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General Meetings: February 17 th Speaker: Dr. Irakus Konstantopoulis (AAO) March 17 th Speaker: Dr Kyler Kuehn (AAO) NAG Meetings: In recess Observing Nights: Consult NSAS’ web site at http://nsas.org.au/observing/ Deadline: Please send your contributions to the April 2015 issue of Reections in time to reach the editor before March 15 th to nsas.editor@ozemail.com.au Calendar W hen you think of Lightning Ridge you’d normally think of Opals, and indeed if the famous Black Opal hadn’t been discovered at this location, I would guess that there would be little likelihood of a town springing up in this isolated, pebbly region. My husband, Graham, and I answered a call for scopes from Bob Fuller to NSAS members for a star party at the Ridge on Saturday, 22 November 2014. His invitation pointed out that at that time of the year it would be very hot, and the trip would take about nine hours. Graham and I were the only ones from NSAS who took on these challenges and we can say that Bob was correct on both counts. Yes, it was hot; very hot. And yes, it was a long way. It’s interesting how a nine-hour trip feels much longer as you get older! We went the shortest route from home, via Bells Line of Road, Lithgow, Mudgee, Gulgong, Gilgandra, Walgett to Lightning Ridge. We decided to break the trip both ways. On the way up we stayed at Gulgong, and on the way back at Mudgee. Once we arrived at the Ridge we loved the place. On the Saturday morning I did a tour of the ‘Walk in Mine’ (it was absolute heaven to escape the 44 degree heat) and of course visited several opal vendors (I was tempted, but in the end I didn’t buy). We also stopped by a very intriguing structure called the ‘Astronomers Monument’. It was built by a local, Alex Szperlak, to commemorate the great astronomers including Copernicus, Isaac Newton, Galileo, Kepler and E. Halley. The monument was built (apparently) from left-over concrete, using different sized buckets to give it a unique shape. From what we heard from the locals, no telescope was ever set up on the site. To me, it’s just a very, very odd building. On the Saturday afternoon we attended, at Bob’s invitation, a “Giving Back” ceremony. For the last couple of years Bob has been undertaking a research project into the sky knowledge of the Kamilaroi and Euahlayi peoples. This afternoon Elders were invited to receive material prepared as part of this project. The audience was also treated to a very enlightening video made as part of the overall project and premiered at Lightning Ridge, called “Sky Stories of the Dreaming”, all about aboriginal astronomy. A Macquarie University media release of 5 December 2014 1 highlighted three new areas of knowledge which came from this project: The use of patterns of stars in the sky 1) as “waypoints” for teaching travel to ceremonies; The close connection between 2) songlines 2 in the sky, songlines and Dreaming tracks on the ground, trad- ing routes, and star maps, and The knowledge concerning the back- 3) ground to the cultural belief of “what’s up there is (or was) down here”. A cultural performance of dancing and singing concluded the ceremony. In the evening there was the star party. I’d forgotten what clear skies looked like, it was a phenomenal sight. About 50 people came along, many indigenous who came to see the stars and link them with the stories they knew. For many this was the rst time they’d looked at the sky through a telescope. The Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) could be seen clearly with the naked eye in the SE sky. In aboriginal lore the LMC is the campsite of an old man, whereas the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) is the campsite of his wife. The couple, known jointly as Jukara, had grown too old to feed themselves, so other star beings bring them sh from the sky river we know as the Milky Way. 3 Pleiades, a star cluster known as the Seven Sisters, also raised a lot of interest. In dreamtime stories they were seven beautiful ice-maidens. Two were captured by a man called Wurrunnah while their ve sisters travelled to their home in the sky. A Star Party at Lightning Ridge Lightning Ridge is well-known for its Black Opals which are mined underground. Outside the “Walk in Mine”, a mine open to tourists, is the “Big Hoist”. Built between 1985-1988 it was one of the biggest hoists in Lightning Ridge at that time. It was able to carry a large quantity of dirt, which reduced the amount of labour and effort required in moving dirt to the surface and trucking it out. The strangely shaped Astronomers’ Monument
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