by Marek Cichanski
I could only manage two hours of observing last night before falling dead asleep at 9:30 pm, after being awake for 44 hours. But boy, I saw some great stuff!
David Kinglsey and I arrived in Coonabarabran, NSW after a long but smooth trip. 14 hours from SFO to Sydney, and then a six-hour drive on the left hand side of the road. I periodically looked out the window to watch Polaris get lower and disappear. Not often you get to see Polaris set. You know the roads from Anderson to Shingletown? Imagine taking the freeway to, say, Vacaville, and then taking those roads all the way to Shingletown. Long, but surprisingly enjoyable. Very pretty countryside.
We're staying at a great little cottage that is the perfect astronomer's home base. I can best describe this area as like the drive from King City to LSA, but with gum trees and Magellanic clouds. Oh, and kangaroos that hop around in the distance as you're setting up, and birds that sound like laughing monkeys. We're at the edge of the Warrumbungle range, which looks quite scenic. If you've ever been to the west side of Pinnacles, there's a hill right above the cottage that looks like the 'balconies' cliff, if it were a free-standing massif. Fortunately, it only blocks a small part of the sky, and it's in the north.
Last night was cold and somewhat dewy, but man oh man it's dark around here! Top-shelf dark. I just looked at some eye candy before my brain leaked out my ears. Eta Carinae is insane. Couldn't quite make out the Homunculus, seeing wasn't quite good enough, but the Keyhole rocked. The center of the galaxy is dead over head at astro dark. The Pipe Nebula is a trivial direct vision object, and the 'horse' is easy. The Large Sag starcloud is like an overhead room light.
And then there's Omega Cen. 35 degrees up.
One look at it - justified the whole trip. Not kidding. I thought I'd seen this from MB, but no. Had no idea at all. Un-freakin' believable!
Clouds are threatening the next couple of days, but I have ten days, so I'm not worried.
By my first morning here, this has gone from a once-in-a-lifetime deal to a yearly deal. Rocks.
Gotta go, gotta clear off the computer, have fun y'all! Clear Skies!
Posted on sf-bay-tac Aug 28, 2005 21:26:44 PT
Converted by report.pm 1.2 Mar 09, 2006 22:04:03 PT