Astronomy tour 2019

A few refreshment stops later, we arrived at The Dish in Parkes. Well known and loved, The Dish is still at the cutting edge of radio telescopy. Responsible for almost all the coverage of the Moon landing in 1969, The Dish has since then discovered over half of the more than 2000 known pulsars and more than 2500 new galaxies in our local region.

More driving before we arrived at our campground in Dubbo to make dinner and then head out to apply physics principles of motion to ten pin bowling. Papa and Jayden impressed everyone with their superior skill on the lanes, while Kaille and Eloise wowed with their dance moves.

The next day was another early start after some seriously fat egg&bacon rolls. We traversed the Solar System starting with dwarf Pluto.  The Virtual Solar System Drive is a scaled representation of the real thing - 38 million time smaller than the actual distance. For many students this was the highlight of the whole tour, and not just for the opportunity to take amusing photos. The drive concluded at Siding Springs Observatory (SSO), on the edge of the Warrumbungle National Park. SSO is Australia's premier optical and infrared astronomical observatory which contains telescopes from many institutions from around the world. Research carried out at SSO is varied, from probing the depths of the cosmos in search of "Dark Energy" to searching the Milky Way for other planets and signs of life. We went inside a couple of the telescopes on a tour of the site, including one with an 8m mirror, and another telescope which uses optical fibres with robotic placement to capture data from outer space.

There was a sight disappointment with the Warrumbungles Observatory closed due to cloud cover but everyone perked up with the prospect of a (very well contained) camp fire after dinner at the Bowling Club in Coonabarabran. Although still cloudy and hazy, we did see Jupiter and Saturn through the telescope, as well as many coloured stars that night.

There was a slight disappointment with the Warrumbungles Observatory closed due to cloud cover but everyone perked up with the prospect of a (very well contained) camp fire after dinner at the Bowling Club in Coonabarabran. Although still cloudy and hazy, we did see Jupiter and Saturn through the telescope, as well as many coloured stars that night.

The final day was a rush to get ready and leave so that we could maximise our time at Oakley farm with Annie and Rowan. The farm runs Angus cattle on 3,500 acres of land near Merriwa in the Hunter Valley. Rowan and his daughter Lily rounded up some cattle on horseback with the help of their two border collies. We learned about farming the cattle, and the effect of the prolonged drought on their livelihood. It was a great experience for our urban students.