![]() Next came the most beautiful globular cluster of them all, 47 Tucanae.I had observed Omega Centauri a few years ago with 15x70 binoculars from Bermuda, but now it was high in the sky and its hundreds of thousands of stars filled the telescope's field of view. The first was the great globular cluster Omega Centauri, which some say is the remains of a dwarf galaxy swept clean by a distant encounter with our Milky Way.With the help of my Aussie friend John Bambury, manning the Obsession 18-inch, I was introduced to the three finest objects in the southern sky. Focusing on Crux, I immediately spotted the Coal Sack, the inky dark nebula just below it, with the brilliant Jewel Box star cluster right beside it. As their name implies, the latter two look exactly like small patches of cloud in the dark sky.Īs I began my explorations with naked eye and 10x50 binoculars, I concentrated on the Milky Way. What are absolutely outstanding are the three great galaxies: our own Milky Way, much brighter in Carina than anywhere visible from the northern hemisphere, and our two satellite galaxies, the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. There are few bright stars outside these three, notably Canopus, high overhead, and Achernar at the southern terminus of the great river Eridanus, which can be traced all the way north to Orion. Most of the southern constellations are forgettable, with the exception of the great star groupings along the southern Milky Way, especially Centaurus, Crux, and Carina. ![]() However, Starry Night soon provided me with a wealth of information: Not much here that I recognized, despite decades of observing northern skies! From a couple of trips south before my serious observing days, I could spot Alpha and Beta Centauri low in the southeast, with the Southern Cross and the Coal Sack just above them, but that was about it. Needless to say, despite the comprehensiveness of Starry Night®'s database of observing locations, Warrumbungle was not included, so I had to enter its longitude and latitude manually: 149° 11" 22' E and 31° 16" 24' S.Īs soon as it got dark on my first night at Warrumbungle, March 2/3, I cast my eyes south and saw this spectacular vista, here recreated in Starry Night® Pro Plus: Naturally, for this expedition into uncharted celestial territory, I turned to Starry Night® for guidance. Below is the 18-inch f/4.5 Obsession I used for most of my observations, with a couple of 25-inch Obsessions lurking in the background. Closely mowed grass made navigating the field in the dark very easy. ![]() The observing field was directly adjacent to the motel, which served as a giant warm-up hut. Because of the travel involved for most of us, scopes were provided by the Three Rivers Foundation at the site, including several large Obsession Dobsonians, 18-inch and 25-inch aperture, equipped with Argo Navis digital setting circles and ServoCat goto systems. This was a rather different star party than we are used to in North America.
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