So I visited Mopra, the radio telescope I helped fund on the long weekend. It was pretty special as I (as well as the astronomers with me) had never seen it in reality before. Only Balt had been there because he is the telescope whisperer! Anyway we were able to clamber over surfaces, up and down ladders and get into all the rooms, with supervision and wearing our hard hats. Quite the privilege.

Coonabarabran is a great town, coming alive for Starfest every year and the locals were very friendly too. We stayed at the Oxley Caravan Park and our delux cabin was perfect, two bedrooms and living area, chairs and table on a verandah, air con, nice bathroom. Could stay there again happily.

I drove up with Catherine and when we remembered we looked for planets, we saw Jupiter and on the way home Uranus and Pluto (which is helpfully signposted NOT A PLANET).

posted by gemma @ 6:15 pm