Siding Spring Observatory

The above photo is taken just after sunset from the walkway around the 3.9 m AAT (the Anglo-Australian Telescope). I arrived here yesterday to observe observations in the purpose of learning alittle about optical observing. The location is beautiful. It's close to Coonabarabran, and I didn't realise the nature would look like a tahitian island. To get here, I took a train from Canberra, to Sydney, spent a night in a hostel, and then took a train and bus (in total about 7 hours) to Coonabarabran. 

The AAT is located in a huge dome - the biggest one I've seen, I think - it is very high above the ground, and thus the distance up to the walkway is equivalent to a 9-storey building. Walking on this metal-grid that constitutes the "floor" is thus an experience, at least for people with vertigo, like myself. It has to be done though, in order to experience beauty of unexpected magnitude (I'll post more photos in an album). The mountains and hills are green, but seem blue in the haze and due to all the eucalypts. I have no pictures of the night-time beauty, since my tripod would just fall through the mesh. I can try to describe it though: The Milky way stretches up in a band from the south, and the southern cross is very distinct. Just beneath it, is the Coalsack, a dark area that constitutes the head of the Emu. As the night progresses, more of the emu is visible, and is, albeit a rather thin emu, distinguished by the dark parts of the Milky Way. It's interesting that the aboriginals used the lack of stars (or hidden, I should say), to depict pictures, that actually look like what they say. I can't even try to describe how beautiful it is to see the nightsky from the southern hemsiphere, with such low amounts of light pollution so it's almost hard to see Orion due to all the weaker stars appearing everywhere around it. We went out several times during the night, and I'm sure we managed to stay out at least half an hour each time, just admiring this, the greatest piece of art I've ever seen.