12 October 1915 Scottish born astronomer Robert Innes announced the discovery of the nearest star to our Sun, Proxima Centauri at a distance of approximately 4.24 light years from Earth. It is one of three known stars in the Alpha Centuri system in the constellation of Centaurus. The other two stars being Alpha Centauri A and B. Innes was an amateur astronmer in Australia, identifying double stars, but he is best known for his work in South Africa at the Royal Observatory Cap

PERSONAL REFLECTIONS AND REMINISCENCES. Wednesday 6 October, 2022. 6:30pm via Zoom PROFESSOR WAYNE ORCHISTON, UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY OF CHINA AND UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN QUEENSLAND Following World War II, Australia and England quickly emerged as the world’s leading nations involved in the new science of radio astronomy. By recording radio emission from the Sun; the planets; gaseous nebulae in our Galaxy and hydrogen gas in the spiral arms; and distance radio

This Month . . . . Sundials. The earliest type of timekeeping device when people relied on the passage of the Sun through the sky to tell the time. A sundial is an instrument that tells the time like a clock. It has a pole, or gnomon, at its centre and markings that show hours. It works on the concept of the Sun changing its location in the sky throughout the day as it rotates from east to west. Image above: Sundial in Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney, 2009. Photo J.Bar The gnom