Astronomy Events

Hunter Valley Star Party (NSAS) - Thu 26th Sep 2019

NSAS is proud to announce the Hunter Valley Star Party is now up and confirmed for Thursday 26th Sept to Sunday 29th September 2019.
The Star Party will be at the Grapevines Estate which is in a picturesque setting and has a large area available for us to park cars and set up our telescopes. The site has been purposely chosen as it is central to the winery area with a range of accommodation nearby and also has an SQM rating of 20.9-21.2 mag/arcsec2 which is almost 2 bands darker than our Terry Hills site.

The Hunter Valley Star Party is aimed to be a spouse, family and friend friendly event where members are welcome and encouraged to bring spouses and friends. The setting in the beautiful Hunter Valley provides lots of opportunity to explore the area with vineyards, tours, incredible dinner experiences, many restaurants and many things to see and do.

This is not a public event and registration is restricted to members and their guests. We also intend to liaise with the local astronomy club up there and invite their participation.

Accommodation is now available to be booked and you can choose any place to stay. We have arranged for discounts at certain venues and these can and now should be booked to avoid disappointment.

For further details, see the HVSP Newsletter 2018/12/14.

You can register your interested at HVSP 2019 Registration.

Latest Event - Geminid Meteor Shower – Dec 4th to 17th

The Geminid meteor shower is an annual meteor shower that occurs in mid-December. It is called the Geminid meteor shower because the meteors appear to radiate from the constellation Gemini in the night sky. The Geminid meteor shower is usually one of the best meteor showers of the year, with up to 120 meteors visible per hour at its peak. The Geminids are caused by debris from an asteroid called 3200 Phaethon, which orbits the Sun once every 1.4 years.

The meteors are visible from around December 4th to 17th each year, with the peak of the shower occurring on the night of December 13th and the early morning of December 14th. To see the Geminids, you should go to a location with a clear, dark sky and look up towards the constellation Gemini. The best time to view the meteor shower is from around 10:00 p.m. to dawn.