Cosmos Centre and Observatory - Charleville

The Cosmos Centre and Observatory is located at the Charleville Visitor Information Centre on Qantas Drive Charleville, Queensland. This is a really interesting place to visit and they were offering four different experiences:

• Introduction to the Night Sky
• Two hour Observatory Session
• Astronomy by Day
• Sun Viewing

We participated in the several sessions and learnt how to find the stars at night, looking through powerful telescopes during the Observatory Session to see Saturn, a star cluster and various other objects in the night sky. The Observatory Session was very well run with plenty of enthusiasts on hand to help you to find the correct object. 

The next morning we went back to the Cosmos Centre to view the sun - the day was a little cloudy but we were able to get glimpses of the sun and see the gas bouncing off the outer surface - black spots that look tiny but are bigger than earth - amazing.

There is also a interactive centre located within the building and we attended a talk on the universe, galaxy etc and were able to see some meteorites that have been purchased by the centre for display. We saw a piece of space junk that had fallen to earth (found in the area) and has been identified as a fuel cell from a rocket - made of titanium and able to withstand the heat of re-entry. Fascinating stuff and quite mind-blowing how much is out there

The cafe at the Cosmos Centre is very funky - all things are served with a space theme - cream came in a star shaped dish - scone had a toothpick with a star on the end - napkins folded and sealed with sparkling stickers - a lot of fun. By the way these were the best scones we had tried on our trip.