We have finally arrived back in Sydney after our extended tour of western New South Wales. Internet at the hotel room in Mudgee proved to be extortionate hence the flurry of posts now we are back. Wine tasting can be a tricky exercise. Even taking all possible care to rinse between tasting your palate can [...]
Archive of entries posted on March 2009
It’s full of stars, and galaxies, and clusters and planets!
28/3 We visited Mudgee observatory on Saturday. It’s set a fair way away from the main town down a long dirt track and hidden by two hills. Despite the small bush fire adding a little smoke to the atmosphere we still got a magnificent view of the night sky. John the owner gave us a [...]
Two eyes are better than one
27/3 It really is quite amazing how much difference a pair of binoculars makes to the whole process. The stars where not quite as forthcoming as they where in the wilds of the Whitesunday’s but thanks to Fliss’ expert orienteering we had a successful scope of the heavens before clouds stopped play. I even managed [...]
The Dish
27/3 Today we visited Parkes observatory. It seems since the film “The Dish” it has become quite a tourist attraction. We eschewed the opportunity for breakfast at hotel and instead dined on pancakes with a lovely view of the the main radio telescope. The science displays where relatively basic but we did treat ourselves to [...]
Stargazing Curtailed
26/3 Star gazing has been curtailed for the day on account of the clouds that have descended over Parkes for the day. However this didn’t stop us visiting the town and eating some hearty $10 T-Bones before retiring for the evening. We visit “The Dish” tomorrow morning and possibly also an open cast gold mine [...]
Last day in the mountains
Today is our last day in the mountains. We went to Leura Cascade yesterday which starts as a little stream and some minor waterfalls before tumbling off a rather spectacular cliff to the valley bellow. Today we drive off to Parkes which should give us some good views as we come down from the mountains. [...]
Blue Mountains
We are currently staying in the Blue Mountains area with Fliss’ brother, wife and kids. In between providing pushes for swings (something that works up a hell of a thirst) we have struck out into the bush for a short walk. The Three Sisters are just down the road and the view across the untouched [...]
More on stars
As I may have alluded to in my last post the view of the stars on Lindeman Island where particularly bright. In fact even with illumination of the resort around you you can easily make out the broad swath of the Milky Way as well as numerous other southern constellations. This is thanks to the [...]
A star lit story
Fliss is a tricky person to deceive. Much as she loves surprises the knowledge that something is going on she’s not aware of drives her crazy. A few months ago I obliquely mentioned a “top secret project” taking up a few hours of my visit into town. The result was a torrent of requests asking [...]
The power of lag
It’s currently 3:57am local time and I’m suffering from a combination of jetlag and being way too warm. I slept fitfully yesterday but more or less to local time schedule. We went into town to run a few errands and visited a local watering hole to taste test some beers prior to visiting the “Bottolo”. [...]
