Australia by Bicycle - page 9
Forty days' bike tour across Australia, by Jan Boonstra.
Crossing the Tropic of Capricorn
As a land surveyor, a map-o-holic and an amateur astronomer, I could not just cross the Tropic of Capricorn without stopping and realizing that I stood at the southernmost limit of the tropics. For me, this was an important landmark. The point, however, didn’t mark a change in weather.
Many times I could see proof of my southward track by observing the stars during my night and dawn rides. At around 2:30 to 4 o'clock in the morning, the two stars Acrux and Becrux were on a horizontal line at a certain moment. Then I estimated the elevation of this line above the southern horizon, using my fingers with a stretched arm. Near Katherine, this line was just above the horizon. These days I measure elevations of about 15 degrees.
Interesting links referring to the subject:
There is also a complete daily log of this tour, but only in Dutch.
