Gregory’s Birthday Gift Worth The Drive From Albury

A Keen Amateur Astronomer Enjoys First Class Views Of The Southern Night Sky

Gregory and Cheryl traveled from Albury to enjoy a marvelous overnight beach stay and astronomy tour with Honeysuckle Astronomy Tours. An accomplished astro photographer and keen visual observer, a private lengthy viewing session with us was something Greg and Cheryl were looking forward to and they were not disappointed. The night was ideal – clear and mild temperatures and for Cheryl the experience was especially interesting and enjoyable. Unlike Greg, Cheryl’s telescope viewing experience was almost nil until their stay with us. Now, she has observed some of the great objects one can enjoy through the eyepiece of a telescope.

Saturn is particularly interesting at present. Its famous rings system is almost exactly edge-on to us resulting in a very thin “white” line being all one can see of the rings, with a clear black thin shadow behind cast upon the planet itself. Once again, the magnificent star forming region – the Tarantula Nebula and giant globular cluster, 47 Tucanae, were two favourites. Two faraway galaxies were also enjoyed who’s light has only just arrived at Earth, having left those galaxies when dinosaurs were still the dominant species roaming our planet!