Oxford XIII / IAUS 399 - Melbourne

11/11/2025

ISAAC is opening nominations for Council, which includes four roles: Vice-President / President Elect, Secretary, Treasurer, and three Triennial Council Members.

16/09/2025

"Australia’s Cultural Night Sky"
by John Goldsmith & Quinton Tucker

Our project aims to provide an intergenerational experience on country to enable a group of Aboriginal youth aged 12–15 years to experience the splendours of a truly dark night sky and cultural storytelling, which will take place at a very special landscape at Lake Ballard in the Goldfields region of WA. This site is home to acclaimed international artist Sir Antony Gormley’s “Inside Australia” project, with 51 alien-like metal statues widely located across the Lake Ballard salt lake. The major outcome envisaged from this project is to significantly advance and enhance community attitudes and valuing of cultural astronomy. We will achieve this via the creation and field testing of a positive cultural learning experience for Aboriginal youth. Our project is funded by the IAU via the international Astronomy for Development programme (Astro4dev.org) which is administered in Cape Town. Dark night skies are a vital prerequisite to preserve, maintain and communicate Australian Aboriginal sky knowledge. Several sky patterns originating from ancient Aboriginal culture in Australia, are recognized from dark areas in the Milky Way. Visibility of these “dark nebulae” are drastically affected by urban light pollution. This prevents or severely restricts their appreciation by those who live in urban, light polluted areas. Maintaining dark skies for the benefit of all, is a vital goal. Western Australian Aboriginal astronomical knowledge is intimately based on awareness and experience of dark night skies. Many Indigenous and Aboriginal communities throughout the world are focussed on caring for our own planet, via relationships, awareness, responsibility and care. This approach contrasts sharply with ego based exploitive approaches of modern space exploration. Faced with multiple threats including light pollution and massive increase in satellite traffic, these negative effects can be countered via awareness, experience and community learning. The inspiration behind our project comes from several sources, including (1) Western Australian Museum astrophotography exhibit “Western Australia by Night” (2) PhD Thesis “Cosmos, Culture and Landscape” (2014) (3) “Visions of the Cosmos, Landscape Astrophotography from Western Australia” (2023), (4) recent documentary films including “The Borderless Sky, The Aboriginal Sky of Australia” and “Fireball, Visitors from Darker Worlds” and (5) experience and learnings from the 2023 Total Solar Eclipse, Exmouth, Western Australia. The direct management, control and direction of the project by Koya Aboriginal Corporation in partnership with Celestial Visions (www.celestialvisions.com.au) is a vital part of our future success story and we hope that our story will help to inspire others to develop socially responsible, positive ventures into the future.

IAUS399: Indigenous Astronomy in the Space Age

https://youtu.be/GKym9k9mxZs?si=N4fOTui8oMh4RpQ5

John Goldsmith & Quinton Tucker – Australia’s Cultural Night SkyRobert Fuller – Aboriginal Astronomy of the Sydney BasinIsaac Warbrick & Jade Kameta – It’s n...

08/09/2025

"Pathways to the Oases: Introducing machine learning to archaeoastronomical study of funerary structures in Northwest Arabia"

by Maitane Urrutia-Aparicio (Universidad Europea de Canarias, Spain)

Archaeoastronomical data analysis has proven to be a unique tool for the construction of narratives in cultural land- and skyscapes, reinforced by material evidence. However, when archaeological prospects are scarce or not accessible, the weight of this type of data increases. This is the case of the pathways in the north-west Arabian regions leading to the oases of Khaybar and Al-Hait, which are surrounded by a myriad of drystone funerary structures, dating to the third millennium BCE . Due to the vast number of them, their individual identification in situ or through transects in high-resolution satellite imagery becomes laborious and time-consuming. Therefore, it constitutes a potential case for applying new techniques which may facilitate and accelerate their detection and, moreover, extract useful information such as the orientation of a comprehensive and large sample, the basic data of archeoastronomy. So far, the studies carried out in the Khaybar Harrat monuments state that most of these ‘keyhole’ and ‘pendant’ tombs are perpendicular to the pathways, but no systematic analysis on the topic has been performed. The present work attempts to identify the funerary structures and their orientations through machine learning and afterwards, explore possible patterns perhaps related to local topography or astronomical targets. Preliminary results suggest a predilection for cardinal directions, predominantly close to the East-West line, indicating a preference for the solar range. Besides, orientations towards South-Southeast have been identified to a lesser extent. A putative target for such orientation could be the bright star Canopus, whose long-lasting importance in the Arabian Peninsula is well documented. However, substantial evidence supporting these hypotheses is indeed lacking. This work not only underscores the advantages of using machine learning in archaeoastronomical research but also lays the groundwork for future studies that need the extraction of large-scale orientation data unattainable through conventional approaches. Nonetheless, these data ought to be corroborated by archaeological, topographic, and eventually, ethnographic evidence.

https://youtu.be/KgFKUZtq_04?si=xMfGls-cVBTvRcqF&t=5532

IAUS399: Indigenous Astronomy in the Space Age

03/09/2025

"Using Machine Learning to Interpret the Insights into Borobudur's Celestial Reliefs"

Irma Indriana Hariawang(ITB Astronomy Alumni Association, langitselatan, Indonesia),

Suyami (Research Center for Manuscript, Literature, and Oral Tradition, ORABS - BRIN, Indonesia),

Emanuel Sungging Mumpuni (Research Center for Space, ORPA - BRIN, Indonesia)

Abstract

The Borobudur temple as one of heritage monuments has been studied for different aspects by many scholars, but not many on related to astronomy. There are questions still to be studied about the relation between the imagination and perception of ancient people on why they established the building, and how we perceive the building in our understanding as modern people - in particular on the appreciation of the sky. In recent time, exploration on relation between Borobudur and the sky had attracted younger scholars, like on the relation between the temple orientation with celestial object, how it possible relation function as gnomon and as a mathematical model for calendar system, as well on relief and structure relation to archaeoastronomy, and identification the symbols that related to celestial objects, Putra (2021) shows the interest to study about the aspect of astronomy related the existence of the Borobudur increased. This work implements Recurrent Neural Networks (RNN), to interpret the astronomical significance of a specific relief on Borobudur Temple’s sixth floor, depicting a crescent moon, seven circles, and the sun. By reconstructing the ancient sky, we aim to identify the celestial configurations observable during Borobudur’s construction, particularly the positions of Ursa Major relative to the crescent moon. This study reveals a correlation between the relief and ancient celestial phenomena, offering new insights into the astronomical knowledge of the ancient Javanese people. It is expected that implementing machine learning methods can help in offering new ideas to give solutions on archaeoastronomy study.

IAUS399: Indigenous Astronomy in the Space Age

Video Link: https://lnkd.in/gMkxpsVD

27/08/2025

“arcAstro–VR” for Archaeoastronomy

by Kazuhiro Sekiguchi, Kuninori Iwashiro, and Yosh*taka Hojo (Japan)

Many archaeological remains exhibit positions and orientations that suggest a connection with astronomical phenomena Ruggles (2015b). We can gain deeper insights into their spatial awareness and cultural practices by empirically analyzing these relationships and exploring how ancient people perceived celestial bodies. However, the celestial landscape we observe today differs from the past's. Due to Earth's precession, the apparent declinations of stars shift over decades to centuries. Similarly, the rise and set positions of the Sun, Moon, and planets change subtly over time due to gradual variations in the ecliptic tilt Ruggles (2015a). Archaeological studies have examined interactions between light, shadow, and celestial events—such as solstices, equinoxes, and specific alignments with stars and planets— by analyzing azimuth angles of structures, both human-made and natural. However, such observations often require extended periods and can be hampered by the deteriorated state of the remains. To address these challenges, a virtual reconstruction system that combines archaeological data with astronomical simulations offers a powerful tool for exploration and analysis Zotti (2019). We are developing arcAstro-VR, a computer system designed to virtually reconstruct archaeological sites and simulate past astronomical phenomena in a 3D virtual reality (VR) space. Built on Stellarium Zotti, Hoffmann et al. (2021), Zotti and Wolf (2023), an open-source planetarium software, arcAstro-VR reproduces historical skies with high accuracy. This platform allows users to explore the spatial relationship between archaeological remains and celestial phenomena in an immersive VR environment with customizable settings for enhanced analysis. The latest version, Ver0.20.3, supports Meta Quest (Oculus Quest) headsets via PC connection with MetaLink. New features include a compass map display centered on a user-defined marker, dome master output for 360-degree dome projection using a fisheye lens, and water reflection simulation for any surface location. arcAstro-VR is open source, licensed under the GNU General Public License v3, and is available for Windows (Windows 8 and later) and macOS (macOS 10.14 and later). For more details, visit arcAstro-VR’s official website. For example, I will highlight virtual reproductions of two sites in Japan: the Yoshinogari ruins in Saga Prefecture and the Tsukuriyama Kofun Tumulus in Okayama Prefecture. These sites showcase the capabilities of arcAstro-VR.

IAUS399: Indigenous Astronomy in the Space Age
Day 1: Session 2: Tools and Methods

https://youtu.be/KgFKUZtq_04?si=jLSXRFDTBllcu56q&t=3435

25/08/2025

Using Stellarium to Obtain Star Position Data

Elizabeth Brooker (James Cook University, Australia), Nithin Babu, and Duane Hamacher (University of Melbourne)

Often, embedded in Indigenous traditions are generations of astronomic observations. These traditions correlate the motions of celestial objects with times of animal migrations, times of agricultural cultivation, star positions for navigating, and predicted motions to indicate seasonal weather changes. Often ethnographic evidence is best understood when combined with demonstrated celestial motion position using Stellarium paired with recorded patterns of animal migration and behavior, and documented weather patterns. Data collected from the scripting feature in Stellarium can be used to produce star position graphs which create a visual method to verify the ethnographic traditions of Indigenous astronomers and to better understand Indigenous terminology. Evaluation of ethnographic knowledge by deciphering embedded data in Indigenous knowledge allows for quantitative data analysis and further understanding of astronomic knowledge. Position data for individual stars throughout the year are combined with ethnographic information to better understand Indigenous celestial objects, and correlate them to Western star identities. These studies also help archaeoastronomers better understand the reasons for the cultural significance of the traditions that describe the patterns of sky motion that have been passed down for generations.

IAUS399 Indigenous Astronomy in the Space Age
Day 1: Session 2: Tools & Methods

https://youtu.be/KgFKUZtq_04?si=e6-376u1Uf81s6Oa&t=2241

22/08/2025

"Introducing Stellarium Skycultures 2.0"

Georg Zotti (VRVis Vienna, Austria), Ruslan Kabatsayev (Stellarium Labs), Guillaume Chéreau (Stellarium Labs), Alexander Wolf (Altai State Pedagogical University, Barnaul, Russia), Fabien Chéreau (Stellarium Labs), and Susanne M. Hoffmann (Independent Scholar)

Over the recent years, Stellarium has become a de-facto standard tool for cultural astronomy. One of its original features is to provide the user with the choice of several ”sky cultures”. These datasets describe the patterns (stick figures) and artwork of all sorts of recognizable asterisms, from small groups of stars to huge constellations, and proper name labels for them, individual stars, planets, and naked-eye star clusters. These datasets are defined culture-wise. All branches of Stellarium, the classical desktop application and the newer ”Stellarium-web” and ”Stellarium mobile”, aim to provide their users with profound and reliable information in a well-digestible way. Our ongoing project ”Sky Cultures 2.0”, therefore, aims to better present the various ways culture groups have found to formulate figures in the sky, and to solve shortcomings identified earlier and discussed in a meeting of Stellarium developers with sky culture experts in Jena 2023. The original file format, technically defined in the early 2000s with the 20th-century standard constellation definition in mind, describes each sky culture with files in plain text and HTML. The later project, ”Stellarium mobile”, by some of us, uses sky culture descriptions based on the newer JSON standard. We have now implemented JSON support in the desktop version, in order to use common datasets in both families of “Stellarium” applications, the classical Stellarium Desktop planetarium and the newer Stellarium Mobile targeted at the smartphone market. The new format also allowed inclusion of non-European concepts. Some Indigenous cultures do not use stars (dots) for the definition of recognizable patterns, but bright or dark clouds of the Milky Way, and in other cultures, so-called “single-star constellations” can now be used. Historical alternatives to coordinate systems, such as Indian nakshatras, Chinese ”lunar mansions”, Arabic ”lunar stations”, or the Late Babylonian zodiac as a division of the ecliptic can be properly displayed. We have also extended labeling capabilities to show a user-defined mix of native glyphs, pronunciation aid/transliteration, translation and modern name. However, translating sky cultures may need more insightful translators. If users want to gain more cross-cultural information about particular objects, a query tool developed earlier by one of us can retrieve information from the All-Skies Encyclopedia.

Full Session including Q&ASusanne M. Hoffmann – Introducing the All-Skies EncyclopaediaGeorg Zotti – Introducing Stellarium Skycultures 2.0Elizabeth Brooker ...

21/08/2025

"Introducing the All-Skies Encyclopaedia"

by Susanne M Hoffmann (IAU Working Group on Star Names)

In the past years, the need for a large knowledge base on various aspects of cultural astronomy has been pointed out to me from various directions. I was involved in the ”digital humanities”- part of several research projects on specialised and illustrated dictionaries for ancient Greek meteorology in Aristotle and Babylonian astral science, and learned about IAU-needs for this and similar sorts of knowledge for their naming groups. Initial thoughts that we would need one or several database(s) were quickly recognized as inappropriate because they would also need to come with a standalone GUI and a query API for common planetarium software such as Stellarium. Still, the general desire for the FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable, reusable) principles in general scientific data management is countered by respect for the cultures’ or subculture’s intellectual and cultural property. The requirements for a global data collection were collected in a scientific meeting of software developers, computer scientists and cultural astronomy researchers organized by the PI in Jena 2023. In the ongoing research project ”Planetarium Babylonicum 2.0” that deals with a philologically accurate dictionary of ancient Mesopotamian astral science the system is designed also to host the data of other cultures. It is also used by selected other scholars for their research data. The resulting venture of an ”All Skies Encyclopaedia” will be presented at this conference, and the Babylonian part is almost complete then. With the multilingualism of the Mesopotamian area, and the changes to the terms and meanings over the 2000 years of cuneiform writing, this part could serve as an example for contributions from other cultural research.

IAUS399: Indigenous Astronomy in the Space Age
Day 1, Session 2: Tools & Methods

Full Session including Q&ASusanne M. Hoffmann – Introducing the All-Skies EncyclopaediaGeorg Zotti – Introducing Stellarium Skycultures 2.0Elizabeth Brooker ...

20/08/2025

"New Directions in Cultural Astronomy: Researching the Past"

Wayne Orchiston (University of Science and Technology China and University of Southern Queensland) and Darunee Orchiston (Private Scholar, Mae Taeng, Thailand)

One of the stated aims of this conference is to “… focus on cultural astronomy and its impact on astrophysics and the space sector.” This very much focuses on contemporary cultural astronomy and its linkages with the present and the future. However, contemporary ethnographic studies merely provide instant chronological snapshots of evolving systems where the astronomical knowledge base, as part of culture, is evolving through time . It is therefore important to examine the past and see if we can identify occasions when changes must have occurred in Indigenous astronomical beliefs and practices. In this paper we introduce the concept of ‘Multidisciplinary Ethnoastronomy’ to explain this diachronic approach, and we outline some of our research in this new field through our studies in India, SE Asia and Oceania.

IAUS399: Indigenous Astronomy in the Space Age

Alejandro Martin–Lopez – Astronomical Heritage’s Cosmopolitics: Shamanism and Hegemonic Modernity Wayne Orchiston – New Directions in Cultural Astronomy: Res...

14/08/2025

"Astronomical Heritage’s Cosmopolitics: Shamanism and Hegemonic Modernity"

by Alejandro Martin-Lopez (López Alejandro), University of Buenos Aires, Argentina

IAUS399: Indigenous Astronomy in the Space Age.
Day 1, Session 1: Frameworks and Theory

Alejandro Martin–Lopez – Astronomical Heritage’s Cosmopolitics: Shamanism and Hegemonic Modernity Wayne Orchiston – New Directions in Cultural Astronomy: Res...

13/08/2025

"Elevating Indigenous Star Knowledges in the Academy"

Professor Barry Judd (DVC-Indigenous) University of Melbourne

IAUS399: Indigenous Astronomy in the Space Age

Professor Barry JuddDeputy Vice-Chancellor (Indigenous), University of Melbourne

12/08/2025

'Welcome to Country' with Aunty Annette Xiberras (Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Corporation) at IAUS399: Indigenous Astronomy in the Space Age.

The Welcome was sponsored by the School of Historical & Philosophical Studies at the University of Melbourne.

Aunty Annette XiberrasWurundjeri Elder