Finally, I was on my way. I had just delivered a document to a colleague, had a shower and did the last check in my head. Nothing forgotten. I left the apartment and headed for the airport express.
My first concern was the weight of the backpack. I had measured it to be 22.6 kg using the bathroom scale. But the scales at the airport tend to show a little more. I did not want to pay for excess baggage. Not all the way to Cairns. To my relief, it weighed in at 22.9 kg. 100 grams under the limit. I sighed in relief. Normally, they aren't that concerned with a little overweight, but you never know. I got my boardig passes for the whole trip to Cairns. I walked away from the checkin-desk with a smile. Then I suddenly remembered. What seat had I gotten? I was so focused on the backpack I completely forgot to ask for window-seat. I checked my boarding passes. From Oslo to London, window seat. From Melbourne to Cairns, Window seat. From London to Melbourne. Mid seat? 19 hours squashed between two people? I dreaded the very thought.
God proof
When waiting to board the A380 in London, I went through all possible scenarios on how seat 70E might be an isle seat. But no reasonable seat configuration I could come up with, made it so. I prayed to God that it would be an isle seat. After a while, we started boarding. I walked down the isle, and arrived at row 70. I stood there, looking a bit surprised at my seat. I looked up the isle to the front of the plane. And then down the isle to the very back of the plane. All rows but row 70 had seat D. On row 70, seat D didn't exist. Which meant that all I had to the left of me, was an empty space. Which meant that I could stretch my legs without running the risk of tripping someone or blocking the carts of the air hostessess. The Big Guy upstairs likes me!
Up in the sky
On the screen in front of me, I found an option I really loved. "Skycam". This is a camera mounted on the tail-fin. This gives you a "birdseye" view of the plane and its surroundings. During takeoff and landing, it gave a exciting new view. Not just looking ahead or below the plane, but seeing the plane itself underneath the camera. Seeing it bank and roll. Loved it. Ok. I'm a fan of the fancy little things. :-)
New Chalon
Arriving in Cairns, I got my baggage and went to the car rental counter to pick up my car. When I took out the receit for everything I had booked, I suddenly realized that I had forgotten to bring the address and phone-number of the hotel. I stood there thinking hard and long before I managed to squeeze some info from the farthest backalleys of my brain. "Bruce Highway" popped up. South of the city centre. I checked the map I got from the rental company. I memorized the map on how to get through the city to Bruce Highway. I got in the car and drove off. A zillion red-lights later, I was finally on the highway. I drove for about half an hour before I realized that it could not be this far away. I took a u-turn (probably illegal) and headed back towards Cairns. On my way back I realized that I had to check the internet somewhere. I saw a sign for McDonald's. I figured that they normally have WiFi for their customers. I stopped at the restaurant and went in. "Do you have WiFi?" I asked. The girl behind the counter asked the boss. "Yes!" she replied. I went out to the car and picked up my gear. Ordered a meal and sat down. I looked up the networks available and found it. It required a password. I went to the counter to ask for the password. "Eeeerrrr. We don't have a password. He came with me. "Ah. Err... We've had some problems with the WiFi lately. It hasn't been fixed yet!". Oooo-k... Thanks for telling me... I finished my meal and walked up to the counter again. Showed them the name of the hotel. "Do you know this hotel?". They all looked at the name. "No. Never heard of it." A bit downhearted (and tired), I walked out to the car again and drove off. 200 meters later, I saw a sign by the road. "Cairns New Chalon". What the hey? They had never heard of a hotel that lay 200 meters away? Oh well.. I parked outside and walked into the reception.
Behind the counter sat an old, smiling lady with a squeeky voice. "How are you, sir?" I gave her the passport, and she found my reservation. Did I want WiFi? Is the pope catholic? Of course I wanted WiFi. She gave me a couple of xeroxed tags with username and passord. In my room, I tried to find the WiFi spot the info said should be there. But all I found was "God". (Yes, that was the name of the network). I tried logging on, but none of the passwords worked. I went down to the reception and explained the problem. She smiled. "Did you find the blue cord?" I nodded. "That's the broadband". "But that's not WiFi!" I demanded. "Nooo. I keep telling them that, but they won't listen. Even on the internet they claim we have WiFi." ARGH! Now I have to eat a lot of McDonald meals or find some other place to hook up my computer. Why didn't I bring the USB-to-ethernet dongle for my ultrabook? Cause I read on the net that this hotel had WiFi...
After this failure, I crashed on my bed and fell asleep.
Under a southern sky
I woke up at 9 pm. It was dark and quiet outside. I felt more awake and ready. I went outside and looked up at the sky. Cloudy. I thought it would be a perfect opportunity for me to try out the gear I had brought. Cloudy nights are for testing. Everybody knows that. I packed my gear into the car and drove off. I wanted to try out a place I had found on Google Maps. It was dark and far from any lights. It took almost two hours to drive, so I arrived at around 1 in the morning. I parked the car and set up my telescope drive. I looked up at the skies and just took it all in. The brilliantly clear Milkyway. And the two only "clouds" in the sky. The Large and Small Magellan Clouds. Satellite galaxies to the Milkyway. They are huge!
I realized that I had no idea where the south pole would be in the sky. In the north, we have the clear polar star. In the south, they have an insignificant small star near the pole. After some time, I managed to get it reasonably close. And I could take short exposures with my camera and an 85 mm short telelens. Below are the results. For whoever it may concern : LMC photo : 85 mm @f/1.4, ISO 800, 17 exposures @ 30 sec each. Stacked in DSS, cropping and levels in Gimp. SMC : Same lens, ISO 400, 6 exp @ 1 min each. Stacked in DSS, cropping and levels in Gimp.
While waiting for the expores to finish, I saw one of the most spectacular meteorites of my life. It lit up in the east, and slowly moved west across the sky. Pieces fell off it all the time, making it brighten every now and then. It lasted at least 7-8 seconds before it disappeared behind som clouds just north of me. Truly a spectacular sight! I saw several other meteorites this night, but they were more "regular".
At 4 am, a thick cloud-cover from the east filled the sky. I knew this was it. No more photos. The clouds had come and gone the whole night, so it wasn't too productive. But I was happy. I packed up my gear, and headed back to the hotel. On my way down from Mareeba, it was obvious that I had chosen the right direction to flee. The roads where soaked all the way to Cairns. I hadn't had a drop the whole night. Although, I once packed up my gear, fearing an imminent shower. It never came. And this whole morning, torrential downpour has been coming and going. We will see what the night will bring. Maybe I will find some spot with internet, so I can be more prepared? Maybe I will try another night under the skies. But this time with my telescope and autoguider? Who knows? All I know is that if this is the trend for wednesday morning, it all looks a bit bad... But I will keep my hopes up.
Ragnar
Amateur astronomer
