ANZ Trip
On a recent trip to Australia (and New Zealand) I had the distinct pleasure of meeting a number of Australian amateur astronomers, all members of the Wollongong Amateur Astronomy Club (WAAC). Here is a short description of my experiences "down under". For a pictorial travelogue of the entire trip see this.
I had planned my trip to coincide with the New Moon, as well as the time of the year when the Southern Milky Way would be highest in the sky. Using the excellent sci.astro.amateur newsgroup on the Internet, I fished for contacts in Australia for possible socialization and assistance in doing some observing. I also made contact with Greg Bryant, who writes for Sky & Telescope, a member of the large Astronomical Society of New South Wales based in Sydney. Greg was very kind, and noted that the ASNSW was having a star party on Saturday, May 11th, at their large dark sky site northwest (I believe) of Sydney. However, since I was planning to go south from Sydney during that part of the trip, when I received a reply from Rudi Vavra of WAAC, I took him up on his offer to attend their star party on the same evening (Wollongong is south of Sydney).
Earlier, I had already had several opportunities to observe the night sky under good conditions, both in New Zealand and Australia. I was completely stunned by the incredible beauty of the Southern Milky Way through Centaurus, Crux (the Southern Cross), and beyond. Little knots of extra nebulousity easily visible to the naked eye were mentally noted for later observation. I had also picked this time of the year to be sure that I could see the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, and, sure enough, these were immediately obvious (although the SMC was a little difficult, partly because it was relatively low on the horizon). There was something extra visible near the LMC, too, which I already knew was the Tarantula Nebula. I could hardly wait to see more.
On the Friday before the party, I was in Wagga Wagga and the sky was very clear. I decided to try to buy some binoculars to use that night and at the star party, even though I would have to give them away before I left (I travel _very_ light on trips). I found some for $50 Australian in a pawn shop (about $30 US). Since the trip was costing nearly 200 times this much, I thought nothing of spending this money for just two days use.
That night, I took the binoculars about 6 miles outside of Wagga Wagga for a look-see at the sky. This was plenty far enough from town to observe the Milky Way, even though the sky toward the town was still pretty badly light polluted. The view was incredible, and I immediately saw that the knots in the most dense part of the Milky Way were distinct nebulas. The dark areas in the Milky Way, including the Coal Sack, looked great in the binocs, too. Observing the SMC revealed an obvious, very bright, globular cluster nearby, which I mentally noted as well. (I knew that Omega Centauri was visible somewhere, but I didn't explicitly see it that night.)
Earlier in the trip I had already observed the Moon upside down and, at night, the same was true of the constellations of Orion and Scorpio. In the travelogue I have a picture showing the Moon as it appeared there, as well as rotated 180 degrees to show it as we see it here. Of course the Moon isn't really upside down, it's the observers. This explains why they play Rugby in Australia.
On Saturday, I drove back to the coast (600 km that day in total), and met the guys at the Albion Park McDonalds. On the way, I came down through the Macquarie Pass, a very, very steep and winding road down the escarpment to the coastal plain. I had a premonition that this wouldn't be my only trip through that pass that day.
Actually, I had met up with Rudi earlier in the week when I passed through Wollongong on my way south. I had lunch with him and his friend Hal, a retired journalist. Rudi is a professional photographer, and he hadn't realized that I was interested in photography as well as astronomy. We all had a great time time talking about photography in general, and digital photography in particular. Rudi has an excellent website at www.rudiphoto.net. I spent more than three hours talking to them at the palatial Shell Harbor Workingman's Club, which looked like anything but.
On Saturday then, at the McDonalds, I met Rudi, David, and Andrew, and later, at the party, Paul, Paul, and Helen, as well as a few others whose names I'm afraid I've forgotten. As we left the McDonalds with me following one of them to their dark sky site, we headed straight for, you guessed it, the Macquarie Pass. Halfway up, I realized I was almost out of gas(!). At the top, I stopped my guide (David or Andrew, I wasn't sure) and asked him how much farther it was and whether there was anywhere to get fuel. He looked at my gas gauge for a long while, and proclaimed "you'll be OK". I was skeptical, but I continued on. Fortunately, it wasn't much farther to the site.
Their observing location turned out to be in a cow pasture up a long dirt road. The weather, which had been gorgeous throughout the entire trip (in Australia - New Zealand was mostly lousy, unfortunately) was not promising - there were clouds along the coast with some passing over our location periodically. There was a fair amount of light reflecting off the clouds on the coast (where most of the population lives) as well. Fortunately, there were periods of clear sky, and I got to see many things, wonderful things.
Most of the objects were viewed through the homemade 12 inch Dobsonian mounted Newtonian belonging to one of the Pauls. I also looked through an LX200 and a 10 inch Dobsonian essentially identical to the one I have at home. All gave splendid views.
Here's what I saw:
1. Eta Carinae - an unstable star region that may be the next supernova in our galaxy. Fortunately, the gamma ray burst _should_ miss us. There was a lot of detail visible in the nebulousity of this enormous object (easily visible with the naked eye and filling 2 fields in the eyepiece at low power.)
2. Centaurus A - This X-ray source looks like a hamburger seen nearly edge on - I recognized it immediately from pictures.
3. The Tarantula Nebula - This humongous gaseous nebula is easily visible in binoculars and possibly with the naked eye, even though it's in another galaxy (the Large Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf companion to the Milky Way about 100,000 lightyears away). If it were at the distance of the Orion Nebula it would subtend over 30 degrees of arc! Lots of detail was visible in this object as well.
4. The Jewel Box cluster - This beautiful little open cluster has stars of obviously different colors, hence its name.
5. Omega Centauri - this enormous globular cluster is easily visible to the naked eye and incredible in the telescope. It can be seen from the southern US very low on the horizon (I had seen it once from West Texas), but is high overhead here. I saw this in the LX200 and was amazed by the number of stars it resolved. This globular is the largest in the Milky Way, and does not have the concentrated center of many globulars.
6. 47 Tucanae - this very bright globular is near the Lesser Magellanic Cloud and was the one that had already caught my eye in the binoculars. It is the second largest globular in the Milky Way, and has a much more concentrated center than Omega Centauri. It's not visible at all from the US.
7. Several other galaxies and open clusters.
I enjoyed being with the members of WAAC, and found them all extremely nice and friendly. Before I left (early, since I had been on a get up at dawn schedule for the entire trip) I gave away the binoculars (by chance to the Paul that showed me most of the objects) and several more copies of my picture of Hale Bopp (which you can see here) that I had already handed out at the McDonalds. I'm told that the sky cleared up later, and everyone had a great observing session.
There was general agreement that the northern hemisphere has gotten all the good comets lately. This is small compensation for not being able to see that incredible swath of the Milky Way. Since I got enough frequent flier miles from the long trip down for a free trip to Hawaii, if I plan it right, I can see most of this stuff again soon.
Thanks again to everyone at WAAC and especially to Rudi for contacting me and introducing me to the others. I'd love to hear from anyone that sees this with their comments.
Oh, and I made it back down the Macquarie Pass safely without running out of gas, although I must have been running on fumes by the time I got to a gas station. I only had to dodge one wombat on the way.
Clear Skies!
