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Travels in the Southern Hemisphere


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Apologies to die hard enthusiasts ... this will probably read more as a diary than a hard core observation log!

1. Equipment
I took my FC76DCU with an AZT6 alt\az mount on a Gitzo Traveller tripod. The whole lot fitted into a 25 litre backpack. The OTA parts were inside makeshift protectors of 1cm thick foam (a bit like a heavy duty yoga mat!). Three eyepieces, Tak diagonal and a Herschel wedge were wrapped in bubble wrap. The mount and clamshell were double wrapped in bubble wrap. The eyepieces were a Tak 28mm Erfle, a 10mm 85 degree Masuyama and a 3-6 Nagler zoom. The whole lot came in at just under the 7kg carry on baggage limit. We were on twelve flights and only once was I asked to unpack the contents for further examination.
The setup is a little shakey, but usable. I suspect the Traveller is the weak link here, but it made the whole setup portable so I forgive it! 

2. The Australian Outback
We spent a week walking parts of the Larapinta trail, sleeping in tents, or in my case, sleeping outside in a swag under the stars each night. Magical! The walk leaves from Alice Springs in the Northern Territories and finishes at Mount Sonder, roughly 80 miles from Alice Springs. Unfortunately this week coincided with a more or less full moon, so there were only a few times when the moon was far enough below the horizon to catch glimpses as to how good the sky could potentially be.

The first night was the best, with the moon being least full. Alice Springs presented a feint sky glow, we were only 20 miles away from it. I spent a while on the moon and it was stunning. So pure and clear and rock steady. I mean rock steady! Incredible! I've never experienced seeing as good as this. Not even close. 3mm on the Nagler zoom (x190) and I felt the seeing would have allowed much more magnification! Some of our fellow trekkers and guides showed an interest too which was nice. 
Crux and the surrounding area were pretty spectacular, despite the moon glow. I had made cheat sheets for a selection of targets, but the targets were so bright the cheat sheets were not really necessary. The Eta Carina nebula was brighter than the Orion Nebula back home with a 7". Dark lanes and whispy detail were easily seen. A wow moment was sweeping the scope and suddenly catching the Wishing Well cluster (C91). It was truly a beautiful sight, one which I kept coming back to over subsequent nights. The Southern Pleiades was a nice sight, but in my opinion, less impressive than the Northern equivalent. The Jewel Box cluster was very pretty and benefited from increased magnification. I mostly used my 28mm Tak Erfle, occasionally swapping it out for the Masuyama. Other targets in the area included the Gem Cluster, NGC 3114, C100 and C97. It did take me quite a bit of time to work out which target was which. They were all easily seen, but I found trying to correlate them with my cheat sheets very difficult. Different orientations of the cheat sheets and sky, and refractor left/right views didn't help, but for me this is all part of the fun and challenge. Despite the moon glow, the Milky Way was easily visible and almost as much fun was had sweeping the area with a pair of 8x42 binoculars. It was while sweeping with the Tak that I came upon Omega Centauri! That was a wow moment! This was on my hit list but I had overlooked it. This was another one I kept coming back to over the weeks. Under darker skies and concentrated observation, it presented a lovely speckled appearance.
I was sleeping outside in a swag and when I woke early in the morning, the moon had gone and the Magellanic Clouds were visible. Easily visible! Very impressive! So I got up and viewed them with the Tak. Lots of detail visible, with 47 Tucanae and The Tarantula Nebula being the highlights. More general sweeping and there's always something interesting that pops into view. Over 20 shooting stars also added to the magic!

Consecutive nights saw the moon get brighter and more invasive in the early morning. I did use the scope each night and by the end of the week was very familiar with Crux and the surrounding area. The only other constellation I studied was Scorpious. One of our guides gave us a tour of the Southern Constellations and Scorpius, to me, was as impressive as Orion. Easy to find and navigate around. An interesting snippet was that the Indiginous people made a thing of the dark nebulae. The Coal Sack Nebula becomes the head of an Emu, and the dark lanes of the Milky Way form the neck, body and legs.
Back to Scorpius and NGC 6231 was an easy first one. Visible to the naked eye, it was framed beautifully in the Erfle. M6 and M7 were also easy and very impressive. M4 was easily seen at an apparent magnitude of 5.6, but M80, at a magnitude of 7.3 defeated me. It wouldn't be until a week later and darker skies with no moon that I was able to catch M80.

We had two of my daughters with us on this trip and whether they were simply indulging me, or were genuinely interested, it was lovely to share these dark skies with them. My youngest even became a budding astrophotographer, taking some stunning Milky Way shots with her phone. See pics later!

3. North Stradbroke Island
This is a small island off Brisbane which provided very dark skies. We stayed on the opposite side of the island to Brisbane and with the moon much less against me, provided some very dark skies. It was here that my youngest got her best Milky Way shots. It was here that I explored Sagittarius and really enjoyed the views despite not having a clue what I was looking at! Strange skies, orientation problems correlating star cheat sheets with reality, and viewing pretty well at the zenith while kneeling on a sandy beach (I know, telescopes and sandy beaches don't go well together!) all conspired to make it very difficult to orientate myself. I had two good observing sessions on consecutive nights on Sagittarius and took in many beautiful targets, but I could only guess as to what they were. It looked easy from my cheat sheets; navigate from Scorpius's tail, through M6 and M7 and then to various triangle and rhombus shapes in Sagittarius and it's jewels should be evident. They were evident! Seeing them was no problem, you can't miss them, but identifying them was to prove beyond me until we got to our next location. To be fair to myself, trying to star hop at the zenith is just very difficult.

4. Uoleva, The Kingdom of Tonga
Not your normal tourist destination, but my partner's son works there, so here we are! The skies here made Stradbroke Island seem light polluted! Absolutely stunning! I think the only place I have seen better skies was in the Namib desert. Unfortunately then, I only had a background interest in the stars and was not able to take advantage of the location. I had also dropped and broken my pair of binoculars so it was a naked eye only session.
Back to Uoleva! I observed most nights. With time and patience I managed to crack Sagittarius. Starting at the tail of Scorpius, jumping through M7 to a triangle of stars, Kaus Media, Kaus Australis and Gamma Sagittarii. Then to Kaus Media, Phi Sagittarii and Kaus Borealis which form an equilateral triangle and Kaus Borealis can be confirmed by spotting M24 and M28 in close proximity. Following the line Kaus Borealis and M28 and down a bit allowed me to identify the Lagoon Nebula (M8), the Triffid nebula (M20) and M21. Following the line M20 and M21 took me to the M24 star cloud and on to M18, M17 (the Omega Nebula) and M16 (the Eagle Nebula). I also spent much time just cruising this area with binoculars as well as with the 28mm Erfle. There is just so much to see and simply random sweeping brings into view many globular clusters and open clusters and rich star fields. I did spend a bit of time tracking down the Hamburger Galaxy (NGC 5128). I spotted it, and with averted vision and a vivid imagination, I did see it as a Hamburger! More aperture would have been very welcome here, but the 3" definitely showed the dark lane splitting the two half circles.
Showing the other guests the Moon and Venus was a highlight to me. They were either genuinely wowed, or they were very good actors :) Some even showed an interest in some deep sky stuff. I gave them a quick tour of typical targets; Omega Centauri, the Wishing Well cluster and the Eta Carina Nebula. I think they liked the Wishing Well cluster the best!

5. Summary
I reckon I observed two thirds of the list of highlights I compiled before I went. I didn't get to any of my targets in Puppis, too low in the horizon, too early in the morning. I basically kept going back to the Crux region, the Scorpius region and the Sagittarius region. While sitting at home making my cheat sheets it all looked so easy. No finder, a small tripod and unfamiliar skies meant that the reality was I found it very difficult to correlate my cheat sheets with what I was seeing.
The equipment I took worked very well. Small enough that everything was carry on luggage, and large enough to provide decent deep sky views as well as stunning lunar views. The only gripe was the scope wobbled for a couple of seconds while focusing, but you have to compromise somewhere when putting together a travel rig.
The problem ... well ... on coming home we've got the light pollution, where have all the stars gone? Poor seeing, why can I only get x80 on the moon? Why are the stars twinkling? Clouds, clouds and more clouds ... anyone in the UK will know what I mean! I have been incredibly fortunate observing in dark skies, had some wonderful observing, but it does mean that when I'm in the back garden  at home I shall be thinking 'this is very much second best'!

Well done if you have got this far! Hope you have enjoyed reading this as much as I have writing it!
Malcolm

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My travel rig

 

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Swags ready for a night under the stars

 

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Down jacket needed in -2 degrees C

 

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One of my daughters doing a bit of Lunar observing

 

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Two of my daughters observing

 

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Sunrise on top of Mount Sonder; we saw the moon rise and set, and the sun rise and set today. Views to the horizon all round.

 

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The moon setting

 

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The biggest shadow I have ever seen. The top of the shadow is 'above the horizon'

 

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My daughter's first attempts to capture the night sky

The Emu's head (Coal sack) and neck 

 

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The Sagittarius region of the Milky Way; Scorpius's tail top left.

 

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My Tak under the Southern Stars

 

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Edited by MalcolmM
Removing duplicate pics
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Wow Malcolm, I’m blown away by your report. I love your description of how you cracked Sagittarius and found your way from target to target. The photos are incredible - are the ones with the tents in the background from the Larapinta trail? 
What an incredible adventure - I only got a taste of the Southern sky from Brisbane but your report has made me even more determined to go back! Thank you for posting it.

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13 hours ago, JeremyS said:

That FC 76DCU looks like it’s in its natural habitak 😊

Yes, it's amazing how versatile it is once the C11 finder has been removed 🙂

Malcolm 

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26 minutes ago, Nicola Fletcher said:

Wow Malcolm, I’m blown away by your report. I love your description of how you cracked Sagittarius and found your way from target to target. The photos are incredible - are the ones with the tents in the background from the Larapinta trail? 
What an incredible adventure - I only got a taste of the Southern sky from Brisbane but your report has made me even more determined to go back! Thank you for posting it.

Yes, the tents are on the Larapinta. Some of the better accommodation we were in :) Hostel dorms in Stradbroke and beach shack on Uoleva 🙂

Actually that's very unfair, it was a really nice beach shack. Staying in a beach shack has been on our bucket list for years!

Malcolm 

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This sounds and looks fantastic… thanks for taking the time to write it up! I’m literally packing up a small telescope for a not quite so adventurous trip to southern Crete. However, there the sky is nice and dark. 

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3 hours ago, PeterStudz said:

This sounds and looks fantastic… thanks for taking the time to write it up! I’m literally packing up a small telescope for a not quite so adventurous trip to southern Crete. However, there the sky is nice and dark. 

That sounds great. I hope you have a fab trip and get some dark sky observing.

Malcolm

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Malcom, thank you for sharing, it looks wonderful ! The envy level would be higher, but I've managed to run away from home this summer and had a fantastic week in the Carpathian Mountains with my 80mm TS APO and a handful of Naglers and it just so happened that the rented hotel suite balcony had almost unobstructed view of half the sky 😁 Your story makes me wonder about a Southern Hemisphere trip, a tall order but one must dream !      

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Great report which brings back a lot of memories. The Jewel Box and the Magellenic Clouds are something special, let alone M22, Omega Centauri and the Scorpio / Sagittarius region. I think every UK amateur astronomer ought to make the pilgrimage south of the equator if they can...I've had the privilege on several occasions of observing from Las Campanas in the Andes, Karoo in South Africa, and Narrabri in Australia. So much stuff is visible it's actually difficult to recognise at first glance familiar constellations because the sheer number of faint stars tones down the brighter ones.

I was always struck my the number of easy naked-eye Messier objects which would need binoculars back home. 

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