Star Trek Australian Style

‘Every molecule in our body contains matter that was once subject to the tremendous pressures at the centre of a star. That’s where the iron in our blood cells comes from. It’s really cause for inspiration’ — Dr Victor Gostin

On a balmy evening, I recently watched the awesome sight of the sunset, and the moonrise over the Pinnacles. Slowly as the sky darkened, the solar system and our milky way dotted the sky above.

An article in Travel WA Shortcuts had caught my eye, “Back to Astronavigation”. Since moving to WA, I always wanted to learn the major constellations and stars visible in the Southern Hemisphere. So I signed up!

At a training night in Perth, we learned how to use a compass, the movement of the stars, the basic constellations and determination of south using the night sky. With my head full of lubber lines, and azimuths, I looked forward to our desert star trek. I read up on latitude, longitude, declination, hour angles, zenith, horizon and how 16^th century explorers sailed around the globe using celestial navigation. I bought a torch and dusted off my hiking boots and daypack.

Fourteen of us met at the rock lobster fishing town of Cervantes, 230 kilometres north of Perth. After another theory session and BBQ, we headed to Nambung National Park, home of the amazing Pinnacle Desert. This fascinating moonscape of coloured quartz is studded with fantastic limestone pillars, some 4 metres tall rising out of the shifting sands. The park covers 404 hectares.

We wandered about this intriguing place and enjoyed a fantastic sunset. Out west the ocean a blinding platinum under the setting sun.

Donning backpacks, compasses and torches we trekked to our starting point in the desert. Tiny twig like pieces of calcified limestone crunched underfoot. The sky above was cloudless, a perfect night for astronavigation.

It was the weekend of the Autumn Equinox when the Sun rises exactly in the east travels through the sky for 12 hours and sets exactly in the west. On the Equinox this is the motion of the Sun through the sky for everyone on earth. Every place on earth experiences a 12 hour day twice a year on the Spring and Autumn Equinox.

Celestial navigation, also known as astronavigation, is a position fixing technique that was devised to help sailors cross the featureless oceans without having to rely on random chance to enable them to strike land. The Sun is most often measured. Skilled navigators can use the Moon, planets or one of 57 ‘navigational stars’ whose coordinates are tabulated in nautical almanacs.

Divided into groups of 3 and 4 we set out to navigate our way around a course. We found south using The Southern Cross, The Pointers in the constellation of Centarus, and stars Canopus and Achernar. We plotted our course and set out pacing the distance to our first marker.

Groups are in radio contact with base camp and can ask for assistance if lost or disoriented. One of our group came extremely well prepared with a headlight attached to the top of his baseball hat, a headlight on his forehead and a hand-held GPS attached to his pack. It took almost three hours to complete our allocated course; we managed this without a compass or radioing for assistance.

The night ended on a high. Sadly we trekked back to our cars leaving the magical night to the nocturnal inhabitants of the desert.

This article was written by Jean Hudson who came on the astronavigation trip in March. It was published in The West Australian on May 3rd.