BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//jEvents 2.0 for Joomla//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN METHOD:PUBLISH BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:Australia/Sydney BEGIN:STANDARD DTSTART:20250406T020000 RDATE:20251005T030000 TZOFFSETFROM:+1100 TZOFFSETTO:+1000 TZNAME:Australia/Sydney AEST END:STANDARD BEGIN:STANDARD DTSTART:20260405T020000 RDATE:20261004T030000 TZOFFSETFROM:+1100 TZOFFSETTO:+1000 TZNAME:Australia/Sydney AEST END:STANDARD BEGIN:STANDARD DTSTART:20270404T020000 RDATE:20271003T030000 TZOFFSETFROM:+1100 TZOFFSETTO:+1000 TZNAME:Australia/Sydney AEST END:STANDARD BEGIN:STANDARD DTSTART:20280402T020000 RDATE:20281001T030000 TZOFFSETFROM:+1100 TZOFFSETTO:+1000 TZNAME:Australia/Sydney AEST END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT DTSTART:20241105T193000 RDATE:20250406T020000 TZOFFSETFROM:+1000 TZOFFSETTO:+1100 TZNAME:Australia/Sydney AEDT END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:DAYLIGHT DTSTART:20251005T030000 RDATE:20260405T020000 TZOFFSETFROM:+1000 TZOFFSETTO:+1100 TZNAME:Australia/Sydney AEDT END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:DAYLIGHT DTSTART:20261004T030000 RDATE:20270404T020000 TZOFFSETFROM:+1000 TZOFFSETTO:+1100 TZNAME:Australia/Sydney AEDT END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:DAYLIGHT DTSTART:20271003T030000 RDATE:20280402T020000 TZOFFSETFROM:+1000 TZOFFSETTO:+1100 TZNAME:Australia/Sydney AEDT END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:DAYLIGHT DTSTART:20281001T030000 RDATE:20290401T020000 TZOFFSETFROM:+1000 TZOFFSETTO:+1100 TZNAME:Australia/Sydney AEDT END:DAYLIGHT END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT UID:b3b60963f4c6cbc8a3d6915671275edb CATEGORIES:Guest Speaker Night CREATED:20250422T160133 SUMMARY:Guest Speaker - Dr Vicente Maestro - SASI LOCATION:: Green Point Observatory DESCRIPTION:Stellar Close-Ups: Measuring the True Size and Shape of StarsStars appear a s mere points of light in the night sky, even through powerful optical tele scopes. So how can we possibly know how big they truly are, or even what sh ape they might be? Measurements are vital for understanding stellar physics and testing evolutionary models when combined with known stellar distances , photometry and spectroscopy.\nOur Earth's turbulent atmosphere typically blurs starlight, preventing ground-based telescopes from measuring the true angular sizes of stars. While space telescopes avoid atmospheric blurring, even they cannot resolve the disks of most nearby stars.\nThis talk explor es optical interferometry, which combines light from multiple telescopes to bypass atmospheric blurring and achieve ultra-high resolution (sharp enoug h to spot a pizza on the Moon). Tonight’s discussion will include how stell ar angular diameters can be used to find stellar radius and temperature, an d crucially, how it reveals the distorted shapes of fast-rotating stars, of fering unique insights into their physics.\n\nDr Vicente MaestroDr Vicente Maestro is an astrophysicist with a diverse background. He holds Master's d egrees in Fundamental Physics (University of Seville, 2001) and Astrophysic s (University of Granada, 2005), where his thesis focused on Planetary Nebu lae. After a period working in Bayesian Inference for a known soft drinks b rand, he migrated to Australia and earned his PhD in Astrophysics from the University of Sydney in 2014, specializing in determining fundamental prope rties of hot stars (primarily main sequence spectral types B and A) using o ptical interferometry, photometry and spectroscopy, with key data obtained using the instrument PAVO at the CHARA Observatory (Mt Wilson, California, USA). Following his time in academia he has worked in the financial sector (Credit Risk Modelling).\nDr Maestro has recently returned to his passion f or astrophysics and is a member of SASI.\n X-ALT-DESC;FMTTYPE=text/html:

Stellar Close-Ups: Measuring the True Size and Shape of Stars

St ars appear as mere points of light in the night sky, even through powerful optical telescopes. So how can we possibly know how big they truly are, or even what shape they might be? Measurements are vital for understanding ste llar physics and testing evolutionary models when combined with known stell ar distances, photometry and spectroscopy.
Our Earth's turbulent atmos phere typically blurs starlight, preventing ground-based telescopes from me asuring the true angular sizes of stars. While space telescopes avoid atmos pheric blurring, even they cannot resolve the disks of most nearby stars.This talk explores optical interferometry, which combines light from mu ltiple telescopes to bypass atmospheric blurring and achieve ultra-high res olution (sharp enough to spot a pizza on the Moon). Tonight’s discussion wi ll include how stellar angular diameters can be used to find stellar radius and temperature, and crucially, how it reveals the distorted shapes of fas t-rotating stars, offering unique insights into their physics.

Dr Vi cente Maestro

Dr Vicente Maestro

Dr Vicente Maestro is an astrophy sicist with a diverse background. He holds Master's degrees in Fundamental Physics (University of Seville, 2001) and Astrophysics (University of Grana da, 2005), where his thesis focused on Planetary Nebulae. After a period wo rking in Bayesian Inference for a known soft drinks brand, he migrated to A ustralia and earned his PhD in Astrophysics from the University of Sydney i n 2014, specializing in determining fundamental properties of hot stars (pr imarily main sequence spectral types B and A) using optical interferometry, photometry and spectroscopy, with key data obtained using the instrument P AVO at the CHARA Observatory (Mt Wilson, California, USA). Following his ti me in academia he has worked in the financial sector (Credit Risk Modelling ).
Dr Maestro has recently returned to his passion for astrophysics an d is a member of SASI.

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