NACAA XXVI, Melbourne 2014

The Astronomical Society of Victoria hosted the 26^th NACAA over the Easter 2014 weekend. It was an outstanding success.

Over the four days of the event, there were more than 60 presentations, covering the diverse range of amateur astronomy activities in Australia and beyond. Highlights included:

• Richard Gillespie's keynote address on the past and future of the Great Melbourne Telescope
• Padma Yanamandra-Fisher talking about the role of amateur astronomers in planetary science
• An entertaining after-dinner talk by Andrew Prentice on the formation of the solar system
• The Perdrix Address was delivered by Barry Adcock
• The 8th Trans-Tasman Symposium on Occultations was broadcast to the world
• Workshops on occultation timing, spectroscopy, and robotic telescopes
• A tour of the workshops where the GMT is being restored by Museum Victoria and the ASV
• A tour of the Old Melbourne Observatory

Click here to see the full programme.

The 2014 Page Medal was presented at the convention dinner to Tim Napier-Munn for his work to model the factors that affect the resolving of double stars by visual observers. The Astral Award for best presentation went to Saeed Salimpour who spoke on the exciting life of Captain Henry Evans Baker.