The NACAA Programme Committee is responsible for the coordination of the content of the convention, and providing support to all its presenters and contributors.
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Stephen Russell (Chair) Stephen has been attending NACAA since 1970. His involvement became more serious in 2006 when he volunteered to set up the NACAA Inc web site. Since then he has served as Communication Secretary and three terms as General Secretary. This is his second attempt to organise the NACAA programme; His first attempt resulted in a global pandemic in 2020. In his almost-zero spare time, he is interested in occultation observing, solar eclipses, telescope making, and astronomical software. |
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Jacquie Milner Jacquie has been an amateur astronomer for 30 years, and has been active in outreach activities for 25 years of that. She spent six years under the dome at the Scitech Planetarium in Perth, and 17 years as a volunteer night-tour guide at Perth Observatory. After moving to Melbourne in 2014, she became a regular with the outreach team for Mount Burnett Observatory and also teaches the juniors in the Young Observers section. At home, she slips a video camera into the back of her 8” SCT to record lunar and asteroid occultations for the RASNZ Occultation Section, which she has been regularly observing and reporting for since 2012. |
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David O'Driscoll David has particular interests in photometry, astrometry, spectroscopy and robotic telescopes. A member of the Astronomical Association of Queensland and Variable Stars South, David is trying to undertake a research program, but running conferences and managing astronomical websites seem to keep getting in the way. Combined with family and a demanding job, David has decided he has to learn to say "no" more often. Little progress on that aspiration so far. |
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Rick Stevenson Rick was interested in astronomy from a very early age and maintained this interest despite a well-meaning but frustrating parental gift of a cheap, poor quality refractor. In 2011 he became interested in astrophotography and became just a little obsessed with it. As well as imaging from home and sites around South-East Queensland, he shares remote scopes in California, New Mexico and the southern Atacama Desert. He is a member of the AAQ and a keen PixInsight user. Rick studied Computer Science at the University of Queensland and prior to retiring a few months before COVID-19 arrived he spent many years building and working in technology start-ups. |
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Perry Vlahos Perry is an astronomy educator, author, and broadcaster. A member of the ASV for 35 years, 30 of those on its Council, he has served four terms as President. His passion is astronomy education, often leading Tours of the Universe with green laser pointer in hand for schools, the public, and other astronomers. For ten years he wrote the syndicated weekly astronomy column in The Age, and made as many weekly appearances on radio ABC 774 in Melbourne. He’s been interviewed many times on all TV channels, was one half of the sold out Star Show at Federation Square event combining music with astronomy, and is ‘Astronomer in Residence’ at the Meredith Golden Plains Music Festival every year. |