Australian Solar Eclipse 2002 Report Page 1

An account of the Australian Eclipse Tour conducted by
TravelQuest International and Sky & Telescope Magazine

Written and Compiled by Robert D. Stephens

November 23 to 28: Several members of the group, organizers from the RTMC Astronomy Expo, decided to come over four days early in order to do some deep sky observing under the southern skies. The group consisted of myself (Bob Stephens), Alson Wong, Glenn Malcolm, Steve Edberg and Carter Roberts. Another member, Alex McConahay, had left a couple of days earlier to visit Ayers Rock.

We had no trouble getting through customs and renting a car (all the trouble was in returning the car). It was about a three-hour drive to the Magellan Observatory, a B & T (Bed and Telescope) we had rented for four nights. Steve, being the only one experienced in driving on the wrong side of the road, did the driving on the first day. He didn’t have too many problems except for turning on the windshield wipers every time he signaled a turn. It got to be a running joke.

Goulburn is the nearest town to the observatory. It seems like a typical Midwestern American town stuck in the 60’s. From there we drove the final 20 km to the Magellan Observatory and the house we were staying in. The house resembles a double-wide trailer with two bed rooms, an additional extending sleeping area, a living room and kitchenette, and an enclosed patio. There were five beds and an additional mattress for our sixth observing member.

The owner, Zane Hammond, showed us the observatory that was up the hill. It has a JMI NGC-18 in a rotating dome, and a large warming room which contains a Meade 12” LX200 which rolls out. It also has a low building with a roll off roof which contained a Losmandy mount upon which could be mounted a Genesis 4 Inch or a Vixen 8 inch. Zane had also just acquired an SBIG ST8i.

The clouds were building throughout the afternoon and it became obvious that we would not be observing that evening. We were pretty tired anyway from the 14-hour flight, so we watched the movie, “The Dish” on TV until Alex arrived. By then a sucker hole had formed overhead.

We all headed out for a few minutes of observing through binoculars. The LMC and SMC were magnificently displayed overhead.

The next day was one of Extreme Observatory Touring – a new spectator sport. I took a turn driving on the wrong side of the road. It wasn’t too bad and I only hit the windshield wipers a couple of times.

Our first destination was the Molonglo Radio Observatory, a couple of hours to the southwest. It has a Menzies Cross radio telescope, which stretches about a mile north-south and east-west in the shape of a cross. Fortunately, when we drove up, the gate was open, so we drove in. We later found out that it was normally kept locked, but it was open so that a flock of sheep could pass through it.

Our luck got even better when we met the Maintenance Manager who was delighted to show us around. They don’t seem to get many visitors there. The General Manager wasn’t there at the time, so after showing us the control room, the Maintenance Manager brought out a cherry picker to lift us up over the telescope to get better pictures of the array. We all waited our turns as he lifted us up, one at a time, 25 feet into the air for our photo shoots. Afterwards, the crew wanted us to hang around for tea, but we had to head out to stay on schedule.

Next, we drove into Canberra for lunch. Canberra is the capital of Australia. From there, we headed up to the Mt. Stromlo Observatory.

Mt. Stromlo is located just a few miles south of Canberra. Upon arrival, we took a tour of the 74-inch telescope. This telescope was installed in 1955 and is still in use. Our guide showed us where they were installing some eyepieces off a beam splitter attached to the Coude focus. It seems that they are giving up most of their incoming light with this arrangement.

Mt. Stromlo has a marvelous Visitors Center with a Gift Shop and Science Center. Our guide gave us a slide show that she shows the general public.

From there we went to the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex. This is one of three complexes NASA uses to track interplanetary spacecraft.

Approaching the complex, we saw a tremendous storm bearing down on us. We stopped to take a marvelous set of pictures of the five radio dishes framed against the storm clouds.

We parked in the visitor’s parking lot. Steve went off towards the entrance to take a picture of one of the dishes, while the rest of us continued towards the Visitors Center. Then the clouds opened up on us. It started with a few large drops, and then hail started to fall. Recognizing what was about to happen, I uttered ‘we better get out of here.’ Then, it was like during on a faucet. We ran as quickly as we could, but we were soaked by the time we got into the Visitors Center. Steve got the worst of it since he was furthest away.

We met our contact Glenn at the Visitors Center while trying to dry our clothes and cameras with the hand dryer in the restroom. Steve and Alex were given dry shirts while the rest of us bought shirts in the Gift Shop.

Our guide said he had never seen such a downpour there before. Lucky us! Glenn took us through the displays that have all sorts of interesting artifacts from manned space flight. He pointed out the two dishes that were, at the time, pointed at the two Voyager spacecraft. After the downpour ended, Glenn walked us out to the 70-meter antenna that was stowed for maintenance.

Glenn then went and asked permission for us to go into the Control Room – something that rarely happens. To our surprise, they let us in where we got to see the banks of computers controlling the complex. We also checked the accuracy of our watches against the atomic clocks at the complex.

Upon leaving the complex, we stopped at the Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve where we saw dozens of kangaroo grazing in the evening light. We had already seen several kangaroo in the area around Magellan Observatory, but here they were en mass. We also saw some emus and several cockatoo.

We stopped for dinner in Canberra on the way back.

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Copyright 2002 TravelQuest International and Robert D. Stephens. All rights reserved.
Revised: October 25, 2005.
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