After my first star gazing experience at a university research station at Fowler's Gap, Australia 15 years ago I've been itching to go star gazing again. It was a magnificent and unforgettable sight, exactly like the pictures you see on the web.

Yesterday I took advantage of the long weekend break to go star gazing at one of Australia's Dark Sky Parks in Warrumbungle National Park. Everything about that weekend met the criteria for the perfect viewing of the milky way: moon had already set, no clouds, southern long winter night, class 1 on the bortle scale. After trying to adjust my eyesight to the darkness, the view I had was a little bit disappointing. There were plenty of stars but I could not see the galactic centre, the hazy streak was very faint and not as luminous. I sat there for over an hour hoping for the night sky to transform into something beautiful but unfortunately it didn't.

Can someone tell me what I did wrong so I can justify organising another road trip to the Dark Sky Park in the next couple of years...