Australia - Part 6

Siding Spring Observatory

We began our drive to Siding Spring Observatory with a morning stop at Govett's Leap, a different viewing point into the Blue Mountains canyon system. The panorama below came out nicely. Click on it to view a larger version.

Conditions were cool and breezy this morning at the overlook with temperatures in the 60's. An unfortunate newly acquired sore throat lingered. I experienced periods of sleepy fatigue throughout the day and worried about future sinus and lung congestion which usually follow my sore throats.

As we drove towards Siding Spring I noticed many trees and bushes in spring bloom, a contrast to the beginning of fall at home. From the bus window I saw a wild emu grazing in a sparsely wooded area, but we passed too quickly to get a picture.

Eventually we arrived at Coonabarabran, the town closest to the observatory. During a brief stop there we saw some galah cockatoos on a golf course.

At last, we drove up the winding mountain road to Siding Spring Observatory. I was so excited to be here I forgot my sore throat while looking at this view from the observatory grounds.

We stepped off our bus directly in front of the Anglo-Australian Telescope dome.

Other smaller domes were scattered about.

On the left edge of the next panorama you can see one side of the Astronomer's Lodge where we were privileged to stay for the next two nights.

Guests at the Astronomer's Lodge must obey strict rules to avoid interfering with ongoing research. Most important, no light pollution is allowed! All building lights and car lights must be off, and all rooms are fitted with light tight shades which must be down in place after sunset. At sunset the shade on the largest window in our room was lowered automatically! What a difference from the usual light polluted observing conditions I deal with at home! My excitement about seeing a real dark sky was growing. As sunset approached the sky looked mostly clear. Only a few clouds lingered near the horizon.

While the sun continued to set most of the tour group prepared to get back on the bus for a trip down the mountain to Coonabarabran for dinner, astronomy talks, and entertainment. I told our tour leader, Marnie, that I would be staying at the observatory. This night, I explained, was quite possibly the only chance I would have in my entire life to observe the southern sky from a dark site. I hoped she would understand. I asked if any small telescope was available, and Marnie showed me an old Dobsonian telescope among junk in a storage room. The tour group left and I went to the astronomer's dining room to scrape up something for dinner. Since I was uncertain about taking food belonging to one of the observatory staff, I contented myself with a couple of hurried peanut butter sandwiches. 

In twilight I hauled the 10-inch Dobsonian telescope outside into the open dirt area below the big Anglo-Australian Telescope dome. Only one other tour member stayed behind with me, a genial photography expert named, Andy. We were both really excited about seeing the night sky. At this point I went back to my room to get my jacket, binoculars, red light, and tripod. When I returned, Andy told me I had missed a kangaroo who hopped directly across the dirt area in front of him! He managed to get a quick photo showing the kangaroo almost out of sight on the sidewalk near the front of the white pickup truck. This image also shows some of the dirt area where we set up our equipment.

Here's a zoom in on the kangaroo!

The sky darkened. Unfortunately, clouds didn't clear. Cloud cover was spotty. I set up my tripod-mounted phone and tried to get some images of the southern sky. The next picture of the southwestern horizon captured the Southern Cross in the constellation Crux and stars of the constellation Centaurus.

You can see clouds at the top and hazy distant clouds on the horizon. The next image labels some constellations not visible from Virginia. The star closest to Earth, Alpha Centauri, was quite bright. The spectacular globular cluster, Omega Centauri, can also be seen in the image.

Omega Centauri is one of the famous objects I wanted to see with my own eyes through a telescope. This globular cluster was getting closer to the horizon, so I began struggling with the 10-inch Dobsonian to see the cluster before it disappeared. I quickly discovered the telescope had no finder scope! Arrgh! All I could do was point the tube in the correct general direction and sweep back and forth hoping to find the cluster. I never succeeded. Eventually, Omega Centauri was too low to see. Later I successfully found globular cluster 47 Tucanae higher in the sky. The telescope gave a nice view of this gem.

Moonlight was annoying! Close to first quarter, the Moon was in Sagittarius, perfectly positioned to overwhelm and hide the bright Milky Way center. The next image shows the bright Moon with Sagittarius and Scorpius. Jupiter is the brightest star-like object just below and slightly left of the Moon.

Sagittarius and Scorpius were rotated roughly 90 degrees clockwise from their usual orientation seen from my house in Virginia. They were also much higher in the sky. 

Moonlight was unavoidable before midnight. It did illuminate the large dome to make it more visible against a starry background.

Achernar in the constellation Eridanus is the brightest star above the dome. The Small Magellanic Cloud should be visible in the upper right, but the 10-second maximum phone camera exposure couldn't capture it in this picture. Sometimes, a cloud would cover the Moon, and I hoped this would yield temporarily darker conditions.

The next picture is the best image I was able to capture of the Small Magellanic Cloud. It's a very dim patch just below and left of center. Visibility depends on your viewing screen. Various laptops and phones show it differently. It also depends on background lighting conditions. It's easier to see when viewed in a darkened room. Both the Small and Large Magellanic Clouds are satellite galaxies bound by gravity to our own Milky Way. They aren't visible from Virginia.

The next labeled image should help locate the Small Magellanic Cloud as well as several constellations not visible from Virginia. The dark black object in the upper left corner is the top of a water tower near the large telescope dome.

Since it was nearly impossible to find things with the Dobsonian telescope, I spent more time taking images with my tripod-mounted phone camera. At one point I noticed a bright star rising beside the dome. It was Canopus, a bright star in the constellation Carina.

I've circled the location of the Large Magellanic Cloud in the previous image, although this dim galaxy doesn't obviously show here. An image taken a few minutes later showed it slightly better, but only on the edge of visibility.

My phone camera has a maximum ISO of 800 and a maximum exposure time of 10 seconds. I used these maximum settings for all my pictures, but they weren't sufficient to capture the Magellanic Clouds properly. I needed a good quality DSLR to improve the images. For example, compare the previous two images with the next image below made with a much better Canon DSLR. My observing companion, Andy, was using a 25-second exposure time and at least double my ISO on his Canon DSLR. He was kind enough to send me one of his pictures which appears next. Both Magellanic Clouds are visible as well as many more stars. In fact, so many stars are visible it's hard to identify constellations!

After a few hours observing I put the Dobsonian telescope away and returned to my room for a short nap. When I returned outside near midnight, Andy had gone and the Moon was setting.

With the Moon gone the sky was much darker. Both Magellanic Clouds had risen higher and were plainly visible to the naked eye! They were spectacular in the south! A meteor streaked by the Large Magellanic Cloud as I watched! It was so disappointing to be unable to capture the scene with my phone camera. The next picture is the best I could do, and the Magellanic Clouds are practically invisible. The water tower blocks light from stars in the lower left corner.

Eventually, I gave up trying to image the Magellanic Clouds. I turned around to see Orion, Taurus, and the Pleiades rising in the northeast. Orion appeared nearly upside down compared to how it looks from home!

The next image below was taken near home when Orion had just risen above trees. The scene from home looks rotated about 90 degrees clockwise relative to the scene from Siding Spring above.

I took one last look at the magnificent Magellanic Clouds and then returned to my room for some sleep.

The next morning my sore throat lingered. Sinus and bronchial congestion began. We had breakfast in the Astronomer's Lodge and began visiting some of the telescopes on the mountain. The Anglo-Australian telescope inside its big dome was our first stop.

The mirror diameter is nearly 4 meters. I've seen bigger telescopes, but a 4-meter mirror is still very impressive. Although Siding Spring has very dark skies, the seeing (atmospheric steadiness) is not good enough for highest resolution imaging. Instead, very high quality spectroscopy is done here. Light from many different stars can be spectroscopically analyzed simultaneously with the ingenious high tech instrument shown in the next picture.

A robotic arm, seen in the upper left, precisely places tiny apertures on the grey circular surface at places where star images will be focused. Each aperture is connected to a thin fiber optic cable which transmits starlight from the aperture to a spectroscope. The grey circular surface points down at the huge mirror of the giant telescope and receives focused light from the mirror. The apparatus seen above is actually part of a humongous multi-ton cylindrical cage that gets lifted to the top of the telescope by a crane. The scale of the whole operation is mind boggling. Here are some facts about the telescope and its dome.

I left the big dome and walked through swarms of annoying flies to the next attraction. Along the way I captured this panoramic view from the dome.

Next, I visited the itelescope facility. This is an astounding collection of "small" telescopes that can be remotely operated over the Internet by anyone in the world willing to pay the required fee. The telescopes are only small relative to huge research instruments, like the 4-meter telescope. They are a collection of every amateur astronomer's dream telescopes all in one place. And they are all equipped with expensive robotic mounts and high quality imaging cameras. I was astounded by the number of telescopes and the monetary value of all the equipment sitting under the roof. There were many more telescopes than the ones shown in the next three images.

All these telescopes are housed in a building with a rolloff roof. When an automated cloud sensor determines the sky is clear, the roof rolls off, and all the telescopes begin separate automated imaging projects determined by fee-paying observers all over the world. The whole thing works automatically without need for human presence. This all seems miraculous to me!

While walking to the itelescope building I noticed pellets all over the ground and all around the domes. They were kangaroo droppings. Kangaroos are all over the mountain, but usually not visible during daytime.

When the morning tour of observatory facilities was over we boarded our tour bus and drove down the mountain for more adventures.