QVMAG talk will explore Tassie contributions to early space research

Little was known about the characteristics of our atmosphere in the 1960s, but Tasmania played a pivotal role in high-altitude research.

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These discoveries will be the focus of space historian Kerrie Dougherty OAM's talk, titled Seeing the Unseen Sky, at the QVMAG on Sunday.

"I'm talking about the background surrounding the Skylark rocket, displayed at the QVMAG," Ms Dougherty said.

"Many people don't realise the University of Tasmania, in company with the University of Adelaide, was involved with some very early X-ray astronomy research."

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She said in the 1960s and early 70s, research was done using Skylark sounding rockets at the Woomera rocket range in South Australia, like the one on display at the QVMAG.

"Skylark was a British rocket that was designed specifically for scientific research; it was actually the most launched type of rocket in Woomera between 1957 and 1979," she said.

She said in the particular case of UTAS, they were conducting X-ray astronomy.

"They weren't looking at the sky with an optical telescope, but rather an unseen sky; it's the sky you see in all other electromagnetic wavelengths," Ms Dougherty said.

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"That's X-rays, radio astronomy, ultraviolet and infrared; these are all areas of the sky that are very hard to observe from the ground, except in the case of radio astronomy.

"The ionosphere in our atmosphere screens out most of that radiation from reaching the surface of the earth."

Ms Dougherty said it was the use of sounding rockets that let them get instruments high enough above the screening factors to begin to study the sky and other wavelengths.

"They actually made fundamental discoveries about X-ray sources in the sky."

A space historian, curator and educator, Ms Dougherty was formerly curator of space technology at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, and is a lecturer in the International Space University's Department of Space Humanities.

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She's worked with NASA on space outreach projects, and written two histories of Australian space activities.

"From a very young age I've always been interested in space," she said.

"As I got older I went to University and through my professional career with the museum sector, I've effectively become the historian of Australian space activities," Ms Dougherty said.

She said at her talk on Sunday, patrons can hear how Tasmania fits into this part of Australia's space history.

"Especially how a sounding rocket, something that might seem out of place in a Tasmanian museum, fits into the story of Australian space exploration," she said.

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