The Tasmanian Astronomical Society held it's Remote Area Star Party (RASP) in the Cradle Mountain National Park early in March 2003, culminating in an observing session on March 12 on the summit of the mountain on one of it's rare clear nights.
Club Secretary Tom Carr carried his backpack-model 6 inch RFT right to the summit. This model featured a new lightweight mirror handcrafted out of Huon Pine, and explained that its thermally stable surface took a high polish readily and remained distortion free no matter how rapidly the temperature fell.
The trick was, he said, to do the figuring at a room temperature of 30°C, at which the natural oils in the timber fused with the cerium oxide to make a totally new carbon-based compound which took a permanent, diamond like polish. Aluminised and quartz over-coated, it tested out at a genuine 1/42 of a wave.
Overseas member Lars Jonlix, of Mt Ranier in Washington State, brought his highly portable image stabilised Canon binoculars which had been specially modified for astrometric work and fine-tuned for southern hemisphere work by the Boeing Raccoon works Team. During the Star Party, he planned to further refine the distance of the LMC by directing one binocular objective onto its brightest component, the Tarantula Nebula (NGC 2070), while the other objective was directed by a clock driven diagonal mirror onto the first quarter moon, reflected off the lightly-rippled surface of Dove Lake.
As the moon's distance was known with great accuracy, extrapolating its reflection from the ripples through a triple-bypass CCD camera had the ripples acting as a 2km wide Ronchi grid, and by comparing the Ronchigram of the Moon's image with a Doppler Angiogram of the LMC in general and the Tarantula in particular through the other objective. Three estimates were obtained. These averaged out at 178,342.3 light years, plus or minus 4.58 light years. The final results will be published in June in the Science supplement to the Greyhound Recorder.
A contingent of ASNSW members present noted with interest that at the latitude of Cradle Mountain, Canopus was near the zenith, while the LMC, SMC, Coal Sack, and Eta Carinae were easy naked eye objects in spite of the first quarter moon, such was the transparency of the sky.
A total of 14 Tasmanian Tigers made an appearance during the Star Party, but all turned out to be snakes. Fortunately, none of those bitten has died yet. One of Mr Jonlix's spare boots was last seen being fought over by a pair of Tasmanian Devils, and by popular consensus of the attendees it was agreed that the winner was unlikely to survive it's meal.
Next Year's Remote Area Star Party will be held in the centre of the Mt Darwin Meteor Crater, which will be lined with fine mesh chicken wire for the occasion to make a non-steerable one-kilometre diameter radio dish which will form the basis of a radio telescope.
This will be used to search far southern skies for extra terrestrial signals, working on the theory that most searches so far had been conducted in northern latitudes. Attendees are advised to bring lots of leech and insect repellent, and at least one snake-bite bandage per limb.
Mr Richmond Windsor hopes to attend, but his appearance depends on the success of his negotiations with the operators of the Spirit of Tasmania car ferries for a price for the transport across the Bass Strait of his 36cm F/110 off-axis Newtonian (under construction), mounted with stabilisers, on the chassis of a combine harvester. Although vehicles up to 5 metres long travel free on the ferries, it is estimated that the telescope may well be longer than 5 metres.
ASNSW webmaster Ronald MacDonald is upset that work commitments prevented his attendance at this year's RASP, and plans to make next year's even if early retirement is necessary.