May Skies - Almost the Dry Season!

To the great surprise of those present, after a day of morning rain & cloudy skies, the clouds parted and the stars came out for our public viewing night last Saturday.
The 18" scope again proved it's worth with stunning tack sharp views of the beautiful open & globular clusters of the Crux / Carina region of the sky. There are many to choose from, including the Jewel box, Southern Pleaides & the hundreds of visible stars that make up what we can see of the million star rich globular, Omega Centuri.
After a faltering start with a power lead problem, the LX-90 8" was soon up & running with a dash to town for some back up batteries. The LX-90 does a mighty job of tracking the planets & bright deep sky objects. This was made plain to those 35 to 40 people who attended, for whom the big hit was the mighty Saturn with its rings & attendant moons.
The big event for this year will be the "Arnhemland Astronomy & Science Fair" a full day fair at the Town Hall on Sat the 25th Aug, the culmination of a week of activities for National Science Week.
Be sure to mark it in your Dairy's, we will have a Mobile Planetarium, food, drinks, music by Gove FM, displays, lectures, science demonstrations & lots more.
The Links below are for the Mobile Planetarium from Stardreaming & our keynote speaker from the CSIRO, Prof. Ray Norris.
http://www.stardreaming.com.au/
http://www.atnf.csiro.au/people/rnorris/outreach/index.htm

Astrocamp Wrap-up

Members of GAA who attended our first Astrocamp for 2007 would attest to the great time had by all.
At a location close to the Giddy river, just far enough from the light intrusion of the town & plant, clear skies were enjoyed on Friday & Saturday night the 20th & 21st of April.

The cool evening's of the gathering dry season made for a very good astrocamp, the deep sky delights of the constellations Centaurus (the Centuar), Crux (the southern cross), Carina (location of the Brilliant Eta Carina Nebula), Ursa Major (the big Bear) & Orion (the Hunter), delighted those who attended.
On the following day the cool waters of the giddies beckoned, and we were not disapointed with the bubbling waters of the recently wet season charged waters of the gidies cooling & washing away the heat of the day.

This will be the first of several "Astrocamps" for members of the club.
New members are always welcome to join us to enjoy the delights of the dry season skies.
Our next public observing night will be on Sat the 12th of May from 6pm at our Darkish sky site on Dhupma Rd.
Contact us at goveastronomers@yahoo.com.au