Robert Evans

All of the elements heavier than iron in the world, and elsewhere in the universe, have come from supernova explosions. So supernova research is able to tell us quite a bit about how the universe began and how long ago that might have happened, or what might happen to the universe in the future.

Narration

Reverend Robert Evans has been in the right place at the right time to spot more of them than anyone else on the planet.

Robert Evans

This is my 16-inch telescope. I've made more than half of my supernova discoveries with this telescope. Actually I've put markers over on the side there to commemorate the occasion.

Mark Horstman

These are the notches on your belt?

Robert Evans

Yes that's right. With this particular telescope anyway.

I have found forty two discoveries visually now through telescopes.

Mark Horstman

And how does forty-two rate in world terms?

Robert EvansSo far as visual discoveries are concerned it's a world record by quite a wide margin. As far as I'm aware nobody else in the world has got into double figures yet.

A supernova is a star which explodes, so if you can imagine a ball of gas two or three million kilometres in diameter and the whole thing explodes like an enormous bomb.

The burst of intense radiation can last only weeks, and happens just once every fifty years in our galaxy.

You have no idea of where they're going to happen. There are no indicators that, as to where the next one's going to be, except that it will occur in a galaxy which has a lot of stars in it.

Mark Horstman

What's your system?

Well, the technique is to sort of play the numbers game.

The most that I've observed on a night are about five hundred and fifty or six hundred different galaxies.

This field of vision is quite small.

You have to have a telescope which is easy to manoeuvre so that you can locate and point the telescope at the right spot and you can find the galaxy within a few seconds.

This photograph shows a supernova which I found back in 1983.

Mark Horstman

You've got to play spot the difference?

Robert Evans

Yes.

Mark Horstman

What's different between these two pictures?

Robert Evans

That's right.

Narration

People say Robert has a photographic memory because he holds images of thousands of galaxies in his head.

Robert Evans

Yes, well that's right, but then it's due to ah, practice.

Mark Horstman

What's his memory like Elaine?

Elaine Evans

It depends what it for.

Robert Evans

It depends what it's about.

Narration

His mind has been trained by a lifetime of star-gazing.

Robert Evans

This is a book that my father gave me to introduce me to a few of the main southern constellations, it was a Christmas present in 1948 when I would have been eleven years old.

Elaine Evans

When I first met him I didn't know that he was into astronomy. But very early in the piece I realised that he was interested in it.

I clearly remember one evening, in the early stages of our courtship, he was looking up at the sky and pointing things out to me. And it was just as though these objects were his good friends.

Robert Evans

Psalm eight, verses three to five. When I consider your heavens the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have set in place...

I was in the first instance a Methodist Minister, so I was ordained into the Methodist ministry here in NSW.

I've spent over thirty years doing parish work... or Methodist circuit work if you use the old fashioned term, through until 1998 when I retired from that kind of work.

But it's astronomy for which he's been recognised.

I have the Order of Australia Medal which was awarded for my contributions to science. So it didn't relate at all to my work, professional work as a, a minister.

In your days when you might have been giving sermons about Genesis to your congregation...

Mark Horstman

What did you tell them about the universe being created in six days?

Robert Evans

Well I didn't tell them that. I didn't tell them it was created in six days.

Narration

Robert wants to bridge faith and reason with a philosophy that unifies religious and scientific knowledge.

Robert Evans

I don't find myself any conflict between claims which scientists make and for which they have reasonable evidence, and the kinds of claims that Christians can make in the same sort of way.

When I look at a supernova I'm really just seeing a fuzzy patch of light which is a galaxy. I know what enormous forces and power is represented by a supernova explosion. And those sort of pictures impress me greatly and make me think about the glory of God.