Canberra’s amateur astronomers are far from backyard novices, with some local sky-gazers giving advice to NASA, conferencing with the Paris Observatory and discovering new comets.

The Canberra Astronomical Society (CAS), established in 1969 with just 23 members, now has 180 members and our learner astronomers are teaching the experts.

CAS member Anthony Wesley discovered an impact scar on Jupiter in 2009 and his image was shared around the world. At the time, the Hubble telescope was offline but when NASA got wind of it, they sought Anthony’s advice on how to locate the exact impact site. Anthony later gave a lecture to NASA staff on his observation techniques.

More recently, when we all witnessed the Atlas Comet in January (with the naked eye), CAS member Vello Tabur captured a stunning image that went viral.

The comet had just moved close to the sun and as it emerged, it wasn’t visible in the Northern Hemisphere, so no-one knew if it had survived. Vello’s proof of life picture got 290,000 shares on social media.

Founding CAS member Dave Herald became a world expert in solving the shape, size and path of asteroids. He organised members to take accurate timings and observations at different spots around Canberra to measure when an asteroid blocked a known star.

His outlines of asteroids were sharper than any in the world. When French scientists were studying his results, they flew Dave to the Paris Observatory for a conference.

CAS member Bill Frost said the reason our amateur astronomers were so advanced was Canberra’s close proximity (just 18kms) to experts at Mt Stromlo Observatory.

“The formation of CAS was driven by a love of observing objects in the dark skies, access to world-leading research from experts at Mt Stromlo and the revolution that allowed amateurs to grind their own mirrors and build telescopes that were once only available to professionals,” Bill said.

“Staff at Mount Stromlo were prepared to give talks and share their research. In those pre-internet days, this was the only realistic way of gaining an insight into astronomy without a university course or buying textbooks.”

CAS is hardly amateur hour. Even before NASA’s Apollo landings, amateurs were making observations of the moon to help map the lunar surface, which assisted NASA in choosing a landing site.

Members also search for novae, supernovae and possible dangerous asteroids and comets. The funny thing is though, when NASA recently warned that an asteroid had a 2.3% chance of colliding with Earth in 2032, CAS didn’t bother to track it.

CAS member Kim Rawlings said, “We didn’t even try to see the asteroid, which may sound strange, but we’ve been in the business a long time and these things come and go. There’s always something that’s going to come along but comets, yes, you definitely try to find and chase them.”

Kim joined CAS back in 1978, and the planets must have aligned because she ended up marrying an astrophysicist. 

She was made CAS guest speaker officer and worked alongside {future husband} Vince Ford, who was Mt Stromlo’s public information officer.

“A great working friendship evolved and much later, when both our marriages had broken up, we helped one another through the rough times and eventually married,” they said. “As Kim puts it – Vince was the Stromlo-CAS liaison officer, I was the CAS-Stromlo liaison, we liaised.”

Their romance must have been in the stars.                              

Canberra Astronomical Society holds public observation and training at Mt Stromlo, as well as regular dark sky nights at Gundaroo and Michelago. Visit: casastronomy.org.au