Scuba Steve

Anyone into it? I know the sky above the UK like the back of my hand, I think its going to be unnerving not seeing much of the familiar stars down under.

xzibit

It's all back-to-front in oz!

Easy to get disorientated for a while I'd imagine lol.

MartinLuther

You'll still see some. Orion is still prominent (although upside down like everything else). You can still see Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, Pleiades, etc... This is from Melbourne so you should be able to see these from places further north. We can't see the big dipper or Polaris (obviously) or anything around Polaris.

On the plus side we've got the 2 Magellanic clouds, Canis Major (which I think is the brightest star (sun excepted)), and the centre of the galaxy (although that's obscured - it's still nice to know it's there).

Of course there’s the Southern Cross which can be differentiated from the False Cross (a similar looking formation near the direction of the centre of the galaxy) using the 2 pointer stars (alpha-Centauri and beta-Centauri). As you may know Alpha-Centauri’s companion star proxima-Centauri is the closest star to earth (sun excepted again).

The only downside is that we don’t get regular annual meteor showers (although you may get a glimpse of these from northern parts).

I’ve only come across a couple of examples so far but it is interesting to get some aboriginal interpretations. In one story the Southern Cross is four fellas cooking a fish around the campfire.

Scuba Steve

Cheers. I'll be looking to join a club once I'm there. I dodn't knwo about the meteor showers, that's a bummer. Seen some spectacular ones in the past.

MartinLuther

I only managed to see the Perseids quite a while ago. Viewing wasn't much good from London.

I have seen some cracking shooting stars here.

hoofie2002

Orion being upside down does freak you out somewhat. It certainly proves that you live on a sphere !

The major difference is that by and large [certainly here in Perth] light pollution is not as bad as somewhere like London. I used to live in Folkestone and had a little Meade ETX scope. If I pointed it south over the channel you could get some good views.

Last year I was in Dunsborough for a few days and was gobsmacked at how dark the skies really were - when you can clearly see the milky way all across the horizon it's quite impressive.

There was a comet last year here low on the western sky - good viewing even with the naked eye.

I'd 2nd another posters comments about meteors, if you just look up for a few minutes you always seem to see one.

I haven't checked out astronomy clubs at all but with the internet nowadays I don't know if you really need it.

Scuba Steve

Was that comet McNaughton or something? It was barely visible here but never managed to see it. Have seen Hale-Bopp and Hyakutake (sp.) in the past.

Racht70

Im into astonomy too, so ill be watching this thread

Scuba Steve

Lunar eclipse 3.09 thurs morning visible in wesrtern europe. Starts about 1ish, totality just after 3am.

MartinLuther

It was comet McNaught. It was good but not quite as good as Hale-Bopp.

As hoofie said the light pollution is a lot lower here so there is so much more to see. Also out in the sticks the stars are amazing. The milky way is truely milky. On the way to Malacoota (the south east tip of the mainland) I had to stop and get out of the car as it was so amazing.