Bucket List: Star Gazing

I was lucky enough to enjoy a the four day long weekend over Easter work free this year, and decided to try and make good use of the time off. I was supposed to go camping with friends, but our loose plans fell a part. What I had been looking forward to the most in camping over Easter was the chance to be outdoors, uninhibited by modern life. So when camping plans go out the window over a long weekend what do you do instead? You go star gazing.

Central Australia has some of the clearest skies in the world, so this is not the first time I have gone star gazing before. This was, however, the first time I had gone on a star gazing tour.

We arrived at Earth Sanctuary at around 7pm and proceeded to the star gazing amphitheater where we were treated to an hour and a half long presentation. Our guide showed us how to identify a number of constellations including the Southern Cross, Orion’s Belt, Cancer, Libra and Leo.

The strange circular shape is a large domed telescope.

We also had an amazing view of the moon rise which was made even better by being able to see it’s craters through a telescope. It was amazing if you ignore the fact that I smacked by eye on the telescope eye lens, completely embarrassing myself in front of everyone.

The night ended with a mini presentation of various space photographs projected onto the back of a large white telescope.