MORE than 300 people who attended the Pingelly Astrofest, a free astronomy festival, took the opportunity to appreciate the State's spectacular view of the stars and galaxies and learn about space and astronomy last weekend.
Held by The University of Western Australia's (UWA) Institute of Agriculture and the Shire of Pingelly, International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) cosmos consultant, education and outreach officer Gregory Rowbotham said the night sky was an important resource which many people forgot about.
"With more than two billion people on the planet no longer able to see the Milky Way in the night sky, those living in regional areas of WA have one of the best views in the house," Mr Rowbotham said.
"By getting people out of the city to events like these, it reminds them that it is indeed a precious resource that needs to be protected."
Mr Rowbotham said Pingelly Astrofest 2021 had outgrown its original location at UWA Farm Ridgefield and would instead be held at the Pingelly Recreation and Cultural Centre.
The event featured guided astronomy tours, state-of-the-art telescopes, hands-on science activities from the UWA School of Agriculture and Environment and solar system workshops and shows led by Scitech.
"People look up at the night sky and quite often have no idea what they are actually looking at, so we will have guides to the night sky using lasers," Mr Rowbotham said.
"In the city there is a lot of light pollution so you only see a handful of planets and stars in the sky but out in Pingelly where it's a lot darker you're going to see a lot of amazing things like stars and planets and the glittering jewel box."
The Pingelly Astrofest also featured an astrophotography exhibit, children's activities at the UWA Farm Ridgefield information booth, community fundraisers and local market stalls - including a Dr Who shop and exhibit from Pingelly Museum's Elizabeth Trump.
Mr Rowbotham said it was the 10th year of Astronomy WA's astrophotography exhibit and that the 2021 exhibition was one of the best they had ever seen.
"The amazing talent of amateur astrophotographers from around WA taking pictures of the night sky - everything from planets and stars to deep sky and landscape images with the milky way in the background - each year the quality just seems to get better and better," Mr Rowbotham said.
UWA ran two buses on the night which took guests from the UWA campus to Pingelly, before returning at midnight.
Due to Perth Astrofest being postponed until November, Mr Rowbotham expects WA's other regional astrofests would be popular.
"People have been cooped inside for the majority of last year, so the regional astrofests are a really exciting and different thing for them to do," Mr Rowbotham said.
ICRAR PhD student Kathryn Ross spoke on the mystery surrounding black holes at the Pingelly event.
"They say that there are two things that get people into science - space and dinosaurs and I feel really lucky that I'm able to share my love of the universe with people who are as passionate and excited about it as me," Ms Ross said.
"In my research, I've found that a bunch of baby black holes in the centres of distant galaxies are acting weirdly and I'm trying to understand their behaviour and what that means in relation to galaxy evolution.
Ms Ross who is in the third year of her PhD and has one year to go, said WA was leading the world in terms of astronomy research.
"The dark skies that we have in rural WA, like Pingelly, are unparalleled and it's the best place in the world to be doing this type of science," Ms Ross said.
"There is so much that we don't know and, as we get better and better technology like building the square kilometre array in WA and having these amazing technological advances, we are just going to find weirder and weirder stuff out there."
Pingelly Shire president William Mulroney said the event initially started off with about 70 guests but that this number had grown to more than 300 people in 2021.
He said all the accommodation in town was booked out and extra accommodation for self-contained caravans was set up.
"We have so much to give in our own State that people don't need to go overseas for their holidays, just have a look in your own backyard," Mr Mulroney said.
"Events like these are also a great asset to our regional economies."
With more events scheduled in Pingelly in April including a WAFL game, a shearing competition and sheep dog trials, Mr Mulroney said there were plenty of places to explore in the region.
"We have Katanning Reserve which is about 3000-4000 hectares of native bush southeast of Pingelly and also Boyagin Rock Nature Reserve which is about another 4000ha of native scrub so tourists can do walks out in the bush," Mr Mulroney said.
"We've had some great rain recently so it's clean and green and the region is looking beautiful."
