public Lecture   

the Harley Wood Lecture is an annual astronomy talk open to the public, which is held during the ASA meeting. The lecture will be presented in the Elizabeth Murdoch Lecture Theatre at 8pm on Monday July 6th.

For directions to the Elizabeth Murdoch Theatre, click here.

The 2009 lecture will be given by PROF. RAY NORRIS on the subject of

“Australian Indigenous Astronomy”

The ancient cultures of Aboriginal Australians have a strong astronomical

component, linking their stories and ceremonies intimately with the sky,

often in beautiful and fascinating ways. There are "constellations" such as

the "emu in the sky" formed from the dark places between the visible stars.

Songs and stories about the Sun, Moon, planets and stars connect ceremony

and law to celestial cycles, providing essential tools for navigation,

calendars, and life.

So were Aboriginal Australians the world's first astronomers? We are trying

to answer this question, using information from two main sources.

One source consists of the thriving and vibrant Aboriginal cultures in the

Top End of Australia, which embody an intimate knowledge of the sky. For

example, the beautiful "morning star ceremony" is timed for the rising of

Venus, while other stories explain tides and eclipses. Often the rising of

particular stars or constellations were used to set the calendar, or warn

when it's time to move camp to harvest a seasonal food.

The other source consists of the artifacts of Aboriginal people of South

East Australia. For example, crescent moons can be seen amongst the Sydney

rock engravings, and an emu engraving seems to portray the "emu in the sky"

rather than a real-life emu. One stone circle in Victoria appears to be

oriented on the solstices and the equinox, and other stone arrangements seem

carefully aligned on the cardinal points.

Aboriginal Astronomy is a new research field, but one which is rapidly

growing, and perhaps helping us understand the depth and richness of

Australian Indigenous cultures.

Professor Norris is an astrophysicist at the CSIRO Australia Telescope National Facility.

He studied theoretical physics at Cambridge before obtaining his PhD in radioastronomy at the University of Manchester. He has held academic positions at the University of Tasmania and Swinburne University, and he is formerly the deputy director of ATNF Sydney. His research interests include galaxy formation and deep radio surveys.