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Carolyn's first two
astronomy lectures covered South American skies and introduced the attendees
to some of the deep-sky wonders to be found among the Southern Hemisphere
constellations.
Her third lecture took listeners to visit the planets Mars, Jupiter, and
Saturn, stars, galaxies, quasars, and black holes. Her final session
was a Q&A discussion on topics ranging from the Earth's precession to
the first 3 minutes of the universe.
Late in the cruise, the Moon, Jupiter,
and Saturn made a lovely scene over the Chilean fjords just after sunset,
with Orion as a glittering backdrop and the Milky Way stretching high
overhead.
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Star parties were held
on the top observation deck of the ship. The first and last two nights were
the best for stargazing — warm, not too windy and the sky was
gorgeous!
In fact, we fell in love with Southern Hemisphereskies! Photographs from a moving ship just don't do them
justice.
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The farther south we
went, the colder it got! Woolies, hats, gloves, and jackets became the
clothes of choice for hardy sea-going stargazers! Altogether we had 8 viewing
nights where it wasn't too windy, cold, rainy, or
light-polluted.
The most popular sky
sights were Southern Cross and the Magellanic Clouds. The Milky Way, Omega
Centauri, and Eta Carinae looked great through a pair of 10 x 50 binoculars.
Familiar northern star patterns slipped farther north and eventually the
Southern Cross was slightly north of overhead!
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