Programme

NACAA XXIII was the biggest and best NACAA ever, with over 40 speakers, 8 workshops and round-tables, 3 plenary speakers, and a symposium to boot. The schedule was so full that two parallel streams were run for most of the four days. Our distinguished speakers were:

• Keynote address: Professor Matthew Colless, “The Future of Australian Optical Astronomy”
• Dinner address: Professor Ray Norris, “Aboriginal Australians: the World’s First Astronomers?”
• Plenary address: Dr Arne Henden, “The Amateur Scientist in Modern Society”

There were a number of round-table and special interest group sessions:

• “The International Year of Astronomy: Opportunities for the Amateur Community”, Helen Sim (ATNF), Robert Hollow (ATNF), David Malin (AAO ret.), and John O’Byrne (UofSyd)
• “Asteroid Research and Amateur Input”, Col Bembrick
• “How You Can Help the AAVSO”, Arne Henden (AAVSO)
• “Planning, Operation and Administration of Very Large Amateur Telescopes”, Barry Adcock

The Second Trans-Tasman Symposium on Occultations was held in conjunction with NACAA XXIII.

A number of hands-on half-day and full-day workshops were held on Friday and Monday:

• “Precision CCD Photometry”, Arne Henden (AAVSO)
• “Modern Lens Design Techniques”, Barry Adcock
• “Light Curve Analysis of Contact Binary Stars”, Surjit S Wadhwa
• “Occultations: Observing and Analysis”, as part of 2-TTSO