Astronomy's Looking Up, but where to?   With panelists Michael Burton and Ray Norris an compere, Fred Watson, possibly also on guitar! Friday, October 27th 2000, 7:00-9:00pm Imperial Hotel, Coonabarabran, NSW Science in the Pub returns to Coonabarabran to discuss the future of astronomy. Following last years stunning Coonabarabran edition, SciPub once more returns to tackle the subject of astronomy again. We bring an infrared astronomer and a radio astronomer together to talk about where astronomy's come from and where its heading. What are the big questions to be answered and what telescopes do we need to do so? And where does Australia, a nation with a proud astronomical heritage, fit into the big picture of what is now very much a global science? Dr Michael Burton is an astronomer from the University of New South Wales. His research specialty is how stars form, inside the giant cocoons of dust and gas that line the plane of our Milky Way Galaxy. To peer inside their depths requires the use of infrared telescopes. Michael is thus known as an infrared astronomer, one of those people who glow in the dark. This seems to keep taking him to Coonabarabran during the Full of the Moon, to use the Anglo Australian Telescope, which has some people wondering whether the howling sounds at Siding Spring really come from pining koalas. Infrared astronomy has taken Michael around the world, and he has observed on every continent, as well as high up above the Earth from an airborne telescope. Michael learnt his trade in the rarefied air of Mauna Kea, the 4,000m high observatory on a dormant volcano in Hawaii, where he ran to every winter while supposedly studying for a PhD in Edinburgh in sunny Scotland. Following a few years with NASA in California and the Anglo Australian Observatory in suburban Epping, he ended up in the School of Physics of UNSW in 1993. Alas, there has still not been another appointment there since. From UNSW he has pioneered the development of astronomy in Antarctica, making the first measurements of the infrared sky at the South Pole in 1994, and is now leading the drive the build the 2-m Douglas Mawson Telescope at Dome C on the high Antarctic plateau. Michael has recently become a mm-astronomer, which doesn't mean he has shrunk, but instead moved into new field, in between the infrared and radio bands. He now finds himself now coming to Coonabarabran to use the Mopra millimetre-wave telescope for this purpose, the largest such telescope in the southern hemisphere.   Professor Ray Norris is head of astrophysics at the Australia Telescope National Facility, which runs the radio- telescopes at Parkes, Narrabri, and Mopra, near Siding Spring Observatory. He first studied at Cambridge, with aspirations of becoming a theoretical physicist, but soon found that Theoretical Physics was more about Wronskians and Green's Functions than about solving the secrets of the Universe, so he became a radio-astronomer instead. Besides, radio-astronomers have bigger toys. He went on to do a PhD and a postdoc at Jodrell Bank, near Manchester, UK, where he first made his international reputation by the prodigious quantities of Marston's Pedigree he consumed at the local pub. In the odd moments when he was not in the pub he studied maser radio emission from star formation regions and from other galaxies. He also tackled the problem of whether Stonehenge and other Bronze-age monuments had been built as astronomical observatories (they were, but not very good ones). In 1983, Ray and his family fled from the cold and murky Manchester weather to the sunnier climes of Sydney, to help with the design of the Australia Telescope. He became notorious in 1984 by proposing to switch off the radio emission from Halley's comet by transmitting a radio signal from Earth, to study the physics of the comet. This would be the first time that humankind had done a "laboratory experiment" on a celestial body. Not everybody agreed that this would be a fun thing to do, and it caused a storm of protest from environmental and New Age groups, resulting in the executive of the International Astronomical Union ruling that this experiment should not be pursued. Currently, his main goal in life is trying to get to the bottom of the mound of papers on his desk, but he occasionally does some research, mainly on the formation and evolution of galaxies, and why some have black holes and others don't. Some of the galaxies in the Hubble Deep Field South can barely be seen with the Hubble Space Telescope, but can be studied at radio wavelengths, using the Australia Telescope. These galaxies at the dawn of time may tell us how galaxies were born and how they evolved into galaxies like the Milky Way in the modern Universe. He also works on the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI), using telescopes like Parkes to try to eavesdrop on any signals that might leak out from other civilisations in other parts of the Galaxy.   True to the tradition of Science in the Pub, both Michael and Ray present their 'abstract' in verse: From Michael: The Daylight is Dying with apologies to AB Paterson The daylight is dying Away in the west, The wild birds are flying In silence to rest. The astronomer is stirring, His flatfields complete; He sets the telescope a'wirring Towards a source with some heat. Full of infrared photons Embedded in dust, Where gravity's pulled in protons And made a star from its lust. For when night doth her glories Of starshine unfold, Tis then that the stories Of the Universe are told. But the light is so dim From the source in the sky, That the secrets remain within However hard that we try. So to Antarctica do we tread Where, full of hope Do we plan on a thread How to build a new scope. But along comes the politician, Oh how he does strut, And with the cry of "innovation" Our funding is cut. So do we follow the fashion, Head abroad, to our loss As we follow our passion To explore the Cosmos. Beyond all denials The stars in their glories The breeze in the myalls Are part of these stories. and from Ray: A bit of Doggerel (with apologies to Lewis Carroll) The sun was shining on the land, Shining with all his might. The astronomers were observing The sources large and bright And this was odd, because their stars Were bright in broad daylight. The dishes up at Narrabri Do not heed the sun. The radio waves that leave the stars Unchanged, unhindered, run Towards the radio telescopes Where clever things are done. The telescopes make pictures, By AIPS and its controls These pictures tell you stories Of quasars and black holes And galaxies and masers Depending on your goals. Extinction is a problem For those who just use light. Their quasars are oft hidden By dust that dims their sight. But radio waves ignore it And through the dust shine bright By counting up the galaxies And dusty quasars pale The optical astronomers Assumed they knew the tale Of how the Universe came to be - That oft-sought Holy Grail! They thought at redshift 1.5 The stars were all being made But didn't count the galaxies Whose dust had made them fade And of the early Universe No glimmer was betrayed. At millimetre wavelengths Those early stars shine bright And counting up the sources Showed us a whole new light Where early star formation Was lightening the night. Beyond the redshift 4.5 We now know stars are born And galaxies are merging And black holes likewise torn. The use of other wavelengths Betrayed the bright false dawn. The intelligent astronomer Should not be so constrained To stick to just those wavelengths In which he has been trained. Instead the other wavelengths Are where knowledge may be gained. If you are visiting Coonabarabran why not make a weekend of it and join in with the AstroFest or the Festival of the Stars?! Other events on include: Sunday October 29, 6pm: Primary School Hall. Annual Bok Lecture - Professor David Malin from the Anglo Australian Observatory: "Microscope to Telescope" followed by Starry Starry Night in the school grounds. Science and the arts come together under the stars, with Bill Robinson, David Malin, Fred Watson, Michael Burton and the Coonabarabran Public School Aborginal Dance Troupe. Tea, coffee and telescopes provided – bring your own picnic (and maybe some warm clothes)! (No alcohol in the school grounds.) Science in the Pub™ is an initiative of the Australian Science Communicators (NSW). Regular sessions are staged from 7.00-9.00 pm on the last Wednesday of every even month (February - October) at the Harlequin Inn, 152 Harris Street, Pyrmont in Sydney. We can organise Science in YOUR Pub anywhere in Australia, or the world! Please contact Robyn Stutchbury, phone: 02 9427 6747; fax: 02 9427 6767; email: Robyn Stutchbury on rstutch@bigpond.net.au.  Visit our website at http://www.scienceinthepub.com/.  Admission costs $5 worth of raffle tickets, your chance to win one of many excellent prizes!   Future Science in the Pub sessions (see the website for full details):
Science in the Pub™, © 2000. Stutchbury, R, Burton, M.