Sydney, NSW, 8/16/2006: Down Under all over again

by Marek Chichanski

After last year's incredible observing trip to Australia with David Kingsley, I swore that I'd come back in 2006. This year it's going to be me and Dan Wright. This report is mostly travelogue, but I swear that there's some actual observing, eventually...

So, on Sunday the 13th I finished my packing in the afternoon, and took off for a hike partway up Black Mountain. This was to tire myself out so that I'd have a shot at sleeping during the 14-hour flight from SFO to Sydney. Things were pretty straightforward at the airport, all things considered. Armed with a new iPod loaded with TV shows, I was ready for the flight. By some miracle I actually managed to get several hours of broken sleep and I arrived in Sydney on the morning of Tuesday the 15th (Oz time) without feeling like I'd just spent ten years on a plane. Nice.

While I was on the plane I made my now-familiar check for the 'setting of Polaris'. Around halfway through the flight I got up from my aisle seat and checked the view out through an exit-door window on the right side of the plane. Looking backward as far as I could, I couldn't see any bright stars near the horizon, so I assumed that Polaris had just set. A few hours later I checked again, and I could see Cassiopea hovering just above the northern horizon, looking like an 'M'. This gave me a sense of how far below the horizon the north celestial pole had dropped. On the same inter-nap stroll I checked the view out the left side, and I was nicely rewarded. I could make out the Pointers (Alpha and Beta Centauri), the Southern Cross, and an asterism in Carina that I call the 'Miaplacidus Diamond'. Back in the southern hemisphere! Life is good.

My main mission for the day was to hit 'Bintel', the Binocular and Telescope Shop. After a bit of train-ing, bus-ing, and walking, I found their new location. It's a nice shop. I had wanted to buy a copy of 'Hartung', a popular book on the southern sky, but it's out of print, and it now seems to have the status that Rukl did before they came out with the new edition. I suspect that SoHem amateurs will soon be financing binoviewers and Terminaglers with their aging Hartungs. I did, however, succumb to the temptation of an observing chair. Anything to make myself more comfortable at the observing site and thus, hopefully, increase the size of that bag list.

I had hoped to see some stars that evening, but while strolling around Sydney after a visit to the Australian Museum, I got caught out in the craziest weather I'd seen in years. The day had been wonderfully clear and warm during the morning and afternoon; imagine the nicest February day you've ever seen in San Francisco. But around rush hour, the city was hit by a thunderstorm of Biblical proportions. Imagine a February day in San Francisco with thunder roaring amongst the skyscrapers, and rain and hail (pea-sized! marble sized!) blasting down out of the sky like it was jet-propelled. Parts of the city were covered with hail, the gutters were running like rivers, it was a big mess. My shoes and pants were soaked, despite having been under the best tree shelter I could find in Hyde Park. Crazy. It mostly cleared up later in the night, however, and would have been a salvageable observing night if not for the light pollution.

Tonight was better. After more Sydney sightseeing I wandered up to the top of a hill near Circular Quay after sunset and found the Sydney Observatory. It was a nice little spot with early 19th-century buildings, modest-sized domes, an old 'time ball' that is still used, and a decent view of the sky. There was even a public night going on, although it seemed to be dedicated to a high school group. I decided to spend twilight there and see how many stars I could spot and identify. This worked out rather well, as it turned out.

First out was Jupiter, natch. And it must have been at least 45 or 50 degrees up! Then I turned towards the skyscrapers of the central business district and saw my quarry - the Pointers and the Southern Cross. Sweet. As it got darker, I was able to see the 'Miaplacidus Diamond', and later the False Cross. And then I couldn't resist... up and up my gaze went, to an orange star way up in the heights of the sky - Antares! This was quickly followed by one of my all-time favorite sensations in the entire hobby: The disoriented feeling of wondering what you're looking at around Antares, followed immediately by the sudden realization that you're looking at the Scorpion and the Teapot from a very unfamiliar, but oh so marvelously favorable angle. They were closing in on the zenith, had about an hour to go. Sweet sweet sweet.

Then I decided to see what I could make out to the north, since I had a nice low northern horizon. I was looking north across Sydney Harbor, with the Harbor Bridge on the right side of my field of view. The first thing I noticed was Arcturus, somewhat low in the northwest. Next I picked out Ophiucus, Hercules (I could even see the Keystone), the triangular head of Serpens Caput, and Aquila. All of them were 'upside down', of course. What really befuddled me was seeing Corvus and Virgo. Both of them were unexpected for me at this time of year, and they were both up remarkably high. I was standing there on the observatory lawn, turning in place and muttering to myself things like "Wow! That's Vindemiatrix! Well, I'll be dipped in..." I probably would have looked quite mad to anyone watching. ("Looked"?, you're saying... yeah, yeah, wise guy...) There was one bright star quite low in the north, which I suspect was Vega.

Looking south again, more southern stars had come out. Most of the stars of Centaurus were now visible, striding over the now-prominent Southern Cross. What a spectacular constellation, it's too bad we don't see all of it up north. I was surprised to be able to see all of Musca, and I was surprised anew at how bright Lupus is. Triangulum Australe stood out well, too. There were a couple of bright stars rising in the southeast, they might have been things like the Ankaa or the Peacock Star, but I'm not sure.

As the twilight progressed, something really neat happened. Earlier in the day I'd been walking around the Royal Botanic Gardens, and I had seen hundreds of flying foxes nesting in the trees. It turns out that the Botanic Gardens are now home to huge numbers of flying foxes. These are large bats that I thought only lived in the tropics, but they've made quite a home for themselves right in Sydney. At twilight, many of them flew over to the Observatory and roosted in the trees there, so I was treated to the sight of huge bats wheeling and circling as I was identifying the southern stars. As a caver and bat enthusiast, it was a really neat moment.

(P.S. - bats are often unfairly maligned, and are badly in need of much conservation effort in some cases. See www.batcon.org for more info. Bats are like dark skies - they need friends.)

I decided to finish off with an effort to see some DSOs with the naked eye. Naturally, I went for Omega Centauri - and I got it! After I got back to my hotel I confirmed the position on Starry Night Pro. I also saw M7 and M6 near the zenith. I'm feeling good about bagging Omega Cen in the sky over Sydney.

So, that's my observing so far. I'm heading out to Coonabarabran tomorrow, and I'm really excited. If the weather is still good, I can observe until about 2 am if I have my moonrise time right. That should give me time for a nice eye candy tour and maybe some logging of objects.

Well, I'm utterly pole-axed with fatigue, so I'm going to go to bed now. I'm looking forward to seeing Dan in a few days, and to seeing more of this wonderful southern sky.

Marek