I surprised him with a visit to the Sydney Observatory. Neither of us had been there before. We were so lucky as the weather last night was perfect, not a cloud in the sky!

First they took us into the 3D room where we watched three short videos about space. The first was the best as it put all the planets side by side to show their comparative sizes. It went beyond our solar system and showed some massive stars and what appeared to be other 'suns' that we so much larger than the sun. Actually, to be honest, the whole size thing was hard to comprehend!

Then we were taken to the southern telescope. Through this we were able to see Alpha Centauri. I have searched through 'Google Images' to find images that are similar to what we saw through the telescopes.

We then looked at Crux, more specifically Beta Crux (the second brightest star of the Crux constalation). Here we saw the Jewel Box.

We then moved to the northern telescope. This was the most exciting part, the tour leader told us we would be looking at Saturn!!! I was so excited but I was worried about how clear it would be. Would we even be able to see the ring? The tour leader set up the telescope and had a look through. He said it looked good and that we could also see one of Saturns moon Titan. I found this image on the web and this is very very close to what we saw. It was this clear and just above the planet was a very bright light which was the moon.

So cool!

On a different note, I am watching the Washington subway train footage on our news program. For my US visitors, I hope none of you have loved ones involved, and that they are able to rescue all quickly and save as many as they can. My thoughts are with them.

Sam x-o-x