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WIA Conference Weekend - Conference Dinner
Date :
02 /
06 /
2019
Author :
WIA
Following all the activities on Saturday there was a wonderful Conference dinner held at the Park Royal Motel Function Room.
Our MC for the night was John Buckley VK2LWB from the Waverley Amateur Radio Society and John did a great job entertaining everyone and introducing our keynote speaker.
An announcement was made that the new WIA President is Greg Kelly VK2GPK and Vice-President is Aidan Mountford VK4APM.
Our keynote speaker was Professor Fred Watson AM.
Fred is an astronomer at the Australian Astronomical Observatory (AAO) and his main scientific interest is in the use of novel technology to gather information on very large numbers of stars and galaxies.
Until 2009, Fred was based at the AAO's telescopes in Coonabarabran, where he was Astronomer in Charge. He is now the Australia's Astronomer at Large with Department of Industry, Innovation, and Science, working closely with state and Federal government scientists and communicators.
Fred has adjunct professorships at the University of Western Sydney, University of New South Wales, Macquarie University, the Queensland University of Technology and the University of Southern Queensland.
He has an asteroid named after him (5691 Fredwatson), but says that if it hits the Earth, it won't be his fault...HIHI.
Fred gave the dinner guests a very entertaining presentation about the Moon and the Apollo Missions to the Moon. There was some great historic footage and some great stories about his studies and interests and distant involvement in the moon missions.
Fred commented that he felt he was among friends - with a similar group of radio enthusiasts! His brother was into radio when Fred got into astronomy.
Fred's last responsibility for the night was to draw the conference prize of an ICOM IC-7300. The lucky recipient was Garry Sewell VK2GLJ. Congratulations to Garry.
This was a very fitting finish to the WIA AGM Conference Day.
Page Last Updated: Sunday 2 June 2019 at 21:39 hours by Justin Giles-clark
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