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2010 programme
Sun 4th
13:00-13:30
Dusty Telescopes, Mouldy Books and Boring Old Gentlemen
Ray Johnston
Star Dreaming Australia
In 2004, the irrepressible Prof Fred Watson AM wrote a book titled “Stargazer, the Life and Times of the Telescope” covering the birth and development of the telescope. After many requests, a tour was put together to visit some of the sites mentioned in the book and in September 2008, a varied bunch of Aussie astronomers, enthusiasts and not so enthusiastic partners assembled in Edinburgh to tour through the UK and Europe. It turned out to be a fascinating mix of astronomical moments and tourist hotspots and was voted as one of best experiences many of the participants had enjoyed. This presentation covers that tour with delightful anecdotes and pictorial highlights. It was a huge success in spite of the title which was coined by one of the not so enthusiastic partners.
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 Dusty Telescopes presentation (64MB ZIP) | 0 bytes |
Ray is a regular NACAA contributor and operated the Great Barrier Reef Observatory on Hamilton Island for 18 years. Following on a surfeit of island decadence, Ray and his wife recently moved to the Wide Bay area. They also operated Star Dreaming, an Education Queensland approved mobile planetarium with Imax-style educational space films.
Ray has a keen interest in archeo-astronomy and has made presentations to previous conventions. He is also an invited cruise lecturer with Cunard’s Insight Programme.