coin designers at the Royal Australian Mint in Canberra, and one of her recent briefs was to design two collectable coins to commemorate the International Year of Astronomy.  The two coins are a one-dollar coin featuring the Parkes radio telescope – which was used during the Apollo missions to the moon, and a twenty-cent piece showing amateur astronomers observing against a background of constellations.  I talked to Caitlin Goodall about how how the initial idea is transformed into an actual coin.

Check out Caitlin’s coin designs at the Royal Australian Mint website http://www.ramint.gov.au/

Music (not in podcast)

Artist: Cassie Davis
Track: Like It Loud
Album: Differently (forthcoming)