Archive for April 8th, 2008
Finally: the Southern Cross
April 8, 2008A part of our Easter trip to the Granite Belt of southern Queensland was out of this world, literally.
We chose to stay at the Twinstar Guesthouse on the New England Highway in Ballandean because it advertises itself, accurately, as “a cozy B&B with stargazing facilities.”
This relatively inexpensive three-guest-room lodge near Girraween National Park is owned and run by a Japanese couple whose last name we’ve misplaced, Naomi and Eiji.
Eiji, whose name is pronounced much as the last name of the American writer James Agee (long “a” and then “gee” or “age-ee”), has been an amateur astronomer for much of his life and he loves sharing his extensive knowledge.
It was our bad luck to be Twinstar guests during full-moon nights with lots of rapidly-drifting clouds, but we did get some brief and rewarding looks through Eiji’s 46 cm reflecting telescope one evening.
Inside a backyard dome that revolves when Eiji pushes it along its circular track, the telescope collects, he told us, 4500 times more light than the unaided eye, so we were not disappointed.
Even in bright moonlight Eiji’s scope let us see the rings of Saturn; a beautiful cluster of stars known as “the jewel box;” Sirius, the brightest star in the sky, only (only?) 8.6 light years away; and Omega Centauri, which, Aiji told us, is a cluster of one million stars that hang out together about 16,000 light years away.
Best of all, perhaps, was Eiji’s authoritative identification Read the rest of this entry »