What is a Dark Sky Park?<\/h2>\n
What on earth is a Dark Sky Park<\/a>? According to the International Dark-Sky Association, it\u2019s a place to see our and other universes with uncommon clarity; a nocturnal viewing environment so exceptional that it warrants protection from light pollution. Other esteemed members of the Dark-Sky posse include Joshua Tree (USA) and Jasper (Canada) national parks.<\/p>\n\n Siding Spring Observatory<\/a> surveys the gargantuan Warrumbungle landscape and skyscape from a 1200-metre-high ridgeline on the national park\u2019s edge. About 40 telescopes of varying sizes sprinkle the bush, giving the observatory the air of a Rebel base in a Star Wars film. Some are remotely operated from places far, far away, too, such as Hungary and Japan. Armed with its 3.9-metre mirror, the Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT) is undoubtedly Siding Spring\u2019s mothership. Australia\u2019s largest optical telescope can \u2018see\u2019 quasars (gas revolving around a \u2018supermassive\u2019 black hole) up to 12 billion light years away.<\/p>\n The starry night sky lights up Belougery Spire.<\/p><\/div>\n Keeping the Dark Sky Park dark is the Warrumbungle\u2019s very own Prince of Darkness, Siding Spring director Dr Chris Lidman. The observational cosmologist monitors \u2018scattered light\u2019 from nearby settlements like Dubbo<\/a> and tells them off if they glow too brightly. Even the astronomers\u2019 bedrooms here wear mandatory black-out shades. Dr Chris says the high-and-dry perfect storm of Warrumbungle darkness is as good as he experienced working in the higher and dryer climate of Chile\u2019s Atacama Desert.<\/p>\n\n While you can\u2019t stare into the ATT itself, Dark Sky Traveller<\/a> tours navigates you around the incredible six-storey beast. The scope of what this \u2018scope does is mind-wobbling. Often the astronomers just explore exosolar planets (outside our solar system). Sometimes they snap on the multimillion-dollar 2dF \u2018top end\u2019, which can \u201clook at 400 objects at once\u201d, to try to measure the properties of \u2018dark energy\u2019.<\/p>\n\n The control room\u2019s delightfully retro dials and knobs look like a moon-landing film set, way less cluttered than it used to be now that they\u2019ve cleared the half-room of computers it took to operate the ATT back in 1974. In theory, your iPhone can do it nowadays.<\/p>\n A walk around the outside of the dome offers cosmic daytime vistas up to the volcanic landscape\u2019s crown of jagged outcrops, the Grand High Tops, standing illustrious like giants with wisdom to impart. Meet them face to face on one of the national park\u2019s invigorating trails, such as the Breadknife and Grand High Tops walk<\/a> or the shorter Fans Horizon Walking Track. As nightfall approaches, wind down the World\u2019s Largest Virtual Solar System Drive<\/a> \u2013 featuring three-dimensional billboards of the planets \u2013 into Coonabarabran\u2019s foothills, where a cluster of cosmos connoisseurs are itching to show you the universe.<\/p>\n The sun rising over the Breadknife and Grand High Tops walking track in Warrumbungle National Park.<\/p><\/div>\n Check into family-friendly Skywatch Observatory B&B<\/a>, a comfortable two-bedroom space complemented by a relaxed high-ceilinged entertaining area featuring co-owner Merrill Sana\u2019s abstract \u201cpaintings of music\u201d. Outside, underneath Skywatch\u2019s own dome (built as a mini-sister to Siding Spring in 1994), a retro mini-golf course quirkily sets the scene for tonight\u2019s astral adventures.<\/p>\n\n Co-owner Gary Erikson, who fell in love with astronomy at eight-years-old \u201cwhen the moon landing blew my mind on our little six-inch TV\u201d, is happy to stay up late to give you a guided tour of the sky and a Big-Bang lesson through his 14-inch Meade telescope. \u201cAstronomy is a numbers thing, but I want to show people the beauty of the stars, awaken them to the sky. People always go away with much brighter eyes than when they started.\u201d<\/p>\n\n A few minutes\u2019 drive away, Warrumbungle Observatory<\/a> offers an abridged astronomy refresher-course projected onto the side of one of its domes before all eyes turn skyward through one of Peter Starr\u2019s telescopes. If you think Starr is an uncanny aptronym, the astronomer and former Siding Spring site manager says he\u2019s \u201cworked with a Moon and a Stella before\u201d.<\/p>\n The Milky Way radiating over eucalypts.<\/p><\/div>\n As crickets softly chirp, the dome whirrs quietly open. We focus on a spiral galaxy not unlike ours, except it\u2019s 20 million light years away, 100,000 light years in diameter. We pan across to the relatively close Orion Nebula \u2018four-star system\u2019 then find the spectral Tarantula Nebula located in a dwarf galaxy known as the Large Magellanic Cloud.<\/p>\n\n Closer to Earth, Elon Musk\u2019s Starlink satellites drift across the night sky every 10 minutes, according to Peter, who can show you how to take a long-exposure, colour-rich photograph of your favourite phenomena.<\/p>\n Pockets of dark-sky worshippers are cropping up across the New South Wales outback from Narrabri<\/a> and Parkes to Wilcannia and White Cliffs.<\/p>\n\n By day, Australia\u2019s first Heritage-listed city, Broken Hill<\/a>, is its own eccentric universe ripe for exploration \u2013 home to Art Deco Bell\u2019s Milk Bar<\/a> (complete with rooftop, Martian-manned flying saucer) and art galleries of far-out character.<\/p>\n\n The short drive out to Silverton<\/a>, home to one of Australia\u2019s most famous pubs and landscapes (Silverton Hotel<\/a> stars in Priscilla, Queen of the Desert and Mad Max 2), feels like an interplanetary road-trip.<\/p>\n The martian-manned flying saucer on the roof of Bell\u2019s Milk Bar in Broken Hill.<\/p><\/div>\n By nightfall, some 10 kilometres out of the Hill, Outback Astronomy Tours<\/a> \u2013 based in an ex-Royal Flying Doctor Service building \u2013 takes a laid-back approach to astronomy, quite literally. Drink in the impossibly immense sky on a sunlounge (or is it a moonlounge?), with a nice glass of wine in your right hand, binoculars in your left. Start with a \u2018Sunset Sizzle\u2019 or order a snack plate of relatively closely sourced goodies if you\u2019re peckish.<\/p>\n\n Owner Linda Nadge says you shouldn\u2019t rush straight to the telescope so you can \u201cstart to enliven your senses to the natural environment\u201d. She even welcomes a little snooze in her late-night 90-minute experience, but the sensory overload makes that nigh impossible. \u201cSeeing the real sky with understanding eyes makes some people shed tears,\u201d says Linda. \u201cGuests tell us they\u2019re unsure whether it\u2019s joy or despair.\u201d<\/p>\n\n Except during heavy cloud cover, each night\u2019s sky has something to offer, even when the Milky Way isn\u2019t radiating. Linda knows where the crowd faves are (or aren\u2019t) on any given evening, but be prepared for things she cannot immediately explain.<\/p>\n A group prepares for their astral adventure with Ouback Astronomy.<\/p><\/div>\n \u201cWe see meteors and great fireballs quite often,\u201d says Linda. \u201cWe once saw a huge fireball streak across the sky. Some of it seemed to break off; the remnants were found in Lake Eyre. The strangest object [I\u2019ve seen] was just a white cloudy thing, visually about the size of the moon. It was probably frozen liquid oxygen from a Cape Canaveral launch,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n Inevitably, the question arises; the one outback astronomers are often asked: is there life on other planets?<\/p>\n\n \u201cAbsolutely,\u201d Linda says. \u201cWe\u2019d be fools to think otherwise, based on statistics and probability alone. Life could have evolved and become extinct somewhere around us and we may never find out.<\/p>\n\n The first \u2018life\u2019 we discover probably won\u2019t be aliens flying spaceships, but microbial life, quite possibly within our own solar system.\u201d<\/p>\n\n There are no stupid questions out here, and the answers still blow even the astronomers\u2019 minds. The more you look up into the outback\u2019s dark, starry skied possibilities, the more you\u2019ll see. And eyes and minds once opened cannot be closed.<\/p>\n A Mad Max-inspired VW beetle sits outside the iconic Silverton Hotel.<\/p><\/div>\n REX<\/a>\u00a0flies from Sydney to Dubbo and Broken Hill. Rent a car at Dubbo for the two-hour drive to Warrumbungle National Park. Join the Half Day City Heritage Explorer tour with Away Tours<\/a> in Broken Hill to see more of the Heritage-listed town. awaytours.com.au<\/p>\n Skywatch Observatory<\/a>\u00a0costs $150 per night and includes a country breakfast. Retreat to Broken Hill Outback Resort<\/a>\u2019s comfortable cabins after your nighttime adventures.<\/p>\n Star trekkers can retreat to Broken Hill Outback Resort after their astronomic adventures.<\/p><\/div>\n Start your tour of the universe in Dubbo at the Dubbo Observatory<\/a> Dark Sky Traveller runs daytime tours of Siding Spring Observatory every Thursday and Saturday, or visit during Starfest<\/a> over the October long weekend. To see the astronomy experiences on offer at Warrumbungle Observatory visit Tenby Observatory.<\/a>\u00a0Hang out with the Stars is Outback Astronomy\u2019s most popular sky show and runs from Thursday to Sunday in winter. Pop into Parkes to see the CSIRO Radio Telescope<\/a>, star of the movie The Dish, or the six 22-metre antennas used for radio astronomy at Narrabri Observatory<\/a>.<\/p>\n![\"Belougery](\"https:\/\/s1.at.atcdn.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Untitled-3.jpg\")
Prince of Darkness<\/h2>\n
The Grand High Tops<\/h2>\n
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Astral adventures<\/h2>\n
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The dark-sky landscape<\/h2>\n
![\"Bell's](\"https:\/\/s1.at.atcdn.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Bells.jpg\")
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![\"Silverton](\"https:\/\/s1.at.atcdn.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Silverton-Hotel.jpg\")
Details<\/h2>\n
Getting there<\/h3>\n
Staying there<\/h3>\n
![\"Broken](\"https:\/\/s1.at.atcdn.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/DNSW.jpg\")
Stargazing there<\/h3>\n