It has been a while. My trip back to my me night sky place..... Down under

Where do I even begin. My love affair with the night sky began more than three decades ago. As I grew from a teen into adulthood, the fire never diminished. Sure as life happened, stargazing gave way to studies, work, yada yada yada. It wasn't until I moved to Australia, my second hometown after balmy Malaysia, and the spiritual home of my astronomer soul that the flame was rekindled in a big way. Moving to good old USA did allow me to experiment with astrophotography, but I longed for simpler times. Just me, a scope and the glorious southern night sky. So imagine my excitement when my wife declared that we were going back "home". OMG.

The first thing I did was to make a list of some of my "old friends" of whom I have spent countless hours at the eyepiece of my trusty C6, sketching under dim red light. Objects like the glorious Eta Carina Nebula, the ginormous Omega Centauri, etc etc. In my haste, I purchased a lightweight Orion Tritech photo tripod, my super portable Celestron Travelscope 70 OTA, and my Orion eyepiece waist pack filled with my working eyepieces and filters.

First night out under dark red zone skies and a few days after a full moon, I set up my portable observatory in my sis in laws suburban backyard, hiding behind a wooden fence to shield my eyes from the streetlights. And then I realized that I had forgotten to pack my dielectric diagonal in my haste. Damn! Here I was, under dream, if not perfect skies, with Carina and Vela climbing higher and higher in a darkening sky, and my scope would not come to focus. I spent a frustrating half an hour "peeking" at Eta Carina and surrounds, as well as the jewel box in Crux, the southern cross, ending the first night with "fuzzy star" Omega Centauri. I had to find another way.

My first port of call was online stores. Problem is I only had slightly over a week, and taking into account shipping time, this plan wasn't going to work. Enter my favorite store Australian Geographic. I knew they carried scopes and accessories from Celestron and Skywatcher. Turns out they were having a great sale. Looking at their website, I found Celestron's 15x70s for the same price as in the US! I rushed out to the nearest Westfield and came home with my "southern sky buster". Woohoo.

Had a blast reliving the past times under dark Leyburn skies back in Queensland. Cruising the star studded fields, starting with Eta Carina (the wedged shaped nebulosity clearly visible, and the dark keyhole dark nebulosity visible), the southern Pleiades sparkling with all its glory. Waiting a little later, I marvel at the huge globular Omega Centauri, and the jewel box members sparkling like diamonds on black velvet. My thirst for southern sky treats have been quelled FOR NOW!

Here's hoping I get to make another trip "home" sometime soon.