Gippslanders Enjoy A Local Stellar Stargazing Event!

Local Long Time Friends Matt And Gillian Take A Trip Across Time And Space

From where they live, having been fortunate and observed the night sky with less light pollution than most folk, it was now time to go all the way to see it in a proper dark sky environment and through an observatory grade telescope. The pair were not disappointed.

Autumn is a great time of year with its spectacular sights and still mild weather on the heels of summer.  Dark skies reveal a treasure of a Milky Way high overhead displaying what city-dwellers constantly are amazed at. This is the tragedy, that these days there is so much light pollution (much of it totally unnecessary and over done) that many adults have never seen the night sky as it really is. Their children are totally clueless to the wonders and magnificence that is on show. Furthermore, the stories behind the sights are unbelievable along with their appearance when we get up close and personal with the telescope. But most never get to hear or see any of this, even though “it is on their doorstep”.

Gilly and Matt loved the galaxies. The Sombrero Galaxy in Virgo is forty-five thousand light years in diameter and thirty–five million light years distant – it’s an entire universe right there in front of your eye in the eyepiece. And it’s a very, very long way away. The closest object we viewed was only 4.2 light years away, but even at that distance the number of lifetimes it would take us to get there (theoretically) in a commercial jet would be countless. Incalculable.  🙂