Sky and Telescope - June 2016 - 34

to more than 25,000 animal species. These include rhino,
leopards, 7 prides of lions, and several hundred bird species, combined with millions of wildebeest migrating
through each year.
Our ﬁrst base was on the western crater rim at Mysigio
Camp (close to Mysigio Village) surrounded by lush
greenery and grazing cattle. I'll never forget gazing out
across the crater for the ﬁrst time. The vast plain of the
crater ﬂoor, with Lake Magadi in its midst, was spotted
with migrating wildebeest and ﬂamingos, while rhinos
basked in the sun, and several lions looked on at the smorgasbord of prey in front of them with seeming delight.
The campsites were far from any town or city, with a
limiting magnitude an astoundingly dark 6.2 - perfect
for observing. At an altitude of about 2,000 feet, our
camp was free of mosquitos, and the skies' transparency
was nearly perfect after sunset. It was clear from the ﬁrst
night that we were in for some spectacular observing.
On arrival we were shown to our tents, though "tent"
is a loose term, as these were more akin to luxury hotel
rooms. Each was the size of a spacious apartment, with
solid wooden beds, washrooms, and separate showers.
Apart from the tent rooms was the "break out" tent,
populated with books covering not only the astronomical aspects of our trip, but also the local ﬂora and fauna.
Drinks, snacks, and solar-powered charging points for
cameras and other electronics were also readily available.

Nights at Ngorongoro
Due to the remoteness and travel time across country,
our observing equipment needed to be lightweight but

NICK HOWES

BIG CATS Several prides of lions
populate the Ngorongoro Conservation Area and Serengeti National
Park. Both observing locations
were well-guarded at night to deter
any nocturnal predators.

Lake
Victoria

Nairobi

Seronera
Serengeti
National Park

Ngorongoro
Conservation
Area
Ngorongoro
Crater

TANZANIA

June 2016 sky & telescope

KEN YA

DAY TRIPS Excursions across the Serengeti National
Park are guaranteed to bring you in close contact with
a variety of fauna, including herds of gazelle.

with enough viewing capability to satisfy even seasoned
observers, and it had to operate for days on battery
power. Since Tanzania is just south of the equator,
polar alignment on equatorial mounts would be tricky
because both poles were very close to the horizon. Our
emphasis was on visual observing as many objects as we
could each night, so we decided to avoid the complexities of equatorial tracking and opted for what turned out
to be a perfect setup for the job: a 130-mm Sky-Watcher
refractor on an alt-az Go To mount. The scope provided
wonderful wide-ﬁeld views of many southern objects,
and the mount did double-duty during the day with a
Solarscope SV50 Hydrogen-alpha solar telescope. Both
scopes provided satisfying views for all our guests, as
well as for many of the local staﬀ and villagers.
Most of the guests would break for a short siesta in the
afternoon after coming back from the daytime adventure
taking in the days' views of lions hunting gazelle or eagles
soaring overhead. Then after cleanup and dinner, a few
of us, along with our Maasai guards (the Maasai lease the
land where the campsite is located), would head out to
prepare for the night's observing activities.
Each evening, we were out ready to observe by about
7 o'clock. The Sun sets at a near-vertical angle near the
equator, so the time between sunset and astronomical twilight is quite short compared to mid-northern
latitudes, and we were observing within 20 minutes.
Generally, we could plan on a good 8-hour stretch of
observing ahead of us. After a quick two-star alignment,
the Sky-Watcher Go To performed superbly, allowing us
to slew to countless targets many of us had never seen
before, night after night.

NICK HOWES

Observing Adventure

Sky and Telescope - June 2016

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