ARKAROOLA ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATORY: North Flinders Ranges

At Akaroola in the State's far north everything seems big. Each day the open top four wheel drives take a never ending stream of sightseers along razor back ridges and up the peaks of some of the most rugged mountains in outback Australia. And after a bone rattling four hour trip, wearly bodies and ravenous appetites crave some pampering.

"Thank you very much"

"And now the brave time comes for the emu"

"Thank you"

"And there we go too"

This is your classic banquet in the bush where the manager of the Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary, Doug Sprigg holds court on a part of the world which he's truly passionate about. But Doug's a big picture man and when night falls over this part of the Flinders Ranges he loves nothing better than to take his patrons from a star lit dinner to a truly intergalactic experience.

Inside one of Australia's largest privately owned Astronomical Observatory, Doug plays a few mind games with these debutante stargazers, so that they'll have a greater appreciation about what they're about to see.

"That's ten million times a million kilometres - that's a totally incomprehensible distance. So if you're getting confused then you're doing very, very well. If you think you can comprehend the distance of a light year you've lost the plot completely. Now it's like the national debt, it is beyond comprehension".

With his audience totally bewildered by the vastness of the Universe, he then takes them outside where they now feel even a little smaller.

"OK, so you are away"

"So we're looking for stars and things".

These Star Chairs allow guests to indulge in some hands-on exploration of deep space. It may evoke memories of the dentist, but within minutes the operator has been pulled beyond Arkaroola's orbit into Doug's world of absorption nebulae and globular clusters.

"About a million stars a spherical cluster of stars about two hundred light years in diameter".

All of this whets the appetite for the real thing Arkaroola's computer driven Celstron telescope with a data base of eight thousand deep space objects and plants. The computer coordinates guide the telescope to the great spiral galaxy and the constellation of Andromeda.

"This is a spiral galaxy like the Milky Way that we live in. It's the nearest one to our Milky Way, 2.3 million light years to that Galaxy and uhmm to our eyes it's open apparent star, in a group of stars we call the constellation of Andromeda".

With images like this to be found these novices are hooked just as Doug was when his father Reg first built the observatory. And over the years this night owl has stayed up throughout the wee hours in search of photographic images like these.

Doug conducts nightly tours of the Arkaroola Astronimical Observatory. It costs just over $20 per person. A night in the recently refurbished Mawson Lodge costs $125.00. For details contact 1800-676-042. For more information email info@postcards.sa.com.au