Planetarium and Observatory Association of Canberra, Inc.

Poac Committee Members

Craig Collins
President

Peter Williamson
Senior Vice President

Grant Nicholson
Treasurer

Michael Nelmes
Secretary

Chris Hamilton
Information Officer and General Committee Member

Ange O'Neil
Public Officer and General Committee Member

Karen Collins
General Committee Member

Patrick Byrnes
General Committee Member and Webmaster

Craig Collins
President

Craig has been a Canberra resident for the past 25 years, and is married with two children. Craig has had an interest in astronomy since childhood, and prior to moving to Canberra was the Secretary of the Astronomical Society of Albury Wodonga for a number of years. After moving to Canberra, he joined the Canberra Astronomical Society (CAS), and commenced working at the Canberra Observatory as a telescope operator on the roof of the Canberra Tradesmen's Union Club in early 1986. After the Observatory was moved to separate premises at the Downer Club and the planetarium was added, he qualified as a planetarium operator and ran planetarium and observatory sessions until the facility closed in 2008.

Craig also worked at Mt Stromlo in the 1990s for the University of Virginia, operating the 26-inch Yale Columbia refractor as part of their parallax program. Later, he worked for the ANU with their public outreach program, showing the public the night sky using a number of telescopes including the historic Oddie refractor at Mt Stromlo.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Craig also worked for Questacon on their Starlab program, in which he would travel interstate to instruct teachers on how to operate a portable planetarium. He also assisted Questacon with their holiday programmes, educating children about the wonders of the universe.

Craig is committed to having the CSDO facility relocated or, if that is not feasible, an alternative facility built in the Canberra region.

Michael Nelmes
Secretary

Michael Nelmes has been an amateur astronomer and member of CAS since 1985, and started working at what later became the Canberra Space Dome & Observatory during "Halleymania" the following year. He operated telescopes there until its closure 22 years later, once growling at Ange O'Neil for wanting to view the full Moon (!), and ran Planetarium shows for the final year. He was also on the CAS committee in the 1990s including a term as president, and writes the Current Phenomena column for its journal.

He studied university physics and maths but it wasn't his bag, baby , so he transferred in second year to another stream of applied science for his degree.

Michael has worked at Mount Stromlo Observatory, both as an explainer at the Visitor Centre and as a service observer on the 74-inch telescope RAPT program. He also ran courses to train people how to use the Oddie telescope at Mt Stromlo, and occasionally operated a portable 'Starlab' planetarium for Questacon.

When not in his backyard observatory in Spence (shaking his fist at the lights of Gungahlin) or walking his dog Keira on Mt Rogers, Michael can often be found out and about on CAS public or school viewing evenings, grazing lunar occultation expeditions, dark sky nights out of town, or chasing solar eclipses around the world with POAC's Public Officer, Ange O'Neil.

Chris Hamilton
Information Officer and General Committee Member

Chris first became interested in astronomy at primary school. Amongst his first memories are the glorious pictures of Jupiter transmitted back from the Voyager mission. Carl Sagan's TV series Cosmos also offered much inspiration.

As an employee for 8 years at the CSDO, Chris feels it was a privilege to work there and have the opportunity to get the kids excited about science and astronomy. Chris was often amazed at how deep the kid s questions could be and he enjoyed the challenge of expanding and keeping his knowledge of astronomy up to date.

Chris believes an understanding of science is of paramount importance. It was sad day when the Planetarium and Observatory closed in January but his hope is that, with its relocation to another site, it will once again educate and inspire the next generation.

Ange O'Neil
Public Officer and General Committee Member

Having grown up in the age of the Space Race, Ange can't see how anyone could NOT have been, at the very least, inspired and excited by astronomy. In her teenage years, being a student of physics, her greatest disappointment was that she missed seeing Comet Kohoutek: persistent cloud cover in Darwin during the wet season of 1973/1974 obscured the view ..and, well, who can wait another 75,000 years? Despite the general public thinking the comet was a fizzer, she was enough of a science nerd that she would have been ecstatic just to see the comet. It was a bitter blow, and if she had been older and had some money, she might have commenced an early career as a comet chaser.

However, the cosmos balances itself, and Ange found herself living very close to the CSDO for most of the time it was open in Downer. She was a regular user of the facility, being directed there by her physics lecturer in 1993 when studying cosmology as part of her science degree. The academic pursuit of science was eventually jettisoned for law Ange was seduced by the dark forces of having to earn a living . Experience has shown that it is scientists who actually starve in attics, not poets and artists.

Despite this defection, Ange s interest in astronomy remained strong. She is an active member of CAS and attends regular meetings and public outreach events. She also finds it hard to resist the occasional grazing occultation, so long as it is at 2 am on a winter morning in some inaccessible spot such as Bombala (that's a local Canberra joke). Unfortunately, many of the recent grazes have occurred at very accessible places and at very reasonable times in the evening, so her interest in grazing occultations has plummeted to a temporary nadir.

Regardless of the abhorrence some astronomers hold for the Moon, it remains Ange's favourite object for telescopic viewing, which is lucky, because it is hard to see much of anything else from her backyard in inner north Canberra.

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Poac Committee Members