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Going beyond being there to bring astronomy to the world

Nature Astronomy volume 7, pages 1412–1414 (2023)Cite this article

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The traditional conference format has been with us for more than a century, and yet the contemporary version remains similar in many ways. Can emerging technologies enable conferencing to evolve? The Future of Meetings community of practice present their findings from bringing virtual reality to three recent conferences.

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Fig. 1: Views inside and outside the virtual reality (VR) exhibit.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge contributions to building the exhibit from J. Chesters, A. Dunning, B. Indermuehle, E. Lenc and R. Rayner, contributions to enabling the exhibit from D. Hills and A. Gray, and contributions to running the exhibit from C. and J. Ekers. We acknowledge the Wajarri Yamaji as the Traditional Owners and native title holders of the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory site. CSIRO’s ASKAP radio telescope is part of the Australia Telescope National Facility (https://ror.org/05qajvd42). Operation of ASKAP is funded by the Australian Government with support from the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy. ASKAP uses the resources of the Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre. Establishment of ASKAP, Inyarrimanha Ilgari Bundara, the CSIRO Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory and the Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre are initiatives of the Australian Government, with support from the Government of Western Australia and the Science and Industry Endowment Fund.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CSIRO Space & Astronomy, Epping, Australia

    Vanessa A. Moss, Emily F. Kerrison & Ron D. Ekers

  2. Sydney Institute for Astronomy, School of Physics, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia

    Vanessa A. Moss & Emily F. Kerrison

  3. Freelance, Sydney, Australia

    Glen A. Rees & Katrina V. H. Amos

  4. CSIRO Space & Astronomy, Bentley, Australia

    Aidan W. Hotan

  5. Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Sagamihara, Japan

    Elizabeth J. Tasker

  6. ANU Supercomputer Facility, Acton, Australia

    Rika Kobayashi

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  1. Vanessa A. Moss
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Correspondence to Vanessa A. Moss.

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Moss, V.A., Rees, G.A., Hotan, A.W. et al. Going beyond being there to bring astronomy to the world. Nat Astron 7, 1412–1414 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-023-02163-x

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