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For some reason, my interest in watching SC2 went up in the previous moths - in sort of an anti-correlation with my interest in playing it since Blizzard deemed all my computers unworthy of such activity - but it was also not only watching, but I also increased my level of reading articles, looking up fact on players and shitposting in LRs. It was a really cool time, however it ended in a kind of an anti-climax when I wasn't able to watch Blizzcon at all due to a combination of bad internet and better things to do in real life. I still feel a little bit sad about it (and a little guilty about having lost my first sigbet and not posting anything afterwards, I am probably gonna extend that voluntarily for that reason) - on the other hand, the real life was not that bad either.
October 30 saw me leaving for Argentina once again. This time I took four days off in Buenos Aires, rented a car and made it the most packed birdwatching session of my life. I really was only sleeping, driving or taking pictures, with just a very occasional stop to get gas and a couple of cookies on a petrol station. I drove roughly 1300 kilometers, saw roughly 120 bird species and added almost 40 of them to my life list.
The Entre Rios province around the Parana and Uruguay rivers is just out of this world! I knew of some small places like that, where you have some wetlands attracting birds, but there you have literally thousands of square kilometers of that - and while most of the area of interest is either private property or completely impassable, a pretty huge part is still easily accessible on some dirt roads. However the highlight of the trip was surely my late-evening arrival to the El Palmar national park, as the road was on many places blocked by sleeping Capybaras and the amount of Viscachas running around the campsite made it hard to find a place for a tent. Argentinean wildlife at its best indeed! The park is pretty cool during daytime too, the palm landscape looks unreal, but the atmosphere of the night was really memorable.
Then the fun partly ended and I had to fly and drive to Malargue for some work at the Pierre Auger Observatory. Changing the hydraulic pump that opens and closes the roof above our telescope however proved to be a fun activity and as we were pretty much soaked in the oil, we had a lot of good laughs. However the best part was when we came back in the evening, removed the CCD camera and made a stargazing session using the 30-cm telescope itself. The southern sky has some real gems that are unparalleled in the northern one!
The following days I became submerged in data processing work, because - as usual - my colleagues back at home did not really feel the pressure of the impeding presentation over the distance as much as I did looking at the conference center from very close by. It was an intense couple of days, but all the problems of the analysis have been found and finally, after six years during which I have been making sure that the telescope works properly, we are able to provide relevant data that can be used to calibrate the astro-particle data taken by the whole Observatory. A feeling of having achieved something useful is rather rare in science, but it is nevertheless satisfying.
  
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Seems like you had a blast! I envy your IRL passion. Thanks for sharing bro!
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Can you recommend some interesting stellar objects that you can see with binoculars (including shaking hands) from the southern hemisphere? Assuming you find a dark spot. I know about the Magellan clouds, but is there anything else you can see without a telescope?
The oil repair sounds fun. 
I understand what you mean with achieving something useful... I think it's more satisfying as you know how rare it is, and how much work and expertise goes into it.
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For binoculars, the whole Milky way is awesome. The southern half is actually not that rich in large-telesope object, but it is the richer in open star clusters that are great for binoculars. Just scan along the bright band and you'll see.
For specific things, Sagitarius is obviously great, center of the galaxy means a lot of stuff to see. M8-Lagoon is already visible from north, but much better from south, even in binoculars you can see the nebulosity around the star cluster. Then there are some really impressive open clusters, such as M6, M7 and the area of "Table of Scorpius" at the southernmost part of Scorpius.
Moving further, the eta-Carinae nebula should be accessible to binoculars, with the Y-shaped dark nebula which is pretty extensive. You can also just check the Southern Cross and see the huge black "Coal sack" dark nebula in there and again a couple of great open clusters.
Two greatest globular clusters are on the southern sky, but in binoculars, they will be probably just a hazy blob - 47 Tuc and omega Cen. From a dark spot, I can immediately identify both of them because they are less sharp than a star would be.
Finally don't forget the Great Orion Nebula M42 - this one is easily seen also in the north, but it is worth looking at from any latitude as it is simply amazing.
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On November 16 2015 23:29 opisska wrote:
For binoculars, the whole Milky way is awesome. The southern half is actually not that rich in large-telesope object, but it is the richer in open star clusters that are great for binoculars. Just scan along the bright band and you'll see.
For specific things, Sagitarius is obviously great, center of the galaxy means a lot of stuff to see. M8-Lagoon is already visible from north, but much better from south, even in binoculars you can see the nebulosity around the star cluster. Then there are some really impressive open clusters, such as M6, M7 and the area of "Table of Scorpius" at the southernmost part of Scorpius.
Moving further, the eta-Carinae nebula should be accessible to binoculars, with the Y-shaped dark nebula which is pretty extensive. You can also just check the Southern Cross and see the huge black "Coal sack" dark nebula in there and again a couple of great open clusters.
Two greatest globular clusters are on the southern sky, but in binoculars, they will be probably just a hazy blob - 47 Tuc and omega Cen. From a dark spot, I can immediately identify both of them because they are less sharp than a star would be.
Finally don't forget the Great Orion Nebula M42 - this one is easily seen also in the north, but it is worth looking at from any latitude as it is simply amazing.
That's great information, thanks! 
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EPT
