The Courage to Care exhibit recently at the Brisbane Square Library remembers those that helped Jewish people during the Holocaust. People like Indigenous Australian William Cooper who even though his people were engaged in their own battle for rights and protections went to the German Consul-General in Melbourne to protest against the treatment of Jews throughout Europe. People like Berthold Beitz that ran an oil refinery that provided work permits to Jews to protect them against the Nazis. People like Nicholas Winton who in1988 got surprised on television when he got to reunite with some of the people he saved. Why did people choose to help and others not? The answer from those that did help is often nothing more than, “I didn’t do anything, I just did what I thought was right”
The hunt for Nazi war criminals goes on as it should. The greying of their hair should not make us slow down the hunt but speed it up.
The hunt for other war criminals also continues. The Cambodia War Crimes Tribunal underfunded and lacking political will is attempting to bring to justice the war criminals that played a role in the Cambodia genocide. A genocide that has seen a high number of survivors suffering from post traumatic stress disorder and anxiety and many not seeking help in a country riddled with poverty and landmines. The International Criminal Court granted only limited powers also attempts to bring to justice war criminals from various conflicts like the Rwanda genocide.
The Courage to Care exhibit with survivors there to tell you their stories and profiles of those that helped the Jews shows only part of the horrors and stories of the Holocaust. Some of the suicides of survivors, those that helped Jews that were killed after the war by ultra nationalists. Jews in hiding during the war murdered not by the Nazis but their rescuers who out of fear killed those they had spent over a year protecting. These are some of the other stories out there about the Holocaust and its aftermath. .
A family group setting up ready for a night of Moon viewing. Credit Celestron
Clear crisp winter nights are often the best for star gazing in the Australia but, it gets very cold, so don’t forget to rug up before doing any extended star watching. Winter sees our night skies dominated by the Southern Cross, sprawling Scorpio and Sagittarius, in which the heart of our galaxy hides, so it’s well worth stepping out into the chill for an astronomical thrill.
There’s a nice half Moon on Saturday July 5 and a good opportunity to take a photograph of it. There’s something magical about those pictures of the moonlight sky and dazzling stars, they convey a special something that daytime photos can’t. You’ll need a tripod to hold the camera completely still for clear pics OK. A shutter release cable is handy too.
Turn off the auto focus mechanism and bracket your shots, up to a couple of seconds, but not to long to avoid background stars having ‘tails’ on them. Point the camera at the moon, click, and keep the shutter open for the desired length of time. NEVER use a flash! Take several shots at different speeds and see which gives the best exposure.
Take the batteries you know you’ll need, as well as the batteries you think you won’t need and don’t forget to retain your ‘night vision.’ This is the process by which the eyes increase their sensitivity to low levels of illumination. In the first 30 minutes, sensitivity increases 10,000-fold, with little gain after that. But brief exposure to bright light temporarily rolls back this hard-won increase.
Got a smart phone? You can hand hold it over the eyepiece and careful aiming might get you a few nice moon shots. Email them to yourself. Now, go and look at the images on your computer and pick out the best one. Nothing beats trial and error, it’s the best way to build up experience and collect a good number of moon ‘selfies.’
Your scope may be modest, but don’t let that prevent you from using it! An inexpensive telescope that gets used is superior to a premium scope that sits in storage.
If your telescope is wobbly it may be time for a ‘tripod tune up.’ In most cases, the worst feature of a low priced telescope is the tripod and the head that holds the tube which lets it point to different parts of the sky. A telescope doesn’t magnify just the things you’re looking at – it also magnifies every wobble and vibration in the mount.
Does the view through the eyepiece dance around when the wind picks up? That’s probably because the tripod’s not rigid enough. Do you see wild vibrations every time you touch the focusing knob? The problem might be in the tripod, the head, or both.
To fix a bad case of wobbles, first tighten the wing nuts at the top of the tripod, where the legs meet the mount head. Shorten the tripod legs as much as you can. The lower the scope, the less it will shake. Tap the end of the scope while looking through the eyepiece and time how long the view takes to settle. A couple of seconds is fine, but 10 seconds is way too long.
An easy way to improve a tripod’s stability is to suspend a weight between its legs. Fill a plastic bottle with water or sand and hang it between the tripod’s legs. The extra weight will keep a light mount from swaying in the breeze, and it may help damp vibrations. A brick can be uses too. Hey, don’t laugh, home remedies like these do work.
Want a free star map of the night sky that you can download and print off for every month of the year? Thought so, then go to www.skymaps.com and select the map for the southern hemisphere. Print it off, head outside and get ready for some pretty easy stargazing! Get David’s free astronomy newsletter and a free 323 page e-book called ‘The Complete Idiots Guide To Astronomy.
The Aussie skies are incredibly clear this time of year for stargazing! Credit : Utah State University
Ever wondered, why is it hotter in summer and colder in winter? Does the Sun move further away this time of year? No, the Sun doesn’t move, it’s us that changes position. Now, this once seemed to make sense because the Earth is furthest from the Sun in the middle of the Aussie winter but in fact our temperature is not really affected by distance from the Sun.
While it’s true that the Earth-Sun distance varies during the year, the difference in distance is not enough to account for the temperature swing between the summer and winter seasons, and vice versa. Although Earth’s orbit around the sun isn’t quite circular, the difference between the farthest and nearest separation is only three percent.
As we all learned in school, the seasons are due to the tilt of the Earth’s axis, the imaginary line passing through the Earth’s north and south poles. So in winter, Australia is pointing slightly backwards from the Sun and folks in the Northern hemisphere are pointing forward. By the way, the earth isn’t a perfect sphere. It spins, so it’s a flattened at the poles a little bit. That difference of 43 kilometres.
It’s June, and if we can keep the clouds and rain away this will be an incredible week to enjoy some peaceful and relaxing time under the Moon and stars. The skies are clear and yes it’s always cold this time of the year but have you noticed, the stars seem to tinkle a whole lot more? They do, but stars don’t really twinkle! It’s an optical illusion.
Amazing star trails over the Australian outback captured by Bendigo amateur photographer Lincoln Harrison, who spends hours shooting the night sky. Cr. Lincoln Harris
If you were in space stars would be just bright, unblinking points of light. It’s our atmosphere which scatters the starlight before it reaches your eye, causing that ‘twinkling’ effect. Astronomers use this twinkling effect to calculate what the seeing is going to be like from one night to the next.
When you see a star low down on the horizon twinkling like crazy you can bet it’s not going to be a good night for the telescope. We’ve been having a lot of bad weather lately and the atmosphere is unsteady outside. If a star halfway up the sky twinkles a lot it’s time to watch that video you’ve been putting off.
By the way, all the stars you see in the night sky are all within our own Milky Way galaxy, you can’t see any outside it except with the world’s most powerful telescopes. The next time you stare up and try to count them remember this, there are more stars in the Universe than heartbeats for every human being who ever lived! True, that’s a big number and it’s a pretty big place.
While you’re stargazing don’t forget to have a seat. You’ll see more if you sit while viewing. For one, this allows you more time to relax and examine the field of view. Your body is not concentrating on balancing in the dark. Relaxing while viewing lets you mind concentrate more on the view. Take the strain off your body so your brain can fully enjoy the wonders of the heavens.
Hey, most people will be amazed that, under the right conditions, you can see the planet Venus in daytime. The planet appears as a tiny white dot, which often seems to ‘pop’ out at you once you find it. The contrast between planet and sky is much lower during the day, making the planet hard to see, but most smart phones have apps now that let you find planets in the sky anytime. Try it.
It gets dark early in Australia now and the nights are pretty cool, so you’re going to need a blanket, a pillow or two, your binoculars and perhaps a warm coffee while you stargaze. On a clear night depending on your age and your eyesight, you can see anywhere up to about 1,500 to 2, 000 stars. Introduce city lights and pollution, and you see less and less. Remember stars rise about 4 minutes earlier every night, that’s about 2 hours a month, and like the Sun and planets, they move from east to west during the night.
You can enjoy winter nights comfortably for hours on end if you dress properly and heed a few cold weather tips that everyone should know. You can do fine by piling on layers of ordinary clothes that are already around the house. What matters is how you wear them. Many thin layers are often better than a single thick one as the idea is to trap air pockets – ask any bird!
June nights offer the chance to see a planetary parade with all six planets known to the ancients in the sky waiting for you. It all starts early evening with the most difficult to find, Mercury, sitting low in the west. Look directly above and a little to the left of the point where the Sun set about 40 minutes earlier. For Mercury, you may need binoculars. Sweep this area of the sky looking for a star-like object. Good luck!
Second in the procession is the king of the planets, the gas giant Jupiter. You can’t miss it because it’s the brightest ‘star’ in the north-western sky. In a telescope Jupiter is a bright cream coloured ball with faint red or brown bands. Small telescopes will show Jupiter’s four brightest moons.
The third planet to find is Mars. Turn right from Jupiter, facing east, and you’ll see orange Mars. In fact it looks like a red star, about halfway up from the horizon. In a decent telescope, its small polar cap becomes visible.
King of the planets, Jupiter. The brightest ‘star’ in the north western sky
Just after sunset our fourth planet, Saturn, is rising in the southeast. Saturn is a masterpiece in almost any telescope. The rings are easily visible as are a handful of its 62 brightest moons. By the way, Saturn is the lightest of all the planets. If you had an ocean big enough, Saturn would actually float on water! Oh, and one word of warning, viewing Saturn for the first time through a telescope could get you hooked on astronomy! It did me.
Our fifth planet won’t be up for several hours. Venus can be found low and to the east in the morning twilight around 5.30 am. It outshines any other star or planet in the sky. How about the sixth major planet visible in May? Look below your feet. It’s the Earth.
Our national emblem
What do you think of when someone mentions the Southern Cross? Yep, that constellation of stars best seen from Australia. From Eureka to Ned Kelly, from Gallipoli and the minefields of Victoria, the Southern Cross on our flag has been the symbol for a rebellious and proud Australian spirit. It’s the smallest of the 88 modern constellations but probably the best known. This constellation of five stars can be seen only from the southern hemisphere and is a reminder of Australia’s geography.
It’s always visible in our night sky. Stars of the Southern Cross appear on the flags of Australia, Brazil, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and Samoa. The Southern Cross was written into the lyrics of Advance Australia Fair in 1901 – “Beneath our radiant Southern Cross.” The 1974 Australian America’s Cup Challenger also named ‘Southern Cross.’
Grab your telescope and look around the left side star of the cross. Below it you’ll find a beautiful star cluster called the Jewel Box, so named because it looks like millions of pieces of ground glass. They’re really colourful supergiant stars, reds and blues intermingled with yellows and whites. “Brilliant” is the word usually used to describe The Jewel Box. It’s considered one of the most beautiful sights in the night sky.
Running rings around the moon
Hey, what’s that ring around the Moon? Have you ever seen it approaching winter, a huge circle completely surrounding the Moon? Well, it isn’t really around the Moon, it just looks that way. It’s formed when ice crystals in our atmosphere reflect the Moon’s light, bending it into a circle and making that ring effect we always marvel over.
This is usually a good sign it’s going to rain, and I bet it will, within a day or two in fact. By the way, old timers say if you count the number of stars inside the ring that’s how many days of rain you’ll get! See if I’m wrong next time you spot one.
Spot the space station
Here’s a good tip for those wanting to know when the Space Station is passing over your town. Sign up to NASA’s ‘Spot The Station’ program and receive free email or text message notices hours before the station flies overhead. I use it all the time. It’s completely free and safe to do, and you’ll be right there to catch one of the best sights in the night sky. To sign up for ‘Spot the Station,’ visit: spotthestation.nasa.gov.
The cast is never more than a metre from the audience
“WE ARE ALL GHOSTS’
by Josh Donellan
The beauty of the Anywhere Theatre Festival is that every production is unique in its choice of venue and frequently that choice plays out in a powerful and significant way.
‘We are all ghosts’ is no exception.
Set in a 19th street in the ambling hills of inner city Paddington, the stage is set for an urban contemporary ghost story. The audience is led into the privacy and intimacy of the home by candlelit pathway, setting the stage for an expectation of secrets revealed.
This self-directed and perfectly cast vignette written by Josh Donellan gives ample scope for the characters played by Jessica McGaw, Helen Stephens and Daren King to explore the collective memories of lost friend Eric.
The setting and text combine in an intimate, atmospheric and subtle story which explores concepts of physics and metaphysics, friendship and mental health, love and loss. Contemporary, relatable and yet transcendent with the interweaving of poetry and science, past and present, the house and ultimately the audience, become the increasingly evident presence of ‘Eric’. Beautifully nuanced performances by the cast, who were never more than a metre from the audience, ensure that the intimacies of the individual anecdotes are powerful and affecting.
“THE BALD PRIMA DONNA” by Eugene Ionesco Paddington Substation
Directed by Heidi Manche
The Bald Prima Donna at the Paddington Substation is the perfect marriage of text and location. The stark white walls, minimalist set and all important clock provide an excellent playing arena for this absurdist farce. The highly skilled cast provide a thrilling fast paced romp through bizarre and hilarious scenes.
Surreal choreographyis seamlessly integrated throughout and the physical features of the building, stairs, balcony, massive entrance doors are used thematically and purposefully. The cast, Crystal Arons, Lizzie Ballinger, Jane Barry, Iain Gardiner, Robert Horton, and Alastair Tomkins deliver with perfect timing and aplomb, and appear to relish in this superb absurdist delicacy.
The Bald Prima Donna is a most welcome addition to the Festival’s programme providing Brisbane audiences with an opportunity to experience a style of theatre rarely on offer.
“BLOKE”
by Shane Pike and Zoe Tuffin
A man’s 21st century guide to emotional fulfilment (or not … Maybe it’s just about sex).
The venue for Bloke opens up a hidden nest of artistic wonders and re-use of industrial space tucked away behind Boundary and Mollison Streets West End.
Suddenly Brisbane has its own Manchester or Berlin ambience – a welcome relief from the spruced bare sanitized and polished concrete of state funded arts establishments. Here, are real stories, and real artists telling them.
Zoe Tuffin’s Director’s notes say (this) ‘is no romanticised, commercialized Crocodile Dundee’, and that is correct. The recurring phrase of the evening was ‘hurt men hurt’ and it succinctly encapsulates the dilemma the audience face.
Shane Pike as both actor and writer excels. This is a fast paced engrossing and highly relevant tale, in which humour, revulsion, anger and empathy are dealt in equal measure. Shane Pike never loses momentum as he pauses, reflects, jokes and teases and ultimately leaves us questioning good, evil, innocence and justice.
The chosen location for this contemporary tale of manhood again perfectly provides all that the most highly funded production could not. This is real, genuine, gritty, personal and intimate. Audience members introduce themselves to each other as Silvan Rus warmly announces his next song accompanying himself on electric guitar; this is where friends meet and mingle, and where it is safe to reveal inner torments over a beer. Perched on stairs, on beer barrels, cramped in corner couches, the packed audience strain necks to hear their ‘mate’ tell his tale.
Bent Books sponsors a $50 poetry prize in Westender every month
Des Skordilis is this month’s winner of the Bent Books Poetry Prize. Congratulations Des, your $50 Book Voucher is waiting for you at Bent Books in West End.
The Courage to Care exhibit recently at the Brisbane Square Library remembers those that helped Jewish people during the Holocaust. People like Indigenous Australian William Cooper who even though his people were engaged in their own battle for rights and protections went to the German Consul-General in Melbourne to protest against the treatment of Jews throughout Europe. People like Berthold Beitz that ran an oil refinery that provided work permits to Jews to protect them against the Nazis. People like Nicholas Winton who in1988 got surprised on television when he got to reunite with some of the people he saved. Why did people choose to help and others not? The answer from those that did help is often nothing more than, “I didn’t do anything, I just did what I thought was right”
