Daytime activities at Wiruna are many and varied. Bird watching, bush-walking and photography are popular, though the Black Emu is seen only at night, while the Wine Appreciation Society holds regular tastings at the eat-in-kitchen on New Moon weekends.
1998 was a great year for agricultural activities with our newly planted trees thriving in inverse proportion to the number of clear nights enjoyed since last April.
Serious scientific experiments on dew-zapping techniques have resulted in the perfection of a rather rapid method, which must be finely judged for optimal results.
One must heap a pile of exactly 27.2 kg of extremely dry ghost gum firewood around the base of the telescope (unseasoned, green wood tends to smoke the optics up a little). You must sit on the middle of the pile, and light it using not more than 1/4 of a bottle of 1998 vintage Star Port (1999 vintage will do if you have no 1998 Port left).
Continue sitting on the fire, until it becomes a trifle uncomfortable, at which stage it is time to douse the flames using either distilled or purified water.
Leaving the flames burning longer has been known to result in slight aberrations in the primary mirror, and a small number of cases of burnt-buttock syndrome have been reported in the user.
Experiments using dummies fitted with multiple sensors (see photo above) have been conducted at previous Star Parties, and volunteers (both human and telescopic) will be sought for future experiments, so that the method can be further refined.
Music is also a feature of Wiruna, where several talented guitar players can be heard playing among the trees, while the Wiruna choir has a wide range of songs with which to delight the listener (see photo over page).
At the Society AGM on April 1, 1998, it was decided not to increase the hours of darkness at Wiruna out of consideration to the young trees being nurtured there.
At the same time, members have been asked to refrain from shining red lights on the trees, as famed hack Japanese horticulturalist Sushi Chow Mein's famous bonsai experiments demonstrate that an almost exclusive diet of red light produces small, but perfectly formed specimens.
On the other hand, the introduction of daylight saving at Wiruna was not approved, as it was feared that the extra hour of sunlight might fade the new black curtains in the meeting hall.