Brief Trip Report for April 5-12, 2005 - South Australia
This morning, Bob Jardine, David Kingsley, and I returned from our dedicated
observing trip to South Australia. I'm careful to avoid the term "vacation"
since we worked hard during the week. Each of us spent 50 hours at the
eyepiece over the eight nights available to us.
Approximately 27 hours after leaving home in California, Bob and I arrived
in Hawker, population 300, 365 km north of Adelaide. We spent two nights at
a small cottage just north of town. Despite only a few hours sleep on the
plane, Bob and I couldn't resist the dark skies. We assembled our telescopes
and managed to observe three hours before collapsing from exhaustion.
David spent the first night with his cousin in Adelaide. He joined us in
Hawker the second night. Conditions this night turned out to be the worst of
the trip. Clouds moved in during the day, and took their time dissipating
after sunset. Transparency suffered. Clouds returned in earnest and shut us
down by 1:30AM.
The skies were partly cloudy all day during our drive north to Wirrealpa
Station, population 2, 550 km north of Adelaide. The homestead and our cabin
were the only occupied structures on the 35 km by 45 km working sheep ranch.
The nearest town, Blinman (population 25), is 40km to the West. When you
look up "middle of no where" in the dictionary, you'll see a picture of
where we were. The terrain looks similar to the Mojave or Arizona deserts,
except for the dried up stream beds which are cluttered with large gum
trees, hundreds of years old. As you might expect, the sky is as dark as it
is going to get and light domes were non-existent. In fact, around 3-4AM
each night we experienced our worst light pollution. At that time the sky
was noticeably brighter and the ground and surroundings were easier to see.
This is when Sagittarius was directly overhead and the Milky Way was a broad
bright band of light extending east to west all the way to the horizon. I've
read descriptions of the Milky Way casting shadows. Now I understand why.
Consequently, I don't think the skies were any darker than mag 6.5.
During the first of three nights at Wirrealpa, the clouds cleared around
Midnight and we observed until dawn. The second and third nights were clear
throughout. All three of us observed from dusk until dawn the second night.
The third night David managed a second marathon all-nighter. Bob and I had
to call it quits at 3AM. Our accommodations were rustic but functional and
comfortable. More importantly, when we called it quits, we walked less than
10 yards from our scopes to our beds.
Our hosts, Warren and Barbara Fargher, are among the few remaining authentic
Australian ranchers. Although they have a difficult life working the 5500
head of sheep and 1000 head of cattle in the semi-arid Outback, they are
out-going, gracious, and considerate people who made us feel welcome. For
example, Warren thoughtfully drove out one morning at 4AM with only his
parking lights on. He couldn't tell if we were observing, but he surmised
the lights would disturb us if we were. He also noticed a flat on David's
car and fixed it for free. They invited us over to their house for a
barbecue one night. We learned a lot about South Australia over grilled
chicken, sausage, and steaks. For dessert, we ate homemade quandong pie,
made from the fruit Barbara gathered from the wild quandong trees on their
property. The evening was one of the highlights of the trip.
We then drove 130 km over rough gravel roads north to Arkaroola
(http://www.arkaroola.com.au/) where we spent our final three nights.
Arkaroola is an oasis in the middle of no where. This wilderness sanctuary
lies 700 km north of Adelaide. Our rooms were almost plush. The complex can
hold as many as 200 guests. The owner, Doug Sprigg, understands astronomers'
needs and was exceptionally accommodating. He has a C-14 set up in two
different domed observatory buildings which he uses to conduct sky tours for
the guests. Although we could have used these instruments for free, we opted
to use our own telescopes - equipment familiar to us. He allowed us to set
up our scopes in a large roll-top observatory sitting atop a hill 150 feet
above, and overlooking, the complex, approximately ¼ mile away. When we were
done observing for the night, we just closed the roof, locked the door, and
drove to our rooms. Very convenient. Doug also is an accomplished pilot,
conducting daily scenic flights over the surrounding mountains. We took one
of his flights our last day there.
Observing conditions were very pleasant. Temperatures were in the mid to low
70's from sunset until after midnight and dropping into the 60's by early
the next morning. We typically observed in our shirtsleeves until 2AM. A
light jacket was the most anyone wore. Humidity was typically 40-50%. There
was little to no wind during most nights. One night at Wirrealpa the wind
rose to10-12 mph for a couple of hours. The gusts were strong enough to
occasionally move the scope.
The ever-present outback flies were a nuisance during the day. However,
after the sun went down, the night was completely bug-free. We never saw
any of the legendary poisonous snakes. Emus and Euros (medium-sized
kangaroos) were rather plentiful. We saw at least a dozen of each.
Observation Stats
My list of potential targets had grown to almost 1000. It included all the
NGC objects between Right Ascension 5 - 20 hr and below Declination -40. It
also included selected IC and ESO targets, a few Gum nebulas, and brighter
showpieces between Declination -20 and -40 that would be more favorably
placed from the southern hemisphere. Although the position of the Large
Magellanic Cloud wasn't optimal, I placed heavy emphasis on observing
objects within it. I hoped to observe a large fraction of the 300 LMC
objects plotted on pages A24 and A25 in the new Uranometria - South.
I ended up logging approximately 650 observations - 325 within the LMC.
Although this number exceeds the number plotted in Uranometria, I didn't
finish observing all of those objects. However, the LMC is so rich, I
frequently encountered other bright targets not plotted in Uranometria. I
saw more than 325 objects, but only counted those objects I wrote
descriptions for and was able to unambiguously identify.
During the next several days I'll follow up with more detailed observations
of some of the observing highlights.
Albert
Received on Thu Apr 14 18:46:58 2005