The flies in Charleville are small and very persistent, but we are being bitten by something else, so Lyn took an early walk to IGA for some Rid cream.
At 10:15am Monique picked us up in her Nissan X-Trail and drove us to the Cosmos Astronomy Centre. We had time for a coffee and cola in their cafe.
The cap had a suitable symbol on it.
Mark took us to the sun telescope and showed us what the sun looked like today.
We saw a big red circle with a sunspot that was very hard to spot. He showed us how small the planets are in comparison with the sun, then how small the sun is in comparison with Beetlegeuse. The latter is in the last stages of life and expanding all the time. Eventually our sun will do the same and swallow up the planets. He gave us a pair of plastic glasses to look at the sun with. It looked like a smaller red circle.
We wandered around their interesting exhibits pressing buttons and listening through headphones. One corridor about space modules was in the shape of one.
At 12:20 they gave us a very nice lunch of quiche, salad, dessert and a drink. We had a chat with the other couple in the cafe who were on their way to Darwin for a ride on the Ghan.
After lunch we looked at movies until Monique came and started on her tour of the WWII Airbase used by the Americans for training of bombardiers in the use of the Norden Bomb Sight apparatus, which was used very effectively in the Battle of the Coral Sea.
Monique drove us back to The Rocks Motel where we ate some nibbles and waited for a car to return us to Cosmos for the evening stargazing session. Unfortunately the rain set in and they had to cancel, so we spent the evening in our room.
At 10:15am Monique picked us up in her Nissan X-Trail and drove us to the Cosmos Astronomy Centre. We had time for a coffee and cola in their cafe.
The cap had a suitable symbol on it.
Mark took us to the sun telescope and showed us what the sun looked like today.
We saw a big red circle with a sunspot that was very hard to spot. He showed us how small the planets are in comparison with the sun, then how small the sun is in comparison with Beetlegeuse. The latter is in the last stages of life and expanding all the time. Eventually our sun will do the same and swallow up the planets. He gave us a pair of plastic glasses to look at the sun with. It looked like a smaller red circle.
We wandered around their interesting exhibits pressing buttons and listening through headphones. One corridor about space modules was in the shape of one.
At 12:20 they gave us a very nice lunch of quiche, salad, dessert and a drink. We had a chat with the other couple in the cafe who were on their way to Darwin for a ride on the Ghan.
After lunch we looked at movies until Monique came and started on her tour of the WWII Airbase used by the Americans for training of bombardiers in the use of the Norden Bomb Sight apparatus, which was used very effectively in the Battle of the Coral Sea.
Monique drove us back to The Rocks Motel where we ate some nibbles and waited for a car to return us to Cosmos for the evening stargazing session. Unfortunately the rain set in and they had to cancel, so we spent the evening in our room.
Disappointing you missed the evening session but I’m sure the locals were glad for the rain. Sounds like an otherwise enjoyable time in Charleville. Peta
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