The Occultation Section of the Royal Astronomical Society of New Zealand (RASNZ) is pleased to announce that the Seventh Trans-Tasman Symposium on Occultations (TTSO7) will be held in Invercargill, New Zealand, over Monday May 27 and Tuesday May 28, 2013. The meeting will immediately follow the Annual Conference of the RASNZ.

 

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The venue is the Ascot Park Hotel, the premier conference facility in Invercargill.

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Ascot Park Hotel Foyer	Hotel Location	Ascot Park Superior Hotel Room

TTSO meetings are alternately held in New Zealand and Australia and attract a wide variety of participants from novices to advanced observers. Their common goal is to advance the observation of all types of occultations. Included will be sessions catering for new observers – e.g. how to select and set up an occultation observing programme – while there will also be sessions on data reduction, the latest observing techniques, reviews of successes from the preceding year and expected highlights of the upcoming year.

A feature of TTSO7 will be the new Astronomical Digital Video System (ADVS) developed by Tony Barry, Dave Gault and Hristo Pavlov to overcome many of the problems inherent in current video occultation systems. Tony and Dave will be in attendance and will have a full working model with them so that participants will be able to get some “hands on” experience.

Request for Presentations

The organisers now invite other potential speakers at TTSO7 to advise us of their intent to submit a presentation. Presentations can include both full talks and poster papers.  Please send your expression of interest, including a title, brief abstract and requested duration in the case of oral presentations, to the TTSO7 convenor, Murray Forbes (Murray_Forbes@xtra.co.nz) with a copy to Graham Blow (Graham@occultations.org.nz).  At the meeting digital copies of all presentations will be required in a form suitable for inclusion on the Symposium CD.

If you are considering attending simply as a participant we would also like to hear from you now so we can judge approximate numbers attending. Overseas guests will be particularly welcome. If you are coming for the TTSO meeting we strongly recommend that you enrol for the preceding RASNZ Conference, as that meeting is expected to feature some occultation-related papers which will not appear in the TTSO7 meeting.

Tourism Opportunities

New Zealand is particularly known for its diverse and stunning landscapes, and wide variety of tourist activities. These range from semi-tropical beaches and volcanoes in the north to majestic mountains, glacier-fed lakes, fjords, rainforest and more in the south. Many people will have seen some of these locations in director Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings film trilogy based on the books of J.R.R. Tolkien, and his recent release of the first in The Hobbit film trilogy.  Some of New Zealand’s stunning scenery featured in these movies can be viewed here: http://www.newzealand.com/int/

Within 2-3 hours drive of Invercargill lie many locations used in either Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit, plus additional scenery for which New Zealand is well-known. In addition to the beautiful Southern Lakes, there is easy access to the fjords around Milford Sound, majestic snow-covered peaks of the Southern Alps, the semi-arid desert-like areas of Central Otago and some of the best and most spectacular walking tracks in the world.  Two hours drive from Invercargill is Queenstown, acknowledged as the adventure capital of the Southern Hemisphere, with hundreds of activities as diverse as bungy jumping, jetboating, and back-country safaris. While the TTSO7 meeting occurs at the end of autumn making temperatures cooler, this opens up new possibilities for those wishing to participate in winter sports. Alternatively, visitors are advised that arriving earlier in May may allow you to still see some of the golden autumn colours for which the region is famous.

To get to Invercargill international visitors can fly into the city of Christchurch, and from there travel by plane, or by rental car via the inland Southern Scenic Route to Invercargill.  En route you will pass through the Mackenzie Country, the world’s newest – and largest - Dark-Sky Reserve (as declared by the International Dark Sky Association), which includes some 4300 square kilometres of the darkest skies on Earth. Near the centre of this region lies Lake Tekapo, home to Mt John Observatory with its 1.0 and 1.8 metre telescopes, the latter being home to the MOA (Microlensing Observations in Astrophysics) project hunting for exo-planets.

New Zealand has much to offer members of both the astronomical and environmental communities, and the organisers of TTSO7 will be delighted to assist visitors from overseas in making the most of their visit here.

Useful Links

• RASNZ Conference & TTSO7 Registration Form
• RASNZ Annual Conference
• RASNZ Occultation Section
• Royal Astronomical Society of New Zealand

  Tourism Links

• The Magic Making of Middle Earth
• Tours by Tekapo Starlight
  
• Fraser Gunn's Lake Tekapo Astrophotography
  
• Lake Tekapo Mystic Sky
  
• Lake Tekapo 360 Degree Timelapse
  
• Lake Tekapo Night Sky

  Some New Zealand Landscape Images

 

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