[Music]
hello everybody have you ever found
yourself under a dark starry night and
you’ve looked up and you thought to
yourself look at that beautiful pattern
of stars over there I wonder what
they’re called and all but that pretty
yellow orange star there I wonder what
that’s called it was on a night like
this that I began my journey looking at
the Stars and it happened just over
thirty years ago when I was a young mum
and I had three young children and it
happened to be at a period when one of
my little boys was quite sick for a
couple of weeks with a very bad flu and
I also had a little baby girl I just
given birth to her so I was up quite a
lot at nighttime and I just decided that
one in the early hours of one morning
that before I went to bed I would just
go out onto the front patio and just
have a little rest I will never forget
what happened that night and I stepped
out onto the patio when I looked up at
the sky I just could not believe my eyes
the whole eastern sky was ablaze the sky
light I took another step out into the
garden and I looked above me and I could
see all these beautiful patterns of
stars and just for a moment it just took
my breath away and all of a sudden like
I’ve asked myself these questions Oh
what are all those patterns of stars and
look at those beautiful colors I just
want to know what it’s all about my mind
was racing a hundred miles an hour and I
just just inside all of these questions
about the universe what’s it all about
and it’s so beautiful I really want to
know this then all of a sudden under the
warmth of all that starlight my mind
just went quiet and a little voice
inside me said well
right come and find out all about me I
for a moment thought what am I going to
do how am I going to record this so I
ran inside I found a piece of paper and
a pencil and I went back out on the
patio and I drew exactly what I’d see in
the eastern sky I had no idea what the
constellations were but I just knew that
I wanted to know what the names of these
stars were after that I could not wait
for my baby to wake me up or one of my
children to wake me up because what I do
then is I’d settle them I’d run outside
with my pad and my paper and I would
just do these drawings of the night sky
and I had no idea what the Stars were
all of a sudden my children were going
to the library two or three times a week
because I needed to know what I was
drawing and they thought I was the most
wonderful mother and I decided that I
would let the sky teach me because I
knew nothing about it so the best thing
I could do was just wait for things to
happen do the drawings and find out what
constellations that that were in the sky
within three months they were going
across the sky and going down to the
west and a new lot of constellations
would be in the sky and this is what
happens I found out that and we all know
this from school we’re on the planet we
don’t really think about this and
there’s two things that we’re doing
we’re spinning on our axis in 24 hours
and this is what gives us our day and
night and we’re flying in orbit around
the Sun and we’re doing this very very
fast if I click my finger once like that
we’ve just gone 30 kilometres in a
second now this is fundamental if you
want to be in an astronomer because
while you were just looking at the night
sky it doesn’t appeal
that you’re actually moving at all if I
click one two we’ve just gone 6000
meters did you feel the earth move
anyone did you feel it but we are
because we have to get around the Sun in
one year and it’s this movement that is
why every three months we get to see a
different portion of the sky once you’ve
learned the constellations in the sky
you want to see more I really want to
see more so I saved up for a pair of
binoculars the pupil in your eye is only
about seven millimeters but a pair of
binoculars if you have a look at the
aperture of a pure but not fill is there
ten by fifty which are the best size to
buy that opens up another whole
wonderful universe of things to look up
it in the night sky you can see all the
phases of the Moon with a pair of
binoculars so you can see all the
craters on the moon that Luna sees all
you need to do is steady them as you’re
looking up at the sky and when you look
through the sky and you look up to the
park in the middle of our Milky Way
you’ll see all these beautiful star
clusters and nebulae which are areas of
where stars are being born or dying and
beautiful little patterns of stars which
I saw on that first night this is one of
my favorite objects which I love to see
in a pair of binoculars it is an object
chord omega centauri and it’s up near
the Southern Cross and it’s an area of
the sky that’s a ball of stars that have
got millions of stars or gravitationally
bound together and you can see them with
just young binoculars an absolutely
wonderful object in the sky to look at
then I had a camera and some lenses and
it was not easy to take photos of the
night sky because when we’re taking
ordinary pictures it’s just fractions of
the second like that but I learnt
through trial and error because I had no
one to teach me I was a young mum I
turned my
right and lenses to the sky not just of
everything the star groups the moon the
planets everything now I have a little
buddy under the stars and if you become
an astronomer no doubt you’ve got one of
these objects in the garden
this is a ciggy my Dalmatian doggie and
after I had pestered all my family for
years
knocking on a door come look at a
comment come live in an asteroid come
look at the moon no leave me alone
they’d all seen these things and by this
point they didn’t want to be woken up
anymore my favorite trusty dog
Ziggy would always be there with me now
these two objects that I’ve taken the
pictures off are two comments that were
in the southern hemisphere in 1996 and
1997 and if I hadn’t have learned how to
use my equipment equipment I would never
ever have got these photos on my right
they’re common Hyakutake and I lived in
a place in Ashmore with a lot of light
and I was able to take this comet with a
big tail and the other one is comet
hale-bopp if you become an astronomer
guess what you’ve got to get out of your
comfort zone everybody because the
universe is not gonna wait for you to
finish your dinner have you on that have
your sleep if it’s gonna be in the sky
and it’s gonna be there at 3:00 a.m.
you’ve got to be there to see it at 3:00
a.m.
comet Halley kotaki was 3 a.m. comet
hale-bopp on the other hand was a
dinnertime comet this was really a thing
where I’m going here why mummy was in
the bushes trying to take photos of this
comment I had a husband three children a
dog and a cat or wanting to be fed for
dinner and I would be there saying
please please look it won’t come back
around for a hundred thousand years but
I please just wait for your dinner for a
while this is why I put this story here
for you every photo that I take has got
a story and if you
push yourself a little bit what’s
getting up at 3 or 4 o’clock in the
morning really if you’re gonna see
something special then I learned with my
camera that I could take really
beautiful pictures remember this is just
camera lenses on a tripod anything that
you can all do and you can see here a
beautiful crescent moon and that happens
to be Jupiter and the stars are
pinpointed which means this is only just
a couple of second photograph and I’m
able to capture something like this
couldn’t you do that
could you do that course you could I
could if I could do it you can do it but
the trouble is with your photography
with your lenses on a tripod is that the
earth is spinning on its axis and you
can actually take a beautiful picture of
this this is called a star trail and if
you point it to a special area of the
sky called the South celestial sphere
and on the Gold Coast there happens to
be 28 degrees south point your camera
there for 10 minutes 15 minutes or 20
minutes and you’ll start to see the
rotation of the earth anyone can do that
my astronomy and space education began
when my little baby girl started a first
year at school 25 years ago and she
asked me mummy can you please be my
show-and-tell
and I looked at her I thought can I do
this 50 little grade one children
sitting in front of me can I really do
this so I took all my photos in and
these children were all sat down and as
soon as I started talking about the
night sky showing them my pictures all
these little pieces all it up like this
fast they just asked so many intelligent
questions I was taken with that I
thought straight away I want to share
what I’ve got with children with people
I got these beautiful drawings isn’t
that absolutely gorgeous of a little
child looking through my telescope and I
literally have thousands of them this is
the diddled telescope that I brought a
top-of-the-range tasko and I loved that
telescope this began my association with
NASA because what happened was in 1997
the Mars Pathfinder landed on Mars and I
started to write a write to NASA and the
different facilities saying I’m going
into schools and would there be any
chance you could send me some material
to help me in my school all of a sudden
boxes of material posters they were just
so pleased that he was this lady on the
Gold Coast who was going into schools
and showing children and since then I
have been working with NASA on the
different space missions and I didn’t
know then back in 1997 that I would be
part of one of the most exciting
missions to Saturn called the Cassini
this Cassini mission which I’ve been
involved with for 15 years it’s at this
point I say to you I saved up and saved
up and I knew that I needed to get an
equatorial mount telescope that’s one
that curates the movements of the earth
rotating on its axis and going forward
in its orbit and I knew I wanted to and
I knew I needed one where people could
actually line up behind the telescope’s
and and be able to look at the object
without it
moving across the IPS and that’s what
happens if you don’t have a computerized
telescope what happens is you’ll be
looking through the telescope and it
moves Saturn moves Jupiter moves the
moon moves across the eyepiece because
what are we doing we’re rotating on our
axis but if you’ve got a computerized
telescope that’s not going to happen
because I line it up to the cell
celestial pole properly and then I’m
able to keep it there
really clever isn’t it so what can you
do with a telescope you can’t do this
with your camera and lenses you need a
telescope to take beautiful pictures of
Saturn Jupiter and Mars last year came
very close to us the moon the moon is
the best object to start with whether
it’s you’re looking at it with your
binoculars or even a small telescope
because it fills up the whole eyepiece
even in a small telescope it is a
wonderful object to look at the next
thing that can happen is on a new moon
when the moon on the earth that’s the
moon and that’s the Sun so as the moon
goes around us that’s the full moon last
quarter new moon comes here it means
that the moon will cover completely the
disk of the Sun and we get a total
eclipse of the Sun which is absolutely
beautiful if you’re looking at the Sun
you must have a solar filter on your
telescope or if you’re using your lenses
or your binoculars use a solar filter
this is the little Pleiades star cluster
it is boyoung it’s the only 100 million
years old and it’s still got all its
baby guests all the way around it
because that’s how stars are being born
and it’s blue a beautiful blue color
this is up in the Milky Way and it’s one
hand the Milky Way goes all over us just
in one area is in Scorpius and
just happens to be a Dark Nebula and one
of those beautiful entire east star bear
which is a beautiful orange yellow star
isn’t it gorgeous this is what I do with
the Saturn observation campaign for NASA
for the last 15 years I voluntarily take
my telescope anywhere and I show people
from the age of 2 to 82 92 objects in
the night sky and what do you see
smiling faces beautiful smiling faces
and I get to share my equipment and my
passion to show people like would you
like to see Saturn or Jupiter through my
telescope would you like me to take you
outside and show you all the stars now
of course you would it would be
wonderful
I’d love to do it so whether you decide
to go out and try to catch a meteor one
night or you grab a pair of binoculars
and sit on a hill like my husband is to
see a beautiful comet this is Comet
McNaught you’ll see me underneath night
sky still doing what I love to do I can
show and I can tell you about the night
sky but it’s up to you to get off your
comfy lounge open up your door step
outside look up and discover your night
sky so happy stargazing everybody and
thank you very much
you
hello everybody have you ever found
yourself under a dark starry night and
you’ve looked up and you thought to
yourself look at that beautiful pattern
of stars over there I wonder what
they’re called and all but that pretty
yellow orange star there I wonder what
that’s called it was on a night like
this that I began my journey looking at
the Stars and it happened just over
thirty years ago when I was a young mum
and I had three young children and it
happened to be at a period when one of
my little boys was quite sick for a
couple of weeks with a very bad flu and
I also had a little baby girl I just
given birth to her so I was up quite a
lot at nighttime and I just decided that
one in the early hours of one morning
that before I went to bed I would just
go out onto the front patio and just
have a little rest I will never forget
what happened that night and I stepped
out onto the patio when I looked up at
the sky I just could not believe my eyes
the whole eastern sky was ablaze the sky
light I took another step out into the
garden and I looked above me and I could
see all these beautiful patterns of
stars and just for a moment it just took
my breath away and all of a sudden like
I’ve asked myself these questions Oh
what are all those patterns of stars and
look at those beautiful colors I just
want to know what it’s all about my mind
was racing a hundred miles an hour and I
just just inside all of these questions
about the universe what’s it all about
and it’s so beautiful I really want to
know this then all of a sudden under the
warmth of all that starlight my mind
just went quiet and a little voice
inside me said well
right come and find out all about me I
for a moment thought what am I going to
do how am I going to record this so I
ran inside I found a piece of paper and
a pencil and I went back out on the
patio and I drew exactly what I’d see in
the eastern sky I had no idea what the
constellations were but I just knew that
I wanted to know what the names of these
stars were after that I could not wait
for my baby to wake me up or one of my
children to wake me up because what I do
then is I’d settle them I’d run outside
with my pad and my paper and I would
just do these drawings of the night sky
and I had no idea what the Stars were
all of a sudden my children were going
to the library two or three times a week
because I needed to know what I was
drawing and they thought I was the most
wonderful mother and I decided that I
would let the sky teach me because I
knew nothing about it so the best thing
I could do was just wait for things to
happen do the drawings and find out what
constellations that that were in the sky
within three months they were going
across the sky and going down to the
west and a new lot of constellations
would be in the sky and this is what
happens I found out that and we all know
this from school we’re on the planet we
don’t really think about this and
there’s two things that we’re doing
we’re spinning on our axis in 24 hours
and this is what gives us our day and
night and we’re flying in orbit around
the Sun and we’re doing this very very
fast if I click my finger once like that
we’ve just gone 30 kilometres in a
second now this is fundamental if you
want to be in an astronomer because
while you were just looking at the night
sky it doesn’t appeal
that you’re actually moving at all if I
click one two we’ve just gone 6000
meters did you feel the earth move
anyone did you feel it but we are
because we have to get around the Sun in
one year and it’s this movement that is
why every three months we get to see a
different portion of the sky once you’ve
learned the constellations in the sky
you want to see more I really want to
see more so I saved up for a pair of
binoculars the pupil in your eye is only
about seven millimeters but a pair of
binoculars if you have a look at the
aperture of a pure but not fill is there
ten by fifty which are the best size to
buy that opens up another whole
wonderful universe of things to look up
it in the night sky you can see all the
phases of the Moon with a pair of
binoculars so you can see all the
craters on the moon that Luna sees all
you need to do is steady them as you’re
looking up at the sky and when you look
through the sky and you look up to the
park in the middle of our Milky Way
you’ll see all these beautiful star
clusters and nebulae which are areas of
where stars are being born or dying and
beautiful little patterns of stars which
I saw on that first night this is one of
my favorite objects which I love to see
in a pair of binoculars it is an object
chord omega centauri and it’s up near
the Southern Cross and it’s an area of
the sky that’s a ball of stars that have
got millions of stars or gravitationally
bound together and you can see them with
just young binoculars an absolutely
wonderful object in the sky to look at
then I had a camera and some lenses and
it was not easy to take photos of the
night sky because when we’re taking
ordinary pictures it’s just fractions of
the second like that but I learnt
through trial and error because I had no
one to teach me I was a young mum I
turned my
right and lenses to the sky not just of
everything the star groups the moon the
planets everything now I have a little
buddy under the stars and if you become
an astronomer no doubt you’ve got one of
these objects in the garden
this is a ciggy my Dalmatian doggie and
after I had pestered all my family for
years
knocking on a door come look at a
comment come live in an asteroid come
look at the moon no leave me alone
they’d all seen these things and by this
point they didn’t want to be woken up
anymore my favorite trusty dog
Ziggy would always be there with me now
these two objects that I’ve taken the
pictures off are two comments that were
in the southern hemisphere in 1996 and
1997 and if I hadn’t have learned how to
use my equipment equipment I would never
ever have got these photos on my right
they’re common Hyakutake and I lived in
a place in Ashmore with a lot of light
and I was able to take this comet with a
big tail and the other one is comet
hale-bopp if you become an astronomer
guess what you’ve got to get out of your
comfort zone everybody because the
universe is not gonna wait for you to
finish your dinner have you on that have
your sleep if it’s gonna be in the sky
and it’s gonna be there at 3:00 a.m.
you’ve got to be there to see it at 3:00
a.m.
comet Halley kotaki was 3 a.m. comet
hale-bopp on the other hand was a
dinnertime comet this was really a thing
where I’m going here why mummy was in
the bushes trying to take photos of this
comment I had a husband three children a
dog and a cat or wanting to be fed for
dinner and I would be there saying
please please look it won’t come back
around for a hundred thousand years but
I please just wait for your dinner for a
while this is why I put this story here
for you every photo that I take has got
a story and if you
push yourself a little bit what’s
getting up at 3 or 4 o’clock in the
morning really if you’re gonna see
something special then I learned with my
camera that I could take really
beautiful pictures remember this is just
camera lenses on a tripod anything that
you can all do and you can see here a
beautiful crescent moon and that happens
to be Jupiter and the stars are
pinpointed which means this is only just
a couple of second photograph and I’m
able to capture something like this
couldn’t you do that
could you do that course you could I
could if I could do it you can do it but
the trouble is with your photography
with your lenses on a tripod is that the
earth is spinning on its axis and you
can actually take a beautiful picture of
this this is called a star trail and if
you point it to a special area of the
sky called the South celestial sphere
and on the Gold Coast there happens to
be 28 degrees south point your camera
there for 10 minutes 15 minutes or 20
minutes and you’ll start to see the
rotation of the earth anyone can do that
my astronomy and space education began
when my little baby girl started a first
year at school 25 years ago and she
asked me mummy can you please be my
show-and-tell
and I looked at her I thought can I do
this 50 little grade one children
sitting in front of me can I really do
this so I took all my photos in and
these children were all sat down and as
soon as I started talking about the
night sky showing them my pictures all
these little pieces all it up like this
fast they just asked so many intelligent
questions I was taken with that I
thought straight away I want to share
what I’ve got with children with people
I got these beautiful drawings isn’t
that absolutely gorgeous of a little
child looking through my telescope and I
literally have thousands of them this is
the diddled telescope that I brought a
top-of-the-range tasko and I loved that
telescope this began my association with
NASA because what happened was in 1997
the Mars Pathfinder landed on Mars and I
started to write a write to NASA and the
different facilities saying I’m going
into schools and would there be any
chance you could send me some material
to help me in my school all of a sudden
boxes of material posters they were just
so pleased that he was this lady on the
Gold Coast who was going into schools
and showing children and since then I
have been working with NASA on the
different space missions and I didn’t
know then back in 1997 that I would be
part of one of the most exciting
missions to Saturn called the Cassini
this Cassini mission which I’ve been
involved with for 15 years it’s at this
point I say to you I saved up and saved
up and I knew that I needed to get an
equatorial mount telescope that’s one
that curates the movements of the earth
rotating on its axis and going forward
in its orbit and I knew I wanted to and
I knew I needed one where people could
actually line up behind the telescope’s
and and be able to look at the object
without it
moving across the IPS and that’s what
happens if you don’t have a computerized
telescope what happens is you’ll be
looking through the telescope and it
moves Saturn moves Jupiter moves the
moon moves across the eyepiece because
what are we doing we’re rotating on our
axis but if you’ve got a computerized
telescope that’s not going to happen
because I line it up to the cell
celestial pole properly and then I’m
able to keep it there
really clever isn’t it so what can you
do with a telescope you can’t do this
with your camera and lenses you need a
telescope to take beautiful pictures of
Saturn Jupiter and Mars last year came
very close to us the moon the moon is
the best object to start with whether
it’s you’re looking at it with your
binoculars or even a small telescope
because it fills up the whole eyepiece
even in a small telescope it is a
wonderful object to look at the next
thing that can happen is on a new moon
when the moon on the earth that’s the
moon and that’s the Sun so as the moon
goes around us that’s the full moon last
quarter new moon comes here it means
that the moon will cover completely the
disk of the Sun and we get a total
eclipse of the Sun which is absolutely
beautiful if you’re looking at the Sun
you must have a solar filter on your
telescope or if you’re using your lenses
or your binoculars use a solar filter
this is the little Pleiades star cluster
it is boyoung it’s the only 100 million
years old and it’s still got all its
baby guests all the way around it
because that’s how stars are being born
and it’s blue a beautiful blue color
this is up in the Milky Way and it’s one
hand the Milky Way goes all over us just
in one area is in Scorpius and
just happens to be a Dark Nebula and one
of those beautiful entire east star bear
which is a beautiful orange yellow star
isn’t it gorgeous this is what I do with
the Saturn observation campaign for NASA
for the last 15 years I voluntarily take
my telescope anywhere and I show people
from the age of 2 to 82 92 objects in
the night sky and what do you see
smiling faces beautiful smiling faces
and I get to share my equipment and my
passion to show people like would you
like to see Saturn or Jupiter through my
telescope would you like me to take you
outside and show you all the stars now
of course you would it would be
wonderful
I’d love to do it so whether you decide
to go out and try to catch a meteor one
night or you grab a pair of binoculars
and sit on a hill like my husband is to
see a beautiful comet this is Comet
McNaught you’ll see me underneath night
sky still doing what I love to do I can
show and I can tell you about the night
sky but it’s up to you to get off your
comfy lounge open up your door step
outside look up and discover your night
sky so happy stargazing everybody and
thank you very much
you
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