Some astronomy.....and canapes

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November 6

Sunrise at Uluru – up at 4am, on the bus, out to the designated sunrise area (as opposed to the other designated sunset viewing area)

Visitor centre

Walk to some of the points of interest at Uluru

Breakfast at 9.30, then day at leisure before the “Sounds of Silence” dinner later that night.  Saw an Aboriginal story teller and artists at the resort, vegged by the pool.

I loved watching the paintings by the artists develop dot by dot – over the course of an hour they could take a blank piece of canvas, and turn it into a story.

Around 6pm we were collected from the hotel (along with a bus load of our closest friends) to go to our dinner site in the desert. 

Greeted with a glass of champagne and canapés, the orange sun clipping the horizon next to Kata Tjuta on one side, and Uluru on another side, I could tell this was going to be a special evening.

As the sunset we were served pumpkin soup along with some more wine before the buffet dinner.   Barramundi fish, lamb, lots of veggies, salads, I even tried the (chewy) kangaroo.  Desert.

That, however, was not the highlight of the evening.  For me, it was when the guided star talk started, although some of us were way ahead of the speaker.  Jumping up to move away from the dim lights of the table lamp to gaze at the sky naked eye or with binoculars.  As the sky darkened, the Magellanic clouds popped into view.  Crux was not yet visible, and would not rise until pre-dawn.  In my 10x50 binoculars the Small Magellanic Cloud was joined, in the same field of view, by 47 Tucana, a wondrous globular cluster. 

One could indeed mistake the Magellanic clouds for the “regular” kind.  These satellite galaxies of our Milky Way do indeed look like high fuzzy blobby clouds – although they don’t move if you watch them ;)  One can see the Great Andromeda Galaxy from the northern hemisphere as a naked eye object from dark skies.  However, it is relatively small, just a small tiny smudge.  In comparison, the Magellanic clouds dare you to miss them.

47 Tuc was also the object in the telescope that the star talker provided – truly an astonishing globular cluster;  the multitude of millions of stars balled up tightly in the middle, spreading outwards filling the field of view of the eyepiece.

Mum seems to be having a good time so far – she’s talking to the other folks, and I’ve frequently heard her laughing.  Notably last night as the large lady bug type creatures who shared our table proceeded to move a package of butter.