Sydney City Skywatchers: Bob Fuller, UNSW, presents his research on Aboriginal Stories relating to Astronomy

Sydney City Skywatchers' April meeting and talk will feature a special talk for Astronomers Without Borders Global Astronomy Month by UNSW doctoral student Bob Fuller. With permission from Aboriginal community elders we will investigate an Australian Aboriginal cultural story that seems to describe an extraordinary series of astronomical events occurring at the same time. 

Bob Fuller was tertiary educated as an anthropologist/archaeologist, and much later, after retiring, did a research MPhil at Macquarie University, Sydney, on Indigenous astronomy, publishing on the cultural astronomy of the Kamilaroi and Euahlayi peoples of New South Wales.  He is now at the School of Humanities and Languages, University of NSW, and is in the second year of a PhD researching the cultural astronomy of the saltwater Aboriginal peoples of the Australian East Coast.  He has been active in outreach to the Indigenous community through lectures and academic articles, and was the instigator of the successful documentary on Euahlayi astronomy, “Star Stories of the Dreaming”. 

We will also hear the March solar activity report from Monty Leventhal OAM, and, if the sky is clear, we will stargaze through binoculars and a telescope in the grounds of Sydney Observatory. A light supper is included in the entry fee. 

The cost is $2 for Members and $5 for non-members. Membership of Sydney City Skywatchers is $40 pp. Sydney Observatory hosts Sydney City Skywatchers astronomy club and is a significant heritage, publicly accessible observatory. Images: - Sydney Observatory on New years Eve, photo Les Dalrymple.- Bob Fuller in the field.