Family business pulled me away from my long awaited dark site visit. Duty saw me 4 hours drive from home, an hour's north of Bathurst. Knowing the one evening I had there would be my own I at least managed to pack my lightly used 11X70 binos and a tripod. A far cry from the 17.5" I had been expecting to pack, but we do what we can, eh!
I managed to get out doors around 8pm. What a sky greeted me! Glorious east to west, horizon to horizon band of the Milky Way blazed overhead. Dark patches of the Coal Sack, the Emu, the Dark Horse, all easily recognisable and menecing with their inky darkness.
<sigh> "What the heck!
" was my first thought as I pulled up the binos to the sky, Omega Centauri my first port of call.
"HOLY HECK!!!!" was my very next thought!
Omega was not only astonishing, it was resolved into millions of tiny pinpoints of stars, squished tightly together. What a beautiful sight. Surrounding Omega was awash with a glowing Milky Way, riddled with strings of stars, mottling of invisible clusters, and chased with cords of dark nebulae.
What a spectacular and glorious universe had been hidden from my eyes due to aperture fever!
Centaurus A was nearly as big as Omega too. Its soft halo of light fading into the surrounding blaze of "Milky Way Glow".
A few months ago I did a sketch of the area around Eta Carina from home with these same binoculars. This night I could bearly recognise the same features there was so much light coming through the eyepieces without the hinderance of Sydney's light pollution.
The rest of the hour I had before the clouds rolled in (REALLY! you've got to be kidding me!!! 9 bloody months straight!) was a pure joy of wonder, excitement, discovery, and astonishment. I went in without ANY expectations and received a whole new universe to explore.
What a delight it was to downsize. Not once did I miss my big dobbie. My only regret was not to be able to get one sketch done. Probably for the best tonight as I would have struggled to decide what to sketch first, or how to go about it. I'm not disappointed though. The hidden blessing for my sketching persuit has been to think about how to tackle such a subject, and it's got the juices flowing and fresh ideas screaming to be materialised.
What a wonderful evening it turned out to be. Only one hour long too!
Mental (for sure,
)