By Tyler Wright
The Mount Burnett Observatory (MBO) is preparing to hold its largest event for the year as part of National Science Week.
MBO will take over the Gembrook football ground on Saturday 19 August, with stargazera able to look up at the sky from around 20 telescopes during the event called Footy Oval Astronomy.
Event coordinator Kim Steere said there are 500 tickets up for grabs for the free event, which will start at 7pm and finish at 10pm.
“The event’s grown and grown,” Ms Steere said.
“It was going to happen two years ago after the storms that we had up here, and we wanted to give something back to the community.
“Because of Covid we couldn’t run it…then we put in submissions for the National Science Week grant and we got funding for it, so we were thrilled.”
Footy Oval Astronomy will be broadcast live by Channel 31 free-to-air and through Facebook, and is made possible by a $15,920 grant from the Australian government.
Local live band St. Emerald is set to perform at the event, with the Monash High Powered Rocketry team and author Krystal De Napoli also set to present on the evening.
MBO’s Young Observers will also be on hand at the event to help guide the future scientists in attendance.
Ms Steere said children can learn to recognise constellations and spot them from their own backyard with a normal telescope.
“At the moment, Scorpio is up there, and once you see it, you can’t unsee it.”
Ms Steere said during tours at the observatory on Saturday 29 July, during Open House Melbourne weekend, astronomy lovers got to witness Saturn rising above the horizon.
“We got the telescopes out and the reaction was amazing; people said ‘oh wow,'” she said.
“We know when they’ve seen it because it’s always such a wonderful reaction that they’ve seen something that they’ve only ever seen in photographs.”
National Science Week will be celebrated from Saturday 12 August to Sunday 20 August in 2023.
Minister for Industry and Science, Ed Husic, said 1.9 million Australians, the highest number ever, joined in National Science Week celebrations around the country in 2022.
“This year’s celebrations will help promote diversity and inclusion in Australian science and technology, with exciting and engaging events planned in a number of regional and remote communities,” Mr Husic said.
Nearly $500,000 was allocated to projects from across Australia.
To book tickets for Footy Oval Astronomy, visit https://mbo.org.au/event/footy-oval-astronomy, call Ms Steere on 0409 730 929 or email info@mbo.org.au
The Gembrook football ground is located at 410/412 Belgrave-Gembrook Road in Gembrook.
Light refreshments will be available.
Parking will be available on site.
MBO can also be found on:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mtburnettobservatory/
Twitter:https://twitter.com/MBObservatory
Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/MtBurnettObservatory
