More on stars

Posted on Sun 22 March 2009 by alex in general

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 relativity low levels of ambient light and the fact you can be miles from any major conurbation and the dreaded glow of the sodium street lighting. Even so the islands aren't ideal viewing locations given the high degree of humidity thanks to the shallow warm seas around them.

Hopefully the next leg of our journey which takes us through the Blue Mountains and Parkes should afford us even darker and clearer skies. In preparation we went into Sydney today and purchased a set of 40x8 Nikon binoculars to aid in our star gazing. We topped it off with a visit to the Sydney observatory where we had a brief tour and purchased some maps to guide us later.

The walk back home took us across the the iconic harbour bridge and to a traditional Aussie Barbie of T-Bone steaks and other assorted meats. I was surprised when some of the participants requested jumpers and other such warming devices as the sun went down. To my mind it's still a very warm evening, the sort you'd enjoy in late June or early July back home.