by Richard McDermid
Figure 1.
Peculiar Galaxy Collision
Is a Winner!
The Australian Gemini Office has selected the winners of its most
recent Gemini School Astronomy Contest.
Each year since 2009, teacher-sponsored Australian students in Years 5-12 (as well as their
inter-school groups and clubs) have a chance to use an hour of observing time at the 8-meter Gemini South telescope in the Chilean
Andes. All they need to do is select a celestial object visible from the Southern Hemisphere and write a winning explanation as
to why it would be interesting to image.
The winning image
of the most recent
Australian Gemini
Image Contest (Student
Division), obtained
with the Gemini South
8-meter telescope in
Chile. It shows the
peculiar galaxy NGC
7727 in Aquarius. It is a
composite of g, r, i, and
H-alpha filter images,
with a total integration
time of about one hour.
Image credit: Ivanhoe
Girls’ Grammar School
Astronomy Club,
Samuel Carbone
(Trinity College), Travis
Rector (University of
Alaska Anchorage), and
the AAO.
A panel of astronomers, educators, and
science journalists judge the mandatory
teacher-sponsored entries on both the scientific interest of the target and the visual
appeal of the resulting image. The bestranked proposals will have their object imaged by Gemini South and its professionally processed picture presented to the
school by astronomers who will discuss the
image with them. The top three entries will
also be able to participate in a “Live From
Gemini” program, and more.
January 2016
GeminiFocus
23