Toward Queensland

Continuing north toward the Queensland border we drove through kilometre after kilometre of lush farmland.

It was incredibly flat, lush farmland.  In fact, we went several hours without seeing any sort of topography.

Along the way we stopped for some photos of a beautiful mustard field.

And we finally found some topography again.


We had a late lunch or early dinner at a roadside rest area where the wind was strong enough that our food was nearly blown away.

The expedition continued northward as the sun set over the flat nothingness in the west.

The Australia Telescope Compact Array

The road to the Australia Telescope Compact Array certainly didn’t seem of proper size for such an important facility.  From the water sitting in low spots along the road, it appears that a few days prior to our arrival the road was flooded out.

We made sure to turn off our cell phones.

The un-staffed visitor centre had an “Honesty Box” to drop your coins in while paying for a postcard.  We were honest and paid for our cards in full.


This video provides 360 degree panorama of the site.

The railroad track that the dishes use to move is quite long.

The day’s observations log.

Dishes have speed limits and have to watch for kangaroos, too.

A solar interferometer.

Zach posing with one of the dishes.

Siding Spring Observatory

On our trek northward to Queensland, we started seeing planets on the sides of the road.  Before long we discovered that there is a major observatory complex just outside of Coonabarabran.  The Siding Spring Observatory sits high atop a rock dome and is really quite a beautiful setting.  As part of the charge of the Trans-Australia Expedition is to collect scientific material, we made a detour on our route to visit the observatory.

The biggest telescope on site.

There were kangaroos munching on the bushes at the telescope’s base.  These were the first live kangaroos our expedition saw.  We momentarily considered collecting specimens but decided transporting them back to the institute might be difficult in our small SUV.

The red object is what the primary mirror was transported in to reach the site from its fabrication facility many thousands of miles away.

The telescope inside the dome.

The wind was incredibly powerful and cutting.  There was ice all over the ground.

Another telescope.