Toowoomba Philharmonic Society - Music and Stars
Join the Toowoomba Philharmonic Society and our very own UniSQ staff for a special performance under the stars, followed by a very special night-viewing opportunity.
Join UniSQ at the Festival of Astronomy and Space taking place over three days during World Space Week.
All activities are free to attend and some sessions will be available to join online via Zoom. Please register for each session you are going to attend, information below.
Festival Program
Thursday 6th October
| Festival Talk - Towards the Atmospheres of Alien Planets in the Next Decade | |
| Dr George Zhou | |
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Exploring planets around other stars help place our Earth and our Solar System into the cosmic perspective. In this coming decade, we will gain the ability to characterise planets around other stars in great detail. In this talk, we will explore the new generation of space and ground based telescopes coming online, like JWST and the Giant Magellan Telescope, and how we will use them to sniff out the atmospheres of small planets, and watch newly born solar systems form and evolve in real time. |
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| Festival Talk - Mapping planets in the Solar Neighborhood | |
| Dr Chelsea Huang | |
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Astronomers are discovering planets around other stars with an enormous speed nowadays. Since the launch of NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) in 2018, we are able to map out exoplanets all over the sky for the first time. Chelsea will share some insider stories about the TESS project, its famous discoveries and how amateur astronomers all over the globe are engaged in this grand hunt of worlds outside of the Solar system |
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| Time: | 6pm - 9pm |
| Location: |
UniSQ Toowoomba Campus - Alison Dickson Lecture Theatre (H102) - |
| Or Join in on Zoom: | Register to attend via Zoom |
Friday 7th October
| Festival Talk - Airborne Observations of Aerospace Phenomena - From Rocks to Spacecraft | |
| Dr Fabian Zander | |
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What do an aircraft, a dying comet, and falling satellites have in common? In this talk, aerospace engineer Dr Fabian Zander will describe how observations taken from a modified business jet aircraft are allowing researchers from Toowoomba to study how objects burn up as they fall to Earth. He will tell the story of two flights in a private jet provided by local company RTI to study both artifical and natural fireballs, describing how the missions were planned, the instruments constructed, and showing the results their airborne endeavours. |
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| Time: | 6pm - 7:30pm |
| Location: |
UniSQ Toowoomba Campus - Alison Dickson Lecture Theatre (H102) |
| Or Join in on Zoom | Register to attend via Zoom |
Saturday 8th October
| Curious Kids: All your space questions answered! | |
| Do you have a question about space to which you'd love to know the answer? We have just the event for you! On Saturday 8th October, UniSQ will be hosting "Curious Kids: All your space questions answered!" as part of the annual Festival of Astronomy and Space. We'll have a panel of internationally renowned scientists sat at the ready to answer all your questions, and to tell you everything you ever wanted to know about life, the universe, and everything! | |
| Time: | 4pm - 5:30pm |
| Location: |
UniSQ Toowoomba Campus - Alison Dickson Lecture Theatre (H102) |
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AstroHarmonic Music and Stars: Toowoomba Philharmonic Society Performance & Sky Viewing |
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*On rain or cloud * We will move indoors if the sky isn’t clear. Further details closer to the time. Signs will guide you when you arrive. Spend a relaxing, entertaining, and informative evening with us, enjoying beautiful harmonies while finding out about the night sky. At this new event from 7:00pm Saturday 8th October, UniSQ's Professor Jonti Horner will take you on a guided tour of the night sky, blended with a series of astronomically-themed musical interludes provided by Toowoomba's Philharmonic Society choir, led by Conductor Calista Walters and Accompanist Abi Bunch. If we are able to be outdoors, you can lie back in the moonlight, and relax with us beneath our spring skies! Just bring a blanket or chair to set up on the grass next to the main driveway of UniSQ Toowoomba. |
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| Time: | 7pm - 9pm |
| Location: |
UniSQ Toowoomba Campus - Front Driveway (Entrance via West St) |
Dr George Zhou
Exploring planets around other stars help place our Earth and our Solar System into the cosmic perspective. In this coming decade, we will gain the ability to characterise planets around other stars in great detail. In this talk, we will explore the new generation of space and ground based telescopes coming online, like JWST and the Giant Magellan Telescope, and how we will use them to sniff out the atmospheres of small planets, and watch newly born solar systems form and evolve in real time.
George is an astronomy researcher discovering and investigating planets around other stars using data from NASA’s TESS probe. He is striving to learn more about what factors shape planetary systems, and what makes our Solar system special. He is an Australian DECRA Fellow, been a NASA Hubble fellow, and a CfA fellow at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
Dr Chelsea X. Huang
Astronomers are discovering planets around other stars with an enormous speed nowadays. Since the launch of NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) in 2018, we are able to map out exoplanets all over the sky for the first time. Many of these exoplanets are within only a few hundred light years away from the Solar system and we are just starting to learn a lot more about them individually. Chelsea will share some insider stories about the TESS project, its famous discoveries and how amateur astronomers all over the globe are engaged in this grand hunt of worlds outside of the Solar system.
Chelsea is an astronomy researcher specialising in wide-field photometry and planet detection with ground and space-based data. She has discovered more than 2000 planetary candidates with data from NASA’s TESS probe. Currently Chelsea delves into details of exoplanets to help understand how they formed and might evolve. She is an Australian DECRA Fellow, was a Juan Carlos Torres Fellow at MIT, and a Dunlap and CPS fellow at the University of Toronto.
Dr Fabian Zander
What do an aircraft, a dying comet, and falling satellites have in common? In this talk, aerospace engineer Dr Fabian Zander will describe how observations taken from a modified business jet aircraft are allowing researchers from Toowoomba to study how objects burn up as they fall to Earth. He will tell the story of two flights in a private jet provided by local company RTI to study both artifical and natural fireballs, describing how the missions were planned, the instruments constructed, and showing the results their airborne endeavours.
Dr Fabian Zander is a Senior Research Fellow in Aerospace Engineering at the University of Southern Queensland. Fabian’s research interests are in hypersonic aerodynamics, optical diagnostics, airborne observation missions and rocketry. He is a current ARC DECRA fellow and Member of American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
For further information please email the festival organisers.