My Space - Tanya Hill

The Age

Saturday February 9, 2008

Interview by Andrew Stephens

Tanya Hill is astronomer and curator at the Melbourne Planetarium at Scienceworks in Spotswood, where stargazing is a full-time job. Hill and her team design the spectacular light shows that draw in hordes of children and adults every week to the domed room of the planetarium.

What was it like when you first came into this space?

It's a moment I don't think I will ever forget. I started here in January 1999 - we didn't open until August - so the building was all in place. There was just this black computer box (the digital star projector, now superseded) sitting plonk in the middle of the room, but no seats, lighting or sound. We all sat down on the concrete floor and they put the stars up for the first time. It was just fantastic. And then! - the new thing with the digital star projectors was that you could do pseudo-3D travel through the stars, almost like a Star Trek effect, you feel like they are moving by you - it was just amazing. In 2005 we got this new system, which really creates an immersive experience.

How did you come to astronomy?

I was scared of the dark as a child, which is kind of a weird thing for an astronomer, so dad showed me a few of the main constellations such as the Southern Cross and Scorpius and Orion. I got used to knowing where those constellations were in the night sky. In high school, 1986, when Halley's Comet did its last fly-by of Earth, my school managed to discover that they had a telescope hiding away, so they dragged it out to do some family evenings. I wasn't very interested in the comet - but it was that looking through a telescope for the first time and seeing all the stars that you don't normally see, that the telescope brings to life. That's still with me. I love astronomy and the chance we get to see all these things that are out there that you can't see any other way. The plan was to go to uni and be a science teacher. In my third year I got a summer job at the Anglo-Australian Observatory, which operates the largest optical telescope in Australia at Coonabarabran. I worked with an astronomer and she convinced me to do a PhD.

What is it about this space that excites you most?

The "nearness" to space is a lot of it. I also like the fact that when it is busy and crazy out in the Scienceworks, this is a really great space to sit and chill out. We do get people saying that this is the only place where the children are quiet. Now I've got my own children I can understand what they mean. In my role here I don't deal so much with the public directly - my role is to create the shows. If ever you want inspiration, the best place is to come and sit in here under the stars.

What do you aim for, when you are in here sorting out the shows' content?

My aim is to inspire. I don't think we are here to teach everyone 101 astronomy facts but to create fascination about what's out there. The last show was about black holes, which was actually the topic of my PhD, so it's a subject that I love. But it's also about the amazing things happening now: we've got all these telescopes orbiting the Earth, we can look at the sky in all different wavelengths and we are discovering new things all the time.

I suppose this room makes you feel a bit small?

Soon we'll be doing the "Discover the Night Sky" series. We'll "travel" through the solar system - you realise that the solar system is so small compared to all the stars you see. Then we'll travel through the stars and see that the stars we see in our night sky are just a tiny, tiny part of our galaxy. And then we'll go beyond our galaxy and find out just how many galaxies there are until the limit of what we've seen. In some ways it brings a sense of that insignificance of what we are - but in other ways it opens up all that wonder and amazement that we are here, that we live in such a fantastic universe.

Among the heavenly bodies, are black holes your favourites for looking at on the dome?

I'm more what we call an extra-galactic astronomer, so I look at galaxies beyond the Milky Way. At the centre of many of these galaxies are super-massive black holes, the type of black holes that I'm interested in. I'd like to find out how galaxies evolve - one of the big questions we haven't found an answer to yet. My other love is nebulae - beautiful star-formation factories.

The distances are so enormous - are you able to comprehend them?

I get in big trouble because I can understand how big a light year is (the distance light travels in a year, about 10 million million kilometres) or a million light years - but talk to me about kilometres or metres, how wide is a car, I've got no idea. I'm used to dealing with bigger numbers.

Do you think being in here is similar to being in space?

I love this place, because it really feels like you are going into outer space, you're actually there experiencing it. In fact, when the school groups come in, you can often see the children reaching up. There is that feeling of peace, especially when the stars are up. To be up in space must be amazing. Something that has stayed with me was a talk by John Grunsfeld, one of the US astronauts who worked on the Hubble Space Telescope, and he was asked if he felt endangered up there, just having a space suit. And he said that when he's up there and he looks back at Earth he sees this tiny thin atmosphere - and that's all the Earth has protecting it. Our whole planet is quite fragile. -- Interview: ANDREW STEPHENS; Picture: SIMON SCHULTER

The Discover the Night Sky series starts on Thursday, March 6, bookings essential. www.museumvictoria.com.au/planetarium

© 2008 The Age

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