Amateur spectroscopy - useful and rewarding! Wed 3 April, 630pm

Presented by Ken McEwen, Via Zoom

Hi my name is Ken McEwen an amateur astronomer a member of Sutherland Astronomical Society my presentation on spectroscopy is intended to show that it is possible for an amateur to do useful and interesting work with basic equipment at moderate expense.

When we start amateur astronomy, it is exciting to see the craters in the moon, then Jupiter and who could forget the thrill of seeing the rings of Saturn and the Casini gap.Then nebula, galaxies. Then if we haven’t lost interest we think of photography. So, on it goes till maybe we think that it might be possible to make a useful contribution.

In this talk I will discuss several areas where amateurs can and do useful work. Searching for comets, looking for Super Novas, measuring magnitude of variable stars and asteroids and of course taking spectrums of stars etc. I hope to show that it is within the reach of any of us to do work that professionals are not doing. The brightest stars have been studied but lower magnitude stars have not and there are lots of them.

Even the brightest stars have surprises and are dynamic some such as Wolf/Rayet stars are of particular interest. I hope you enjoy the presentation and maybe decide to try your hand.

HOW TO JOIN

All members are sent the link. If you are not a member you can join in twice. Please email sydneycityskywatchers@gmail.com