Australia Octobert 2009

Hi Fellow Tacites,

I need some group input on an observing trip to Australia that I'm planning on doing over the new moon period in October 2009.  The round trip non-stop airfare from SFO to Sidney is as low as $588 on expedia or $689 on Quantas.  If you have MegaStar or some similar planetarium software program input Sidney for your location and October 19th as the date and print out two charts - one at 10:00 pm and one at 3:00 am and you'll see why I'm so excited!

The Large and Small Magellanic Cloud regiions are very high and up all night. The eta Carinae regions arise very early in the morning. Just about every cool Souther Sky Object is there for the viewing!  Hard to imagine a better time to be there!

Normally the Obsession Group has a party going over and has big scopes set by the local Australian observers at Coonabrabran. However this year their big party was in March.

I know many TACO's have done the trip (Steve Gottlieb, Albert Highe, Bob Jardine, Shnear Sherman, Darrell Lee and others) and I'd like to know how they handled trips to Coonabrabran or the Magellan Observatory.  Like to know things about renting scopes over there, travel, lodging, the weather in October, all the little details so I can start making plans.

Although this may be a little off-topic observing in Australia and how to do it may be of general interest to the group. I can also be reached privately at dbeckley94510@No-Spam  The airfare to Australia has always been the limiting factor for two people but now, thanks to the economic downturn, Australia is much more affordable so no more excuses for me.

Thanks for all your input.

Dennis Beckley

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