Thursday 28th May - Warrumbungles

Thursday 28^th May

On Thursday we went to Crystal Kingdom there are lots of crystals in Crystal Kingdom. We saw fossilised leaves, crystals that looked like raspberries.

These are the raspberry crystals.

These are fossilised leaves.

 After Crystal Kingdom we drove up a mountain to get to the observatory up the top. On the way up we saw models of Jupiter, Earth, Mars Mercury.

This is Jupiter.

This is Earth.

Mum's note: 
The Coonabarabran area boasts two extinct volcanoes. The first was the Garrawilla, which is responsible for the amazing crystal formations that can be found locally. The crystals have grown so large because lava from Garrawilla took 1000 years to cool down!

At the Siding Spring Observatory we got to see the 3.9m aperture Anglo-Australian Telescope and we learned about the effect of gravity on weight.

Siding Spring Observatory - the Anglo-Australian telescope dome.

The Anglo-Australian telescope in daytime parked position.

Feeling the different weights of a litre carton of milk on the planets of our solar system.

Isabel discovering what she weighs on Earth as well as what she would weigh if she was standing on the Moon, Mars, Jupiter or the Sun. Mummy tried this. The Earth weight lies...... Earth could not have possibly gained that much gravity! :)

After lunch we drove through the Warrumbungles, stopped for a walk to the Whitegum lookout, and then drove on to Lightning Ridge. There are a number of fascinating rock formations in the Warrumbungles – the result of magma solidifying in vents and cracks, and then the softer surrounding rock having been eroded away to expose the formations. These are from the second and much younger extinct volcano in the area, the Warrambungle volcano.

Whitegum lookout in the Warrumbungles.
The unusual formations are in the background. The humidity was too high to get a good close up.