djb@cbosgd.UUCP (David J. Bryant) (07/01/85)
For information about Comet Halley tours pick up any recent issue of
"Sky & Telescope". I recall seeing at least five or six ads for different
tour companies in the last issue. All manner of tours and destinations
are represented from land trips to Australia, Africa, and South America
to cruises all over. Be careful though - some of the tours seem to be
packages thrown together by random travel agencies that might have little
or no knowledge about what's important to astronomers. Others are obviously
astronomy oriented - Sky & Telescope, for example, has endorsed one trip
which is bound for Australia. As you can imagine, prices will vary depending
on the destination and length of the trip.
I'm in the process of making detailed plans for an extended (4 weeks) trip
to Australia and New Zealand. Round trip air fare from San Francisco to
Australia (Sydney or Cairns) is $1296 per person APEX (unless you wait to
leave the U.S. on or after April 1st, when the fair drops to $996). For me,
I have to cough up another $300 to get from my home in Columbus, OH to
San Francisco and back, plus another $350 for various air travel in Australia
and New Zealand (we'll visit Cairns, Darwin, Alice Springs, Sydney and
Christchurch NZ). This makes total per-person air fare about $1950. You can
figure per diem expenses for normal stuff (food, etc.) on top of that.
(First Order Guess: 30 days at $100/day makes $3000, for a total of about
$5000 per person as an upper bound.)
I won't go into the "gosh, do I need to go all the way to Australia" argument
here. If you're seriously interested in the analysis that lead to my own
personal conclusion (plus some pointers to good references in the literature),
let me know by email. Needless to say, I'm convinced it's worth it from both
a personal travel perspective and as a astronomer very interested in seeing
Comet Halley (and lots of other wonderful southern hemisphere astronomical
delights).
* *
David Bryant
AT&T Bell Laboratories
* Columbus, OH 43213
* (614) 860-4516
* .
: djb@cbosgd.UUCP
cbosgd!djb@Berkeley.ARPA
* *