Astrofest 2013 was held on 16th February at Curtin Stadium. The Fireballs team had a great time! Phil Bland delivered the keynote address. Gemma, Katie, Gretchen, Ellie and Phil were all keen to get involved at the Fireballs stall. Katie showed off her impressive collection of meteorite thin sections – very thin slices through a meteorite which can be examined under a microscope. Katie even had some moon rock to examine, which was a big hit. Ellie brought along one of the new digital cameras which is nearly ready to be installed as the latest camera in the Desert Fireball Network. Gretchen shared her love of meteorites, helping visitors to understand just how amazing these space rocks are and allowing visitors to handle two different types of meteorites. Finally, Gemma showed off some flashy science by building a home-made comet with dirt, water and a few other special ingredients. To freeze it all together into a big dirty snowball (like a real comet), Gemma used some dry ice which gave off impressive clouds of ice crystals.

This year, over 3000 people attended Astrofest. As well as getting in touch with some real meteorites at the Fireballs stall, visitors had the chance to use optical and radio telescopes to observe the universe, see some amazing astronomical photography, and enjoy the Scitech Super Cool show!

We can’t wait to see you all at Astrofest next year.