13th August 2018
Next day, we reached Andamooka, a remote Opal mining town in South Australia. This is our second visit to the town and was extremely well received. The sky was pristine and offered great views of Sun through PK's solar telescope in the day time and planets and deep sky objects from observatory at night.
The objects in focus for night time astronomy were Mars, Saturn and Jupiter. We also had brief view of crescent moon through the 8 inch dobs outside observatory. People were mesmerized by the rings of Saturn and the Great Red Spot on Jupiter. Most people were able to identify the polar ice caps on Mars and some surface features. Later in the session, we also witnessed one of the Jovian moons passing in front of Jupiter. Bec and Richard of Woomera Observatory were present too and greatly facilitated the viewing of globular cluster and other deep sky objects through the manual 8 inch dobsonian. Charlie brought his coffee van to the venue; hot coffee is all too important ingredient for a public astronomy on a cold night indeed.
Bonfire and curries made on wood fire added flavor to the night.
We are especially thankful to Conan Fahey, a resident of Andamooka, and the architect of Andamooka Observatory Project for making this event an immense success. We hope to be back in Andamooka in future too.
Here is a timelapse video by Travis Lonelyoak of the progress of viewing.
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