The Dish, Parkes (Snowy Mountains and Canberra Trip)

Monday 9 December 2019 – 278 145

A good breeze through the night kept us lovely and cool.  We were packed up and on our way by 7am. The area between Coonabarabran and Gilgandra was amazingly dry – paddocks down to rocks with all the topsoil blown away – tragic.

We visited “The Dish” near Parkes – a CSIRO radio telescope that is still in use and celebrating fifty years since it was used to relay footage of the first moon landing. https://www.csiro.au/en/Locations/NSW/Parkes

Tonight’s stop is the Yass Showgrounds – only downside is the toilets are a fair way from the camping area. https://www.yassshow.org.au/camping

9 July Astro Hub

9 July 2016 – 178 033

Astro Hub

Today was a lazy day, with Hayden choosing most of the activities.  We started with a long lie in, followed by face massages for Drew and Hayden. Next up we headed over to the Astro Hub which to Hayden’s great disappointment was closed.  As a result we changed our plans and all did the Garden Walks at Sails in the Desert and Desert Gardens Motels. 
https://www.ayersrockresort.com.au/experiences/supplier/voyages-free-activities  

Town Square was our next destination, where Hayden did some cool puzzles set up by the Astronomers, as well as using the Solar Telescope.  He found out that the Astro Hub would be open from 2 to 3 this afternoon.  Lunch at the van, which was blowing wildly in a dust storm.  Packing up the van in a howling wind with dust and sand going everywhere was interesting to say the least.  All done though and over at the Astro Hub at 2pm.  Hayden spent the next hour working on a marble rollercoaster that was not working and adjusting it towards full operation.  He certainly seemed to be having fun. Off to Curtin Springs for the night and then on to Kings Canyon in the morning.

Mum

Cosmos Centre - Day and Night, Weather Station Tour and Graham Andrews Parklands (Natural Sciences Loop)

Monday 4 April 2016 – 167 243 – 36 °C

"Thing" that releases the weather balloon

Weather balloon on its way up with the sensor hanging below

We began the day with a trip to the Bureau of Meteorology.  We watched the meteorologist record the daily observations – evaporation, minimum and maximum temperatures, rainfall, soil temperatures at 10cm, 20cm and 50cm.  We also got to watch the weather balloon go up.  It rises at 300m/s to height of 32km or more and has a GPS tracker that allows information to be sent back from up to 12km.  This information is used for weather forecasting.

Observing the sun

Photo taken down the eyepiece of the telescope

Meteorites

Next for the day was the Cosmos Centre – to view the Sun! Using a specialised telescope, we could look at the Sun – we could see two areas of solar flares and a sunspot.  We found out all sorts of cool facts about the Sun and Solar System! We then had a tour of the Meteorites at the Cosmos Centre, where they explained the different types of meteorites. “Jack” is about 15cm long and less then 10cm in diameter, and yet is 1.7kg – extremely dense.

https://www.cosmoscentre.com/

Stop 3 for the day was the Graham Andrews Parklands.  We had a picnic lunch and then followed the “Outback Native Timber Walk”.  This displayed various species of native tree with information panels explaining the indigenous and non-indigenous uses for the plants.

https://www.murweh.qld.gov.au/graham-andrews-parklands

Stop 4 was the Royal Flying Doctor Service Visitor Centre.  This had some great displays, including sample calls we could listen to and a current version of the RFDS chest that is at stations for use in conjunction with advice from RFDS staff.

https://www.queensland.com › Consumer › Attraction

After dinner, we headed back to the Cosmos Centre for Aboriginal Night Sky Stories.  This was presented by Shelley, a local aboriginal lady.  She was quite nervous at speaking initially but warmed up and did very well. Shelley explained that aboriginal people look at the black spaces between the stars when interpreting the sky, rather than using the stars in a dot-to-dot fashion.  She also explained how to see the emu in the sky, warrior in the sky and the crocodile in the northern sky.  Shelley also told us the Barramundi dreamtime story about two young lovers who ran away from the girls arranged marriage.  Really enjoyed this session!!

https://www.cosmoscentre.com/