- This topic has 0 replies, 1 voice, and was last updated 3 years, 3 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
CAS News Update – November 2022
CAS Monthly Meeting
A reminder that Tuesday’s monthly UC meeting is a normal guest presenter night and Ryan Ridden is this month talking about:
DART: EARTH STRIKES BACK – DR RYAN RIDDEN
On the 27th of September a spacecraft the size of a fridge collided with a small asteroid with a speed 8 times faster than a bullet. This incredible collision with the small moonlet asteroid of Didymos was our first test for planetary defence as part of the Double Asteroid Redirect Test (DART). In this talk we’ll cover the background of this critical mission, it’s surprising results, and the contributions we made from New Zealand with the Ōtehīwai | Mt John Observatory.
After completing his Honours degree in Mathematical Physics at UC, Ryan undertook a PhD at the Australian National University, focusing on rapid explosions caused by the deaths of massive stars. After his PhD Ryan completed postdocs at the Space Telescope Science Institute and Johns Hopkins University where he built tools to enable science with space telescopes such as the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and JWST. Last year he returned to UC as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow, working on Solar System science and building systems for the Ōtehīwai | Mt John Observatory. Next year Ryan will be beginning a Marsden Fast Start Fellowship where he will search for the fastest optical transients in the Universe.
We are in our normal room ER225 in the Ernest Rutherford Building. That’s located on the 2nd floor.
Main meetings start with refreshments at 7.30pm and lecture starts at 8pm.
CAStronauts will run from 6.15 – 7pm with Orlon demonstrating telescopes for our junior members.
Social Night @ The Observatory
We will be holding a social night at the observatory this coming Saturday 19 Nov starting at 6pm – all members welcome!Feel free to come along and meet the team – rain or shine we meet and we will get some scopes out weather permitting and some darkness later!
CAS Summer BBQ – Date for your diary
Our world famous (in New Zealand!) summer BBQ will place on Saturday 3 Dec – look out for more news as we get closer to the date!December Training Night
As our BBQ will take place on the Dec 3 we will move our training night to the following Saturday 10 Dec.Kind regards
Your CAS Committee
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.