Date: December 2, 2009
Title: Dr. Fred Watson – Australian Stargazer
Podcaster: Kylie Sturgess
Organization: Skeptic Zone: http://www.skepticzone.tv/
Description: Amongst Dr Fred Watson’s many accomplishments, he is the Astronomer-in-Charge of the Anglo-Australian Observatory (AAO) at Siding Spring near Coonabarabran, NSW; a Board member of the NSW Foundation for Public Education, and a member of the Education Advisory Group of the Australian Square Kilometre Array Steering Committee. Dr. Watson is well-known for his astronomy shows on Australia’s ABC radio and his recent books include Stargazer – The Life and Times of the Telescope and Why is Uranus Upside Down?
Bio: Kylie Sturgess is a researcher of gender differences in paranormal beliefs and superstitious behaviors. Published in several skeptic and science magazines, much of her writing can be found on her blog at Podblack Cat. Kylie is currently working as a teacher of Philosophy and Ethics, and can also be heard on the Skeptic Zone Podcast – Australia’s leading skeptical podcast with many interviews conducted by her from around the world.
Today’s sponsor: This episode of “365 Days of Astronomy” is sponsored by the American Astronomical Society, the major organization for professional astronomers in North America, whose members remind everyone that One Sky Connects Us All. Find out more or join the AAS at aas.org.
Transcript:
I’m Kylie Sturgess and I’ll be talking to Dr Fred Watson – an Australian stargazer.
Amongst Dr Watson’s many accomplishments, he is the Astronomer-in-Charge of the Anglo-Australian Observatory at Siding Spring near Coonabarabran in New South Wales. He is a Board member of the NSW Foundation for Public Education, and a member of the Education Advisory Group of the Australian Square Kilometre Array Steering Committee.
Dr. Watson is well-known for his astronomy shows on ABC radio here in Australia, and his recent books include Stargazer – The Life and Times of the Telescope and Why is Uranus Upside Down?
Kylie Sturgess:
Thank you for joining me, Dr Watson! Firstly, you are talking to me from Coonabarabran! Why is it known as ‘Australia’s astronomy capital’?
Dr Fred Watson:
The reason why it’s called itself that, and this is, of course, the way it’s badged itself from a tourist point of view, is that Coonabarabran is the home to Australia’s largest optical or visible light telescope, the Anglo-Australian telescope, which is on top of a mountain called Siding Spring, about eighteen kilometers from town as the crow flies. Because of that, because of the fact that it is a tourist attraction, Coonabarabran has actually taken that to heart and become ‘the Astronomy Capital of Australia’.
Kylie Sturgess:
In 2008, you received the Eureka Award for Science Communication. How do you think science is best communicated and what part does Astronomy play?
Dr Fred Watson:
Oh, look, Astronomy does it for you, in fact? I’m a great believer in the fact that science really has a part in everyday life, in terms of people understanding just how the world works. I always feel that people really enjoy knowing, for example, why the sky is blue, or why the moon always keeps the same face to the earth. Or indeed, why the tides go up and down! Things of that sort, which are relatively simple pieces of scientific information. Things that very much appeal to the ordinary person’s view of themselves and the world.
So, getting that information out there and talking about it when I get the opportunity is what really motivates me, so I’m always delighted when people have even the remotest interest in science – and it doesn’t have to be just Astronomy; I’m always very happy to wax lyrical about it.
So, science communication is very much part and parcel of what scientists in the twenty-first century should be doing. When I was a student, hundreds of years ago, scientists tended to remain in their ‘ivory towers’ and not actually communicate that much with the outside world. Now, it’s completely different. We now recognise that it’s the outside world that pays the bills for research, by and large, so, there’s an absolute duty-of-care to make sure that people know what the science we’re finding out about is all about.
Kylie Sturgess:
Many of the questions that people have posed to you about Astronomy have ended up not only on a radio show here in Australia, but also in your book: ‘Why is Uranus Upside Down and Other Questions about the Universe’. Have you ever been challenged by a really difficult question about Astronomy?
Dr Fred Watson:
All the questions are absolutely fabulous! And you’re quite right about my appearing on Australian radio for about a dozen years and over that time I’ve had many, many calls from listeners on topics ranging from ‘why the moon seems to rise and set where it does’ to whether we can ever know everything and ‘what do Astronomers think about God?’ and the whole range of questions related to Astronomy. So, yes, they all wound up in my book ‘Why is Uranus Upside Down’ which is one of the questions I’ve been asked over the years.
But there are difficult questions – perhaps one of the more profound questions about Cosmology, the history and the evolution of the universe as a whole. These are issues which somehow aren’t easy to get your head around, so, for example, a common question is ‘what’s outside the universe?’ Because we all think in terms of the universe being an extension of the three-dimensional space we see around us here on earth, when in fact it’s not – space does very different things when you get out into great distances. So, people would like to imagine there’s some sort of Masonite fence that marks the end – but it’s not like that! Actually, allowing people to understand why and how it’s not like that is a challenge, but it’s one of the reasons why Science Communication is so interesting!
Kylie Sturgess:
As a member of the Education Advisory Group for the Australian Square Kilometre Array – is there any news on the progress of this project?
Dr Fred Watson:
Yes, we actually in that group are looking at the way that Australia’s grand new venture in radio astronomy – which is something called the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder – how that will feed into Astronomy education in particular and Science education in general. We also have half-an eye on its potential successor, which is something called the Square Kilometre Array, which Australia would love to host in Western Australia! That may or may not happen and we won’t know if Australia is the host country for that until around about 2012.
But nevertheless, these ventures all have educational spin-offs, they are feeding into ordinary people’s lives. A lot of people in your part of Australia have heard about the Square Kilometre Array and the ASKAP – the Pathfinder – and want to know what it’s all about. In particular, ‘why are we doing it? Why are we building this thing?’ The S.K.A project will eventually have a price tag of about 1.8 billion US dollars and that’s a very big ticket expenditure here in Australia. People want to know why we need to spend that kind of money, what will it do, what will it tell us? So, the education group is very much designed to capitalise on that curiosity and actually feed into the Science education community as strongly as we can.
Kylie Sturgess:
While we’re waiting for 2012 and news about the Square Kilometer Array – what do you think about the current hysteria regarding 2012 and ‘doomsday prophecies’?
Dr Fred Watson:
Well, ‘the end of the world’ – it’s sort of something that happens every ten years or so! Depending on whose calendar you like!
2012 is going to be notable for the Transit of Venus and secondly, for a total eclipse of the sun in Northern Queensland – but it won’t be notable for the end of the world. The calendar on which this current hysteria is based is an ancient Mayan Calendar; it’s all really interesting stuff and good solid, legendary Archeoastronomy – but has no reason to cause any alarm whatsoever about the end of the world. Probably the best thing about it is the exciting movies being made called 2012!
Kylie Sturgess:
Finally, not only are you interested in encouraging an interest in Astronomy here in Australia, but you’ll be traversing the globe for the ‘Stargazer II’ tour that will be happening in 2010! Can you tell us more about that?
Dr Fred Watson:
One of the things that has happened for me over the past couple of years, is that work that I’ve done in an academic sense in a number of fields, most notably in the history of Astronomy, I’ve been involved in something called Archeoastronomy which is the Astronomy of ancient peoples.
That has now opened up into the potential for doing tourism based around these things, so for example, in 2007, I took a group of people to some wonderful archaeological sites in Peru, and last year we celebrated the 400th birthday of the telescope with the Stargazer tour of Europe. What’s happening in 2010 is that we’re going to once again visit Europe and this is open to anyone who wishes to come along and pay the fare!
The Stargazer II tour will take us to where Johannes Kepler worked; he was an early 17th century mathematician who gave us the laws of planetary motion. We’ll be going to Prague, which is actually where Tycho Brahe died – he was one of the great naked eye astronomers of the pre-telescopic era. In fact, Prague is also celebrated as the place where Pluto lost its planetary status, because the International Astronomy Union in 2006 meeting in Prague was where the definition of a planet changed and Pluto didn’t qualify.
So that’s all part of the tour; we’re going to France and Germany. One of the highlights of the Stargazer II tour will be a visit to Geneva in Switzerland, where the Large Hadron Collider is situated. This is something that will potentially tell us about the very fabric of the universe, how space and time are put together, so it’s an extremely exciting concept. Also something that is really juxtaposes well with the history of Astronomy, all part of our emerging understanding of the universe around us.
Kylie Sturgess:
Thank you very much Dr Watson for helping the Skeptic Zone podcast celebrate the 365 Days of Astronomy!
Dr Fred Watson:
Well, I try to live my life celebrating Astronomy, to the detriment of some of the people around me!
Kylie Sturgess:
I’m certain that they enjoy it as much as you do; the passion is absolutely evident – thank you so much for talking to us!
Dr Fred Watson’s site can be found at www.fredwatson.com.au. Many thanks to Richard Saunders of the Skeptic Zone podcast; Marnie who works for Fred Watson and to Milton Mermikides for the beautiful song you can hear – you can find his site at http://miltonmermikides.com.
End of podcast:
365 Days of Astronomy
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The 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast is produced by the New Media Working Group of the International Year of Astronomy 2009. Audio post-production by Preston Gibson. Bandwidth donated by libsyn.com and wizzard media. Web design by Clockwork Active Media Systems. You may reproduce and distribute this audio for non-commercial purposes. Please consider supporting the podcast with a few dollars (or Euros!). Visit us on the web at 365DaysOfAstronomy.org or email us at info@365DaysOfAstronomy.org. Until tomorrow…goodbye.