ARTICLES
Astronomy from the Ground up – Parkes, 24th–26th May, 2019 (continued)
The place that is synonymous with radio astronomy in Australia is
Parkes. The Parkes Radio Telescope has been one of the world
leaders in radio astronomy since it was commissioned in 1961.
Constant upgrades have seen ‘The Dish’ continue to provide
insights into the night sky.
So, it was with my heart in my mouth that I was able to attend
a weekend professional development opportunity at The Dish.
I was not about to waste this opportunity, and spent the previous
night in the accommodation thinking of all the things I wanted
to get out of this trip. I was seeking depth study resources for
my Stage 6 Physics course and some further resources to bring
astronomy into the Stage 4 and 5 Science courses. I was also
looking to network with as many scientists as possible so that I
could refer interested students to people in the field.
I am a great believer that if a student can’t see a pathway, they
don’t think they can follow it. It is most regrettable that many
science fields are not diverse, either in gender or race, and I
am continually trying to correct this in my science courses by
providing/using non-typical and non-stereotypical examples.
However, taking into account that most scientists I know are
white males, demonstrating the diversity of people involved in
the scientific community has been difficult.
The Dish is impressive in both how slowly and how fast it can
move. It can track a target in the night sky with ease, and yet
slew at a very rapid rate for something that size. Photo 144725
was taken right behind the bottom arm.
Looking over the schedule for the weekend, I was pleased to
see that we would be hearing from a diverse range of speakers,
including Dr Jane Kaczmarek, Robert Hollow, John Sarkissian,
Michael Fitzgerald and Jackie Blondell. Jane Kaczmarek is an
astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellow for CSIRO based at Parkes,
as is John Sarkissian, an Operations Scientist responsible for
telescope development. Michael Fitzgerald is a Senior Research
Fellow at Edith Cowan University. Robert Hollow is one of the
Education Officers for CSIRO, and Jackie Blondell is the Education
and Public Outreach Coordinator for the OzGrav Project.
Jane gave us an insight into the basics of astronomy, including
aspects of light I wasn’t aware of, the life, death and evolution
of stars, how galaxies form and are classified, and insights into
cosmology. John is an avid historian with respect to Parkes and
the Apollo era; he showed us how Parkes played a critical role
in the Moon missions for NASA, and how the movie “The Dish”
got things a little wrong. Michael provided us with a fantastic
opportunity to do real science with the Las Cumbres Observatory
facilities around the globe, and to help our students get a foot in
the door of astronomy by becoming a published scientist. Robert
provided us not only with the basics of astronomy, both at CSIRO
and in the world at large, but also gave us some fantastic in-class
resources to use immediately.
If standing on the surface of the dish was enough to give you
vertigo, the focus cabin was even higher up. It was amazing
to think that it contained new instrumentation, extending the
capabilities of the telescope even further.
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SCIENCE EDUCATIONAL NEWS VOL 68 NO 3
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