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Light across Australia—upcoming events and activities
Year of Light events will be ramping up from January and there is a full year of events, exhibitions and festivals coming together around the country.
 The
International Year of Light will kick-off in Australia with the
Sydney New Year’s Eve Fireworks, produced by the City of Sydney. There will be two fireworks shows, the 9PM Family Fireworks and the Midnight Fireworks Displays plus The Inspire Moment at 10.40 pm. We also understand that
the Year will feature at the Lord Mayor's Picnic during the day.
In Adelaide, the South Australian Museum is currently hosting
Iridescence, a two-month-long exhibition showcasing butterfly wings, sea shells, minerals, fossils, animals and cultural representations of shimmering and rainbow-like objects.
When the sun sets on Canberra in late February/early March,
Enlighten 2015 will breathe light, colour and movement into the city. During the festival a giant kaleidoscope cubby will be created in Old Parliament House, fleets of illuminated boats will set sail at sundown from Lake
Burley Griffin and interactive circles of light will be projected into the sky.
Each year,
The Light in Winter festival celebrates art, music and performance in Melbourne’s Fed Square. In 2015, the festival will focus on the link between fire and the sun with a program of entertainment by the campfire every night
at dusk. Lasers, solar power and star-gazing are some of the themes to be highlighted during the festival. Robyn
Archer, the Festival’s artistic director, has given us a preview.
Adventures with lasers and the magic of quantum light. Questacon and the ANU are teaming up to develop a series of public lectures, as well as professional training for teachers in 2015 on the theme of lasers. The details of these programs are still being
nutted out, so stay tuned for more in the new year.
Make sure you keep up to date on events in your state with the
Australian Year of Light events calendar
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MQ Photonics event – light the world
What does light mean to you? And what part of its story do you want to share?
On 17 November, Macquarie University held their first event, ‘Light the World’ featuring the Nobel Prize winning blue LED technology. Michael Withford launched the event by reflecting on the millions of children worldwide who can’t study at night because they
lack a cheap, efficient light source.
LEDs use 75% less energy than incandescent bulbs and have the potential to drastically reduce global energy consumption because domestic lighting currently consumes one quarter of the world’s electricity budget. Unlike incandescent bulbs, where most of the
electricity is converted to heat, LEDs convert electricity directly into light. And, this technology is constantly being improved.
The Forum also heard about the next generation in semiconductor technology that will further revolutionise solar cell and LED efficiency.
MQ Photonics at Macquarie University is planning lots of exciting, diverse, hands-on events for the Year.
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Calling all light exhibitionists
Developing a light based exhibition for the year of light?
The International Commission of Optics wants to hear from you if you’re developing an exhibition for the Year of Light. They’re keen to explore the idea of touring exhibitions around the world, once the Year has concluded. In particular, they’re interested
in projects that illustrate how light can be used to benefit the developing world.
If you have an idea for an exhibit please email the details to Deb Kane
deb.kane@mq.edu.au
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New phone app can counts stars—citizen science research project
How many stars you can see in your neighbourhood?
Dark skies are a luxury to people living in the city. Globe at Night is a citizen science research project looking at ‘loss of the night’.
The project is looking at how cities are effected by the loss of ‘darkness’ in our night sky—and how this affects our health, society, and the environment.
In order to measure how skyglow is changing, they’ve developed an app for smartphones, which allows citizen scientists to count the number of visible stars in the night sky.
Download the app alphagalileo.org/ViewItem.aspx?ItemId=147035&CultureCode=en
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Sponsorship
If you’d like to know more about sponsoring the Year in Australia, email info@light2015.org.au. Read on December sponsorship updates.
CUDOS Sponsor the Year
CUDOS, Centre for Ultrahigh bandwidth Devices for Optical Systems, an Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence is supporting the International
Year of Light 2015 directly as a Gold Associate Sponsor of the international activities of the year planned
by UNESCO and the Year of Light community.
CUDOS is contributing to optics outreach on a global scale by working on the redesign of the international educational resource OSA
Discovery Kit. CUDOS has taken this kit and adapted it to target specific NSW HSC learning outcomes.
CUDOS also plans to participate in the portfolio of activities planned by the International Year of Light program in
Australia
Participate in the IYL celebrations and will pay an important leadership role in the Australian context in promoting the important and vital role of photonics and optics in the modern world and the future opportunities offered by CUDOS research.”
At the local level, CUDOS plans to deliver lectures, public talks, workshops and other community based events.
Astronomical Society of Australia come on board
The
Astronomical Society of Australia has now added its support to the Year of Light in Australia. They’ve made a $5,000 contribution to the Year, and will also assist the Australian Institute of Physics in bringing a guest speaker to each state throughout
the year.
The Astronomical Society of Australia (ASA) was formed in 1966 as the organisation of professional astronomers in Australia. Membership of the ASA is open to anyone contributing to the advancement of Australian astronomy or a closely related field.
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