The Cosmos Centre in Charleville, Queensland offers the opportunity to view stars and planets that are literally out of this world.

Last night was crystal clear and even the sliver of moon disappeared to give us a dark, dark night and the best viewing conditions.

The roof slid open above us to display the brilliant night sky.

Our guide pointed out some stars and spoke of the distance between ‘them’ and ‘us’. For instance, the closest star to us, Alpha Centauri, is 4 light years away – that’s how long it takes for the light from that star to reach us. Now consider that light travels at around 360,000 kilometres a second, multiply that by how many seconds there are in 4 years and that’s how far away that star is. Totally incomprehensible to me!

There’s more information about the outback sky here.

Although I was more impressed with my natural view of the stars than that through the 3 large telescopes in use it was an interesting evening made even more so by the enthusiasm of the staff at the centre.

Another thing ticked off my bucket list!