Astronomy event at Scienceworks, Melbourne


Last Saturday 28th April we had a very special event at Scienceworks (Melbourne, Victoria): a Astronomy talk and a special projection of the planetary show “Una estrella para Cervantes” (A star for Cervantes). The event was hosted by astrophysicist and science communicator Ángel R. López-Sánchez (AAO/MQU), who was in charge of giving a talk about the techniques that astronomers use for detecting planets around other stars and how they survey the sky. Our Chair, Sergio León-Saval (University of Sydney) also provided an overview of our association. The event was organized by Elena López Varela, Ángel R. López-Sánchez and Kate Bernard.

Astronomer Ángel López-Sánchez during his talk. Credit: SRAP.

 

Sergio León-Saval (left) and Ángel López-Sánchez (second left) with the Kate Bernard, director of Sciencework (second right) and Elena López Varela (righe). Credit: SRAP.

 

Sergio León-Saval during his talk about SRAP-IEAP. Credit: SRAP.

We really thank the very friendly staff of Sciencework, who really helped to get this event happening, and to the support of the Consulado General de España en Melbourne. We also thank staff at the Planetarium of Pamplona, specially to Javier Armentia, for their help providing on time the high-resolution files of the movie.


Angel.Lopez-Sanchez

About Angel.Lopez-Sanchez

Dr Ángel R. López-Sánchez is an astrophysicist and science communicator working at the Australian Astronomical Optics (AAO) and the Department of Physics and Astronomy of the Macquarie University (MQ) in Sydney (NSW, Australia). His research is focused in the analysis of star formation phenomena in galaxies of the Local Universe, especially in dwarf starbursts and spiral galaxies, using multi-wavelength (UV, optical, IR, radio) data. He presented his PhD Thesis at University of La Laguna and the Instituto Astrofisica de Canarias (Spain) in 2006. In 2007 he joined CSIRO Astronomy & Space Science (Sydney) with a postdoctoral position. He then joined the AAO (formerly the Australian Astronomical Observatory) and MQ in 2011. In July 2018 he was appointed as Senior Lecturer at AAO-MQ. He has been providing instrument and observing support at the Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT, Siding Spring Observatory, NSW) since 2011, being the instrument scientist of several instruments: the multi-fiber spectrograph 2dF+AAOmega and the near-infrared imager and spectrograph IRIS2. He also has large experience with integral-field spectroscopy (IFS), being a very active member of the SAMI collaboration at the AAT and part of the HECTOR Science Team. He currently is the Instrument Scientist of KOALA+AAOmega at the AAT, and leads the international astronomy survey "HI KOALA IFS Dwarf and irregular galaxy Survey" (Hi-KIDS), that is getting unique, high-quality IFS data of a sample of 100 nearby dwarf and irregular galaxies for which 21cm H I interferometric data is available He has large experience teaching undergraduate and PhD students and giving lectures and classes about Astronomy. Dr. López-Sánchez is passionate science communicator who continuously gives talks and public lectures, writes popular science articles and organizes science communication events and stargazing activities. He is very active in social media, his Twitter feed is @El_Lobo_Rayado.