In November of this year, one of my advisors, Zlatko Tsvetanov and I went back to the Anglo-Australian telescope to continue our SDSS quasar project using the 2dF instrument on the AAT (see this page for the last time we went to Australia).   We began in Sydney, then drove out to Coonabarabran and the telescope, after which I flew up to Cairns for 3 days, and then down to Melbourne.  As always, see the map:

Here are some pictures I took while on the 12.5 hour ride down to Sydney from San Francisco.  The long flight wasn't nearly so bad this time, and I was awake enough at times to catch some interesting sights:

A great sunrise over the South Pacific

View of Sydney central, just before landing

Some shots from the observatory catwalk, just before sunset:

  

And then, up to the north, and the Great Barrier Reef:

It was almost summer in Australia, and much of the country was under drought/fire warnings.  Here are the hills just west of Cairns, burning.

And finally, a view from the dive boat, across the edge of Thetford Reef out to the Pacific.

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12/05/02