The Southern Hemispehere Sky
Boundry of Franklin Gordon Wild River National Park, Tasmania:
A beautiful day of driving wilderness areas included a stop in a place called Rosebery where we were invited to join a couple we had met - Ray and Moira. They invited us to their home in a lovely spot at the base of towering mountains and a forest that Ray said was the most dense forest in Tasmania. We had a lovely coffee in their home, got advice on places to stop and routes to take not only in Australia but in Bali where they had been 16 times. IN fact it was Ray and Moira, whom we met on our way up to a lookout in a national park, who suggested that we abandon plans to visit the extreme northeast of Tasmania and concentrate on Cradle Mountain National Park, where we did indeed spend a couple of days on their advice. Moira who might be taken as a normal complacent homebody is anything but. Not only well traveled, as is Ray, they hike and Moira jumped out of a plane on her 50th birthday, is a scuba diver, has done white water rafting.
The highlight of the day for me was the night. I wanted to look at the stars and find things not visible in our hemisphere, particularly the Southern Cross. We ran out of time driving after a 3 hour hike earlier in the day and decided to stop at a camping ground just short of our destination. Here we are in an open field, not much facilities, our own batteries providing light. We are overlooking some huge granite mountains. Then it darkens on the clearest of nights and the stars appear - 360 degrees around us. There is NO light wiping out the sky. The milky way is crystal clear. Saturn is bright low in the southeastern sky. Orion's belt is vivid. And when you view all of this through ordinary binnoculars it becomes extraordinary. A satellite passes overhead and is clearly tracked with the naked eye moving steadily across the sky from horizon to horizon. Yes Mr. Sagan, "billions and billions of stars". But in my prior trips to Australia I had never seen the Southern Cross. And then - there is was - unmistakable. I was seeing a constellation in a sky we don't usually see. I was seeing the stars I had been looking for for some time. There was a shiver as I stood by myself in the hugest planatarium of all - surrounded on all sides by a universe of galaxies.
A beautiful day of driving wilderness areas included a stop in a place called Rosebery where we were invited to join a couple we had met - Ray and Moira. They invited us to their home in a lovely spot at the base of towering mountains and a forest that Ray said was the most dense forest in Tasmania. We had a lovely coffee in their home, got advice on places to stop and routes to take not only in Australia but in Bali where they had been 16 times. IN fact it was Ray and Moira, whom we met on our way up to a lookout in a national park, who suggested that we abandon plans to visit the extreme northeast of Tasmania and concentrate on Cradle Mountain National Park, where we did indeed spend a couple of days on their advice. Moira who might be taken as a normal complacent homebody is anything but. Not only well traveled, as is Ray, they hike and Moira jumped out of a plane on her 50th birthday, is a scuba diver, has done white water rafting.
The highlight of the day for me was the night. I wanted to look at the stars and find things not visible in our hemisphere, particularly the Southern Cross. We ran out of time driving after a 3 hour hike earlier in the day and decided to stop at a camping ground just short of our destination. Here we are in an open field, not much facilities, our own batteries providing light. We are overlooking some huge granite mountains. Then it darkens on the clearest of nights and the stars appear - 360 degrees around us. There is NO light wiping out the sky. The milky way is crystal clear. Saturn is bright low in the southeastern sky. Orion's belt is vivid. And when you view all of this through ordinary binnoculars it becomes extraordinary. A satellite passes overhead and is clearly tracked with the naked eye moving steadily across the sky from horizon to horizon. Yes Mr. Sagan, "billions and billions of stars". But in my prior trips to Australia I had never seen the Southern Cross. And then - there is was - unmistakable. I was seeing a constellation in a sky we don't usually see. I was seeing the stars I had been looking for for some time. There was a shiver as I stood by myself in the hugest planatarium of all - surrounded on all sides by a universe of galaxies.
posted by Mel and Janet Muchnik | 3:15 AM
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