Astronomy

Trinity College Observatory

There have been significant changes in Astronomy at Trinity this year. To keep it at the forefront of school-based Astronomy the telescope mount was upgraded to the internal electronics of the new paramount ME mount. This has produced a very dependable system with excellent pointing accuracy. This year has seen the start of regular astronomy camps for astronomy club students. These camps take place at Bindoon Agricultural College, far enough away from the bright lights of Perth that students can observe dark sky objects such as galaxies and nebulae visually using a 30 inch Obsession and 14 inch Meade telescope. This is complemented with binoculars and planispheres so that students get a thorough grounding in navigating the night sky. Winter skies have produced some excellent nights of steady seeing and good clarity, but it can be quite challenging for the students to keep warm sleeping in tents. The warmer nights have provided students with the opportunity to lie under their flyscreens and enjoy the silent majesty of the Milky Way overhead. 2005 has seen a move away from using the telescope merely to produce images, beautiful though they may be, but to use telescopic images to collect data that can be analysed and evaluated to give us information about underlying processes. To this end we joined the Astronomical Association of Variable

Star Observers this year so that we could contribute data and research. For example Ben Goodsell has begun observing and plotting light curves for several different types of variable stars. Aaron Hueppauff has calibrated our astronomical images so that we can quantify the amount of variability that we will get in a set of images. Tom Cox has taken images of star clusters using different filters and has used this to determine the age and distance of these clusters. Bill Cooper The Astronomy Club has gathered pace withObservatory Administrator enthusiastic younger members. We have had many lectures on diverse topics such as Parallel Universes and Hot Topics in Modern Astronomy. Guest speakers included former Trinity student, Paul Luckas, who talked to the boys about the Tenagra Observatories and his supernovae discoveries. Students have attended the Mars Society public lectures which are held regularly at Trinity. Once again Trinity and the Astronomy Club students hosted the Annual Australian Astrofest.

Bill Cooper

Observatory Administrator

Colour Magnitude Diagram for NGC 4755

Bmag – Vmag

-2 -1.5 -1 -0.5 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 Academic

V mag