A trip down under

[gajjer]

Well we have no long got back from a holiday in Australia; something we had planned since May this year. I had been getting a bit excited because I had discovered that Sydney Observatory was not far from where we were staying. However, this was a the first big holiday with my new partner and stargazing wasn't top of the activities.

To be honest the love affair with English skies had been fading a bit and the prospect of a new sky and fantasies of no light pollution had been creeping into my thoughts. And it's all the other way up down there.

So, I was quite excited when my partner agreed that we should book a tour of the Observatory. I wasn't expecting much because it's situated on a hill in a very lit up area. The weather had been quite reasonable up to then. Not totally clear skies but clear enough. So guess what happened on the night we booked. Yup. Clouds rolled in! Well, it wasn't as bad as it seemed. We did get to see Jupiter and a couple of stars so all was not lost. The young chap who ran our tour was very enthusiastic and kept us entertained for whole 2 hours. Overall, very good - and I learned a bit too. And more importantly, my partner enjoyed it too. ( She has a small telescope but I'm slowly sneaking some of my old kit over to her house! )

There was one really memorable night though. We were staying in Perth at the time and I had got up at about 2.00am for my toilet visit and I looked out of the balcony to see Orion in all its splendour. It was quite high in the sky relative to the UK and it looked quite odd with the 'sword' pointing upward - quite beautiful. A nice memory.

So, we are looking for somewhere else to trot off to now.

 

cheers

gaj

 

 

 

 

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Lovely report! I managed to take some cheap 15x70 bins with me down-under. Easy to sneak in in the hand baggage and great tools for scanning the southern Milky Way (and Magellanic clouds).

[Stu]

Nice one. Shame the skies didn't play ball, but sounds like you had a fun trip to the observatory.

[Patbloke]

I'm off again to Cairns next week for November... Very lucky as my daughter has set up home there and obtained residency, so I've been three times in two years already :-)

I take my 15 x 70 Helios Apollos in my flight cabin bag and have been so lucky viewing the wonders of the southern skies... It's funny you should mention Orion as I remember looking up whilst swimming in the pool noticing how funny it looked on it's side almost at the zenith... One of the things that I could not get to grips with was the path of the planets (ecliptic) I couldnt get my head around it all (could be the jet lag I suppose :-)) I had to get an apple pretend it was the earth stick a couple of matches in it where I would be at home and there, spin it around to work out why it all looked so different.

I also had to start learning the southern hemisphere constellations and the wonders hidden within them... The thing that sticks out for me is the star colours are so obvious, absolutely love it.

Three visits though and I still haven't bagged the Magellanic clouds though so I've checked stellarium for November and I think I should finally get to see them. 

 

If you are looking for a place to go - remortgage the house, sell your car and scopes and go to Big Island Hawaii, the home of Mauna Kea and stargazing heaven... you'll see both the Northern and Southern hemisphere stars (apart from 20 degrees around the southern pole) You won't need a telescope or binoculars as it's an amazing site! almost straight after nightfall billions upon billions of stars covering the sky, the milky way looking so pronounced and thick it looks like a massive cloud spanning from horizon to horizon... Glistening stars the brightest you've ever seen the moment they come into view. Clusters a plenty visible by eye... Stunning!

Yes. the flights are ridiculously expensive but what with all the daytime wonders to see I would thoroughly recommend it... After seeing it though I said to my partner I had might as well sell my scopes now because nothing will ever beat those views - However, bagging some local wonders the other night in Lincolnshire has made me realise it's just as much fun finding something through the scope that you have no chance of seeing by eye, in the cold damp dark of this country :-)

[barkis]

If only I was a lot younger Pat, that notion would plague the 
life out of me.  I've seen pristine might skies for sure, and they are 
a sight rarely presented to us in the UK.
Hawaii sound Idyllic in more ways that one, but I'd settle for the skies.
That Lottery win seems light years away .
 

[gajjer]

Hi Patbloke.

The chances of me going back there are really slim. There are too many other places to see nearer to home. The reason for going this time was to do the Sydney bridge climb while the legs and stomach are still up to it. Hawaii would be a dream come true but we are going for maximum bang per buck so it probably wont happen.

I have become very philosophical about my photography. I will never match the results of the Hubble but I can do the best I can, given my location and resources. That is the challenge. If it was easy, it probably wouldn't have kept my interest. I would like a few nice nights in the UK though.

cheers

gaj

 

[carastro]

I've been to some far flung places, including Australia, Ayers Rock (where I saw the SMC, 47 Tucanae (glob cluster with binoculars), Omega centauri, Jewel Box and McNaught's comet which was huge in the Outback, with the tail showing long after the coma disappeared below the horizon, Uranus through the Sydney Observatory scope, but the most striking place I have been to was Los Roques, which is a little archipelago in the Caribbean just North of Caracus.   Not only is it in the sea away from mainland, but there was no electricity on the islands, (I don't know if this was a temporary problem but it was lucky for us at the time) and because of that we had to stop overnight as there was no light for the airport runway.  The stars just seem to stick out like stalks, never seen anything like it before or since, I think my own eyes stuck out like stalks I could not believe what I was seeing.

Carole 

[gajjer]

Carole, I'm hoping that on our travels we get to see a really dark sky. I know I will never be able to capture it in camera but the experience would be enough.

I have been to good locations in the past but it was before I developed an interest in astrophotography and I was single. It's just not the same on your own.

Here's to new skies.

cheers

gaj

 

[Stargazer McCabe]

Give Namibia some consideration...

Just back from a 14 night trip with the wife and our Heritage 130P "Travel Scope". 10 nights of perfectly clear skies across the two main locations we visited. Not a wisp of cloud in sight throughout every day and night apart from when we were in Windhoek, with sky quality ranging from 21.77 to 21.87 out at the remote desert camps...

1 hour time difference, so no jet-lag and an easy overnight flight both ways...

[ringz]

I went to the big island of Hawaii for the 1991 eclipse, it was cloudy. In fact it was cloudy for my entire stay there. This was in July, so if you do go pick your dates carefully

[kirkster501]

I worked in Siberia when I was younger.  -40C for a few weeks. Skies were utterly spectacular and I remember seeing the North American nebula as easy as it is to see the moon! Stood out clearly.  Also saw M81 with the naked eye the skies were so clear.