Michael A. Stecker
mike@mstecker.com

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Australia Photos 1
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Waltzing Matilda Page   Listen to a separate MP3 file of the music and lyrics of Waltzing Matilda    Anglo-Australian Observatory

Sidney Harbor

Sydney Opera House

Canberra is the well planned capital of Australia. The legislative buildings are seen here near the bottom of the hill. Canberra lies south of Sydney in New South Whales. Not far from the city is the Mt. Stromlo Observatory in the Snowy Mountains.

The Anglo-Australian Observatory (Siding Springs) can be reached by driving about 6 hours north of Sydney. It is close to the small town of Coonabarabron and adjacent to the Warambungle National Park in northern New South Whales Territory. The 3.9 meter telescope is seen in this photo. The australians do important work in astronomy. Besides the optical/infrared telescopes they also have several large radio telescopes.

 

I visited Australia in April, 1986 in order to see Comet Haley. Sky and Telescope magazine remarked that the small town of Alice Springs, near the center of the continent, would be the best place in the world to see the comet and April would be the best time. Like the weather forcasters, the magazine was completely wrong as the comet peaked out in March and Alice Springs had cloudy skies on the night in question. Since the area is relatively isolated medical care often is given through the Royal Flying Doctor Service as seen above.