Albert
That sounds like a real "lifetime" event. Congrats..
---------
Phil Chambers [ptchamb@No-Spam] (S.F. Bay Area - Calif. USA)
On Thu, 14 Apr 2005, Albert wrote:
> 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 19:54:09 2005