Where: AR Building, Swinburne University, Hawthorn. Lectures will occur in the ground floor Virtual Reality Theatre (Room AR104) - the entrance is next to Haddons cafe. For a map see: CAS contact web page

When: Wednesdays. Lectures will begin promptly at 6:30pm and will finish ~8:30pm (with an intermission). Please be seated by 6:20pm.

Cost: $15/lecture. You can pick and choose which lectures you wish to attend. If you attend all 4 lectures it will only cost you the equivalent of 3 lectures ($45).

Reservations: You must reserve a seat for each lecture. Seating is limited in the VR Theatre. Please open this booking sheet, fill in your details, and Fax it to 9214-8797 with "Attention: New Views IV - Carolyn Cliff". Payment is via credit card or cheque only.

1. Lecture 1: The Extraordinary Accelerating Universe - Cosmology in the 21st Century What is the Universe? What is it made of and how big is it? How did it form and how will it end? Is our Universe unique? The science of cosmology is thousands of years old, and yet the last ten years have witnessed astonishing breakthroughs in our understanding of the cosmos, based on remarkable advances in data and technology. In particular, the new data has shown that, contrary to all expectations, the Universe is expanding faster and faster. Tracking down the driving force for this accelerating expansion is leading cosmologists to question the fundamental laws of nature. Join Swinburne cosmologist Dr Chris Blake as he asks what we really know about the Universe today. What is the mysterious dark matter and dark energy? Which of the fundamental questions is it possible for us to tackle, and what are the boundaries of our knowledge? What will be the next big discoveries to come?
2. Lecture 2: ELTs: The Next Generation of Extremely Large Optical/Infrared Telescopes Extremely Large Telescopes (ELTs) represent the next quantum leap forward in optical/infrared telescope design and light-gathering capability. Their enormous main mirrors, anticipated to be 20-100 meters in diameter, will collect 10-100 times as much light as the world's largest existing telescopes, and will produce images far sharper than those of the Hubble Space Telescope. They will be able to see the first stars forming in the universe billions of years ago and search out Earth-like planets around nearby stars for signs of life. This talk will describe the already significant steps that have been taken to design and build ELTs, focussing on the several major international consortia that have formed so far, the concepts they have developed, and the opportunities this presents for Australia to become a key player in ELT technological and scientific development.
3. Lecture 3: From Sticks to Supercomputers To the ancient astronomers, the Universe was very simple - it contained the Sun, the Moon, five planets and the stars. Today, astronomers study a Universe with billions of galaxies, which is filled with bizarre objects like pulsars, quasars and black holes. These advances in understanding do not happen by accident: they are the work of many thousands of individuals, both known and unknown, from cultures all over the world. Join Dr Christopher Fluke from Swinburne University's Centre for Astrophysics & Supercomputing as he takes you on a journey through nearly 5000 years of the history of astronomy. Learn about the changing ways that the Universe has been studied, meet some of the amazing people who have contributed, and see how the technology astronomers use has developed from Sticks to Supercomputers. [Bring your own stick - we'll supply the supercomputer!]
4. Lecture 4: For the Term of its Natural Life: The Siding Spring Observatory 1m Telescope In December 2007 the Siding Spring 1m (also known as the 40 inch) telescope was de-commissioned as a research instrument. The telescope was the first built at the new Australian National University Siding Spring Observatory near Coonabarabran and served the Australian astronomical community for nearly 45 years. In this talk I will describe the construction and use of the telescope, the parallel growth of SSO, and some examples of research (some by the speaker) that shows the great research capabilities of a 1m telescope, even in todays age of 10m diameter and greater telescopes.

Dr. Chris Blake is a lecturer at the Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing. He received his PhD in the U.K. in 2002, before spending time living in Sydney and Vancouver, and arriving in Melbourne in August 2006. His research is in the area of observational cosmology, in particular mapping out how galaxies are distributed through the Universe. He helps to run the WiggleZ survey which has been awarded 220 nights of time at the Anglo-Australian Telescope. The survey is obtaining spectra for 400,000 galaxies in order to measure the properties of the mysterious dark energy which is driving the recent speeding up of the expansion of the Universe.

Prof. Warrick Couch is a Distinguished Professor at the Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Swinburne University of Technology. He received his PhD from the Australian National University in 1982 and has worked at Durham University, the Anglo-Australian Observatory and the University of New South Wales. His main research interests are in galaxy evolution and observational cosmology, with a major focus on the evolution of galaxies as influenced by their environment, particularly in the very dense rich cluster environment. He is noted for his pioneering studies of the photometric, spectroscopic and morphological evolution of galaxies in distant clusters, his contributions to understanding the influence of environment on galaxy star formation via the 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey, and being part of the distant supernovae searches that have shown the expansion of the universe is currently accelerating. He has been honoured by being listed as a Highly Cited re searcher by ISI, and as a joint winner of the 2007 Gruber Prize in Cosmology

Dr. Glen Mackie has worked at the Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Swinburne University of Technology since 2001. He received a PhD ("The Stellar Content of Central Dominant Galaxies") from the Australian National University and has worked at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Carter Observatory (N.Z.) and Victoria University of Wellington. His research interests include Brightest Cluster Galaxies as probes of massive galaxy evolution in extreme densities of space, and the formation and evolution of dwarf galaxies. His other research interests are multi-wavelength properties of galaxies, galaxy mergers and astronomy education. Glen is Assistant Coordinator of Swinburne Astronomy Online and has instructed several SAO Units.

Dr. Chris Fluke is an astronomer and astronomy educator, who has worked at Swinburne University of Technology since 1999. His research interests include gravitational lensing and astrophysical visualisation using advanced technologies such as virtual reality. He is a member of the Commonwealth Cosmology Initiative, which aims to grow Australia's strengths in computational cosmology. Chris is a very active science communicator, regularly giving talks on astronomy to school groups and the general public. He teaches a course on the history of astronomy through Swinburne Astronomy Online.