Australia 1986
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It happens only every 76 years... when we can see the time traveller extra-ordinaire. On April 12 1986, Halley's Comet was closest to the earth at 63 million miles. It wasn't that big or bright, but it was the brightest object in the southern sky. Almost as bright as Venus but fuzzy. Halley's closest encounter was in the year 837 when it was a mere 6 million miles away. Both the recent Hale-Bopp and Hyakutake were more spectacular, but Halley is Halley.
From Toronto to Sydney was about 20 hours on the plane. I travelled with a non-astronomers tour group. I was the only one with a Telescope.After arriving and touring Sydney, we boarded another flight to Alice Springs, which is in the dead center of the Out back. Then 300 miles by bus to Ayers Rock, where the best views were.
With no Moon, you can see your shadow on the ground from just the combined light of all the stars. Dark skies you would die for. Armed with a Takahashi camera mount I took some 100 pictures, I got only about a dozen or so that were keepers. Wind, was a problem as was the soft desert sand. It took me a couple of days to realize that my tripod was sinking in the sand at about the same speed as RA and DEC!
One night when the tourists had gone back to the Hotel some 30 miles away, I stayed by myself, all alone with my telescope. At about 1:00 am the whole sky clouded over. It was as dark as ink,and you literately could not see your hand in front of your face, and deadly quite. I heard a rustling in the bushes near me, then all around me.... so I started to whistle and sing (I can't do either) as the rustling got louder, so did my singing. Then at about 4:00 it began to clear and I went back to taking pictures.
I was told later that I must have been surrounded by a pack of Dingos!
I'm glad I didn't know.
