Auckland Astronomical Society

Monthly Meeting
Monday 8th June at 8:00pm, Te Whatu Stardome Observatory

The NASA Psyche mission: First Journey to an Unknown World

The NASA Psyche mission is on its way to orbit a small but immensely ancient world in our asteroid belt: A metallic object, the first humans will ever have visited. When our solar system was in its infancy, thousands of planetesimals (tiny planet-like objects) formed in less than a million years. Many planetesimals later melted, allowing metal cores to form inside rocky mantles. One of these metal cores may be revealed in the asteroid (16) Psyche. Dr. Elkins-Tanton, the Mission Lead, takes us behind the scenes in planning and carrying out this remarkable mission of exploration, which launched in 2023, and updates us of where we are over two years post-launch.

This is a rebroadcast of a Silicon Valley Astronomy Lecture.

Introduction to Astronomy
Monday 1 June at 8:00pm, Stardome Observatory

NASA's Perseverance Rover
Searching for Ancient Life on Mars

NASA’s Perseverance Rover landed on Mars in February 2021, exploring Jezero Crater. Come along for this special evening to learn about the rover, its instruments, and how it conducts its science, then take a visual journey through this fascinating crater. Hear about Perseverance's key discoveries and their implications for our understanding of Mars and its past ability to support life. You will be surprised by how this incredible rover is helping scientists solve the ultimate cold case: Did Life Exist on Mars? A scaled model will also be available to view.

All attendees will receive a comprehensive, multi-page handout that covers and expands on everything we discuss. Don’t miss out!

Film Night May - Cosmos - 45 years Later - The Shores of the Cosmic Ocean

A reminder that Film Night is on this Monday 25th May at Te Whatu Stardome Observatory, 8 pm.

This Month we are commencing a revisit of the Cosmos Series - 45 Years later.

The Shores of the Cosmic Ocean

Subject: Introduction to the scale of the Cosmos using the “Ship of the Imagination”; cosmic calendar; Eratosthenes and the Library of Alexandria; humanity’s place in the universe. 45 Years Later:
Hubble Space Telescope (1990–) and JWST (2022–) have mapped billions of galaxies and precise cosmic distances; universe age refined to 13.8 billion years.
Discovery of cosmic microwave background anisotropies (COBE/WMAP/Planck) and accelerating expansion (dark energy, 1998).
Exoplanets: from zero in 1980 to >6,100 confirmed; billions likely in the Milky Way alone.

Monthly Meeting
Monday 18th May at 8:00pm, Te Whatu Stardome Observatory

Rocks from Space

Prof. Jonti Horner

Jonti first became interested in astronomy at the age of five, after seeing the BBC TV programme ‘The Sky at Night’, and soon became an enthusiastic amateur astronomer. He joined his local astronomical society in the UK, WYAS (the West Yorkshire Astronomical Society) at the age of eight, and is currently honoured to serve as the society’s honorary president. To pursue his dream of turning his hobby into a career, Jonti studied a Masters’ degree in Physics and Astronomy at the University of Durham, before moving to the University of Oxford to undertake his doctoral studies. Once his PhD was complete, Jonti worked as apostdoctoral research fellow at the University of Bern and the UK’s Open University before moving to Australia in 2010 to work at UNSW. In 2014, he moved to Toowoomba, to join the University of Southern Queensland, where he is now Professor of Astrophysics. His research ranges from the study of our own Solar system to the search for planets orbiting other stars, as well as trying to understand the different factors that could come together to make one planet more or less suitable as a target in the search for life beyond Earth.

Practical Astronomy
Monday 11th May at 8:00pm, Stardome Observatory
Occultations

Speaker/Host Michael Camilleri

In this meeting Michael Camilleri will give a presentation on Occultations and what can be learned from them.

An occultation in astronomy is an event where one astronomical object, such as the Moon, planet or asteroid, passes in front of another object, like a star, blocking it from view. Measuring precise timing from multiple locations of these events can reveal much information about the occulting object.

A reminder That there is no AAS meeting this Monday 4th May. Te Whatu Stardome are holding Star Wars themed shows on Monday evening. Namely "The Planets of Star Wars".

Annual General Meeting 2026
Monday 27th April at 8:00pm, Te Whatu Stardome Observatory

The Society Council will present the 2025/2026 Society reports and accounts to the membership along with the election of Officers for the 2026/2027 year. All members are encouraged to attend. The agenda and other documents can be accessed via the AGM Documents link below. Please note that some documents that will be presented at the meeting have not been uploaded yet, so please check the linked folder later in the day. Note that only current financial members may vote on the motions put to the meeting,

The meeting will be the first general meeting to be conducted under the new AAS constitution. This means that proxy voting is now permitted. The form for this will be available via the AGM Documents link below.

It will also be possible to attend the meeting online via Microsoft Teams. Note that this is supported by most web browsers, so the Teams client is not required to join the meeting.

Practical Astronomy
Monday 20th May at 8:00pm, Te Whatu Stardome Observatory
Variable Stars

Speaker/Host Bill Thomas.

Observation of variable stars has a long history with amateur astronomy. We will discuss the types of variable stars and how to observe them to obtain scientifically useful data. This is still a valuable activity even with the large survey telescopes, as amateurs can obtain data for stars that are too bright for the large telescopes, or for certain types of variable stars where changes are happening rapidly, the survey scopes cannot be dedicated for short cadence observing of a single star.

Monthly Meeting
Monday 13th April at 8:00pm, Te Whatu Stardome Observatory

Little Red Dots

100 years ago this year, Edwin Hubble published the first conclusive evidence that there were galaxies beyond the Milky Way. This lecture, using new results from our latest space telescopes and ground-based instruments, surveys the diversity of systems that we’ve found since, from giant and beautiful spirals to mysterious Little Red Dots.

This lecture was recorded by Chris Lintott on 18th March 2026 at Conway Hall, London.

Professor Chris Lintott is a Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Oxford, and a Research Fellow at New College.

Having been educated at Magdalene College, Cambridge and University College London, his research now ranges from understanding how galaxies form and evolve, to using machine learning to find the most unusual things in the Universe, to predicting the properties of visiting interstellar asteroids. He was the founder of the Zooniverse citizen science platform, which provides opportunities for more than two million online volunteers to contribute to scientific research, and which was the topic of his first book, 'The Crowd and the Cosmos’. His latest book is ‘Our Accidental Universe’.

Professor Lintott is best known for presenting the BBC's long-running Sky at Night program, and as an accomplished lecturer. Away from work, he cooks, suffers through being a fan of Torquay United and Somerset cricket, and spends time with a rescued lurcher, Mr Max. He can often be found at the helm of Oxford’s science comedy night, ‘Huh, That’s Funny’.

Introduction to Astronomy
Monday 6 April at 8:00pm, Stardome Observatory.

The Origin of the Elements
The making of everything - from us to gold rings

Everything and everyone around you is made up of atoms from combinations of up to 118 elements. From the iron in your blood, the calcium in your bones, the silicon in your phone, to the gold and silver in your jewellery.

What are atoms and elements? Where did they come from and how were they made? Tonight, Chris Benton will answer these questions, including how stars live, collide, and die, and importantly, how many of them end their lives as massive supernova explosions. You will learn all of this and much more, showing how the famous astronomer, Carl Sagan, was right in saying that we are all made of star-stuff.

All attendees will receive a comprehensive, multi-page handout that covers and expands on everything we discuss. Don’t miss out!