Darcy’s Birthday Treat For Christos A Night To Remember

A “Twentieth” Gift With Style!

Christos has been fascinated with the night sky all his life and so as it happens has Darcy. What better present therefore could there be than a night at the beach with Honeysuckles Astronomy Tours … And the night was just perfect.

Bright and attracting considerable attention in the west – even to the most casual observer, is the planet Venus. The inner planets (to Earth) of Venus and Mercury, are normally always observed in various phases like our own Moon. Venus is a planet with almost an identical diameter to Earth’s however it’s thick atmosphere prevents any surface detail being viewed. It presents through the telescope as bright white. If a Venusian resident were looking in our direction they would see a planet the same size, though full and round and with colourful markings characteristic of our planet from space. Nearby is a diminutive Mars, small currently but unmistakenly orange/reddish.

From views of Venus and Mars, Darcy and birthday boy Christos viewed several individual stars of interest, followed by open star clusters, massive globular clusters, nebulae and galaxies … From nearby neighbours to very far away and countless civilizations of the unknown. The mind boggles and may it do so on steroids. The universe once peaked at across millions of light years of distance, stirs your imagination. One wonders if Test Cricket is played by creatures in some other solar system captured by a distant star casually observed in one of our globular clusters visited??? The mind boggles! Trust the “Aussies” are giving “them” a hiding! 🙂