Observatory Volunteer drive...
(initial wording borrowed from talmor)
If you're interested in volunteering at the Observatory, there's a recruitment drive on now to try and get some new people for the start of the tour season. Details are on the Observatory web page (and yes, there really is a spelling mistake in the word 'volunteer' in the URL - not my fault).
Volunteers don't need to know any astronomy, or how to use a telescope, you pick up all that as you go. To start with, you'd be tagging along on tours, helping with crowd control, showing people around, etc, and learning how to use the telescopes and what sort of things you can say about the things we show people. After a few months, you'd be setting up telescopes, pointing them at things, and entertaining about 12 people at a time in your own dome. A night tour gets run with 2 staff, 3 volunteers, and about 50 members of the public, with 4 telescopes set up. The visitors rotate around to each of the telescopes in turn, staying in groups of 12 or so (hence the need for crowd control).
Downsides are you should expect to be helping on about a tour a month, for about 3 hours (from about an hour before sunset to a couple of hours after sunset). Upsides are that once you're checked out the telescopes, you can come and use them yourself or with a few friends, on nights that we don't have tours. We've got a 16" Meade, a 14" Celestron and a 12.5" Newtonian built in 1910, all mounted permanently in their own domes, plus a 30" Dobsonian that needs assembly before each use, but will eventually have its own building too.
I've been doing this for quite a few years now and find the experience very rewarding. The chance to gain new skills, look at new sights and hear the reactions of people when they see Saturn for the first time through a telescope, or a globular cluster.
So if you live in Perth (WA) and think you might be interested, take a look at the details, or ask me if you have any questions.
If you're interested in volunteering at the Observatory, there's a recruitment drive on now to try and get some new people for the start of the tour season. Details are on the Observatory web page (and yes, there really is a spelling mistake in the word 'volunteer' in the URL - not my fault).
Volunteers don't need to know any astronomy, or how to use a telescope, you pick up all that as you go. To start with, you'd be tagging along on tours, helping with crowd control, showing people around, etc, and learning how to use the telescopes and what sort of things you can say about the things we show people. After a few months, you'd be setting up telescopes, pointing them at things, and entertaining about 12 people at a time in your own dome. A night tour gets run with 2 staff, 3 volunteers, and about 50 members of the public, with 4 telescopes set up. The visitors rotate around to each of the telescopes in turn, staying in groups of 12 or so (hence the need for crowd control).
Downsides are you should expect to be helping on about a tour a month, for about 3 hours (from about an hour before sunset to a couple of hours after sunset). Upsides are that once you're checked out the telescopes, you can come and use them yourself or with a few friends, on nights that we don't have tours. We've got a 16" Meade, a 14" Celestron and a 12.5" Newtonian built in 1910, all mounted permanently in their own domes, plus a 30" Dobsonian that needs assembly before each use, but will eventually have its own building too.
I've been doing this for quite a few years now and find the experience very rewarding. The chance to gain new skills, look at new sights and hear the reactions of people when they see Saturn for the first time through a telescope, or a globular cluster.
So if you live in Perth (WA) and think you might be interested, take a look at the details, or ask me if you have any questions.