Curtin Stadium hosts Australia’s largest astronomy festival

Astrofest – Australia's largest astronomy festival – is returning to Perth today with more than 5,000-star gazers expected to attend the event at Curtin Stadium and Edinburgh Oval.

Astrofest offers an opportunity for attendees to learn more about astronomy, space exploration and scientific discovery.

Among the attractions are seeing radio telescopes working in real time along with many hands-on space activities. Avid astronomers can get an update on one of Western Australia's key science projects, the Square Kilometre Array Observatory (SKAO), which is being built in the Murchison.

The WA Government continues to invest in WA becoming a global hub for radio astronomy research, training and translation. Since 2009 the State Government has contributed more than $75 million to support the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) which is a joint venture between Curtin University and The University of Western Australia.

Astrofest is run by Astronomy WA, a collective comprising more than 30 of WA's astronomy and STEM outreach organisations, including Curtin University, ICRAR, and the CSIRO.

In addition to ICRAR, there are several other organisations supported by the State Government, such as Scitech Gravity Discovery Centre and the Perth Observatory which are Astronomy WA members and will be involved in Astrofest.

Astrofest will be held at Curtin Stadium and Edinburgh Oval on 9th November from 5:30pm-9:30pm. https://www.astronomywa.net.au/astrofest.html

Images. Astrofest. Credit: Astrotourism WA