Adelaidians - sunset or nightscape places?

[iceman]

I'm heading to Adelaide for work on Wednesday night, staying 2 nights (Wed and Thu night).

If the weather is good, the Moon phase is good for some nightscapes, or even some sunset or sunrise shoot on one of the mornings.

I'm planning on taking just 1 tripod and 1 camera with 2 lenses, so fairly light.

I'll be staying at Waymouth St in the city, and won't have a car :)


Where is good for nightscapes, and how far away is it?
Where is good for sunsets or sunrises, and how far away?
Anyone want to catch up and be my chauffeur? :)

[deanm]

Google 'Windy Point': the car park & lookout adjacent to the eponymous (& outstanding!) restaurant has stunning night views Northwest & West to the coast across squillions of streetlights far below..

About 15 km from CBD.

I'd don my chauffeur hat, but unfortunately the limo is off the road until next week: Sorry!

Dean

[iceman]

Like this? http://www.flickr.com/photos/87942189@N08/8042684173/
Looks like a nice spot to go if it's cloudy.

I imagine you wouldn't see many stars from there though :)

Anywhere else with a darker sky? :)

[deanm]

That's the place - fireworks every evening, of course!

A nice spot to go (cloudy or not) is the restauant next door....

As with any city, real dark skies need a drive out of town.

Dean

[rmuhlack]

Despite Adelaide's reputation as just a big country town, you won't find anywhere easily accessible with dark skies without driving out to the countryside - difficult without a car.

In the city, you could try for some night shots along North Terrace (around the State Library, SA Museum, SA Art Gallery, and Uni Adelaide/UniSA precinct. Another option could be around the National Wine Centre and Bicentenial Conservatory (next to the Wine Centre in the Adelaide Botanic Gardens. Looking west from Hackney Road (near the corner of Botanic Rd) could be an interesting city location for a sunset/moonset shot, With the National Wine Centre building to the left, the National Wine Centre vineyard in front, and the Conservatory behind. (click here (https://maps.google.com.au/maps?q=adelaide&hl=en&ll=-34.918778,138.614802&spn=0.007328,0.015814&sll=-33.796924,150.922433&sspn=1.901246,4.048462&hnear=Adelaide+South+Australia&t=m&z=17&layer=c&cbll=-34.918727,138.614788&panoid=QPzqOp167lG6rITKxZKmUw&cbp=12,283.04,,0,3.36))

For an indoor city location (if you have time during the day), the Adelaide Central Market is a fabulous place to visit. Great food and produce, but a great photo location as well. http://www.adelaidecentralmarket.com.au/

Adelaide beaches also make for great sunset locations. Glenelg, Brighton, and Henley beaches all have jetties. Glenelg is a simple tram ride from the city centre.

The beaches and coast in the southern suburbs are lovely but a little harder to get to without a car. Hallett Cove Conservation Park is on the coast (just next to the Hallett Cove Beach train station). A work friend of mine has taken some great shots there (for example this (http://www.erictheviking.com/Latest%20Images/2012/photos/120311097-109.jpg))

Richard (Adelaidian now living in country NSW)

[deanm]

The Bicententenial Conservatory is certainly a striking structure - looks like a crashed flying saucer!

http://www.redbubble.com/people/jennyb/works/2774504-adelaide-bicentennial-conservatory

And beware - the entire rail network has been shut down until Feb.

[rmuhlack]

Good save there Dean - I hadn't heard that

[swannies1983]

Settle down, it's not quite that bad :P. While some lines are indeed closed (Noarlunga, Tonsley and Belair), the remaining lines are operational. Bus substitutes are available for the closed lines. In addition, the Adelaide Train Station is closed meaning you have to catch a substitute bus. More info here (http://www.infrastructure.sa.gov.au/RR).

[iceman]

I won't be catching trains or buses. If I can't get a chauffeur I'll just get taxi's and claim it on work expenses :)

[RobinClayton]

Adelaide has some beautiful beaches where the sun sets over the ocean, unlike Eastern Australia, where the sun sets over the mountains. Glenelg is a good tourist area and will allow you plenty of opportunity to photograph the streets, or sunset over the ocean. Glenelg is about 10-15Km from city centre.

The tram between the city and Glenelg is operating as usual.

Sorry can not help with sun rise ideas - havent seen one in a very long time. Have read about them - they seem OK - just dont remember seeing one,

[michaellxv]

Mike,

I could take you around on Thursday evening if you like. We could go to one of the beaches, windy point, Mt Lofy if you want a higher spot looking west. You can give me a photography lesson.

Another city location for you would be Montefiore Hill (https://maps.google.com.au/maps?q=Montefiore+Hill,+North+Adela ide,+South+Australia&hl=en&ll=-34.913218,138.594192&spn=0.001711,0.002642&sll=-34.913468,138.593554&sspn=0.003422,0.005284&oq=mon&t=h&hnear=Montefiore+Hill,+North+Adelai de+South+Australia+5006&z=19), nice view over the city could even be good for a sunrise shot.

Michael.

[iceman]

Sounds good Michael - I'll be in touch!

[redbeard]

There is also Mt Barker Summit, the highest point in the Adelaide hills, fantastic views in all directions, 25 min from Mt Lofty. It can be accessed via Nairne which is the closest town near it.

Hope you get some good pics.

Cheers,

Damien.

[gary]

Hi Mike,

By not having a car, you potentially miss out on one novel attraction of the Adelaide
road system. :)

Here is an anecdote of my experience I hope you find amusing.

A couple of years ago, I needed to fly down from Sydney and have a meeting down toward the
southern Adelaide beaches.

Fly in, pick up the rental car at the airport, key in the address in the SatNav and
off we go.

OK says the SatNav, get onto the M2 Southern Expressway. Get to the intersection
of where the entry to the M2 should be, see cars coming off it but can't spot the
entry road to get on. Must have missed it. So I drive around the block and get
back to the same intersection. Damn, for the life of me I still can't spot it.

So I drive around the block again, pull over and study the map of the SatNav.
As an aside I have stopped beside some Adelaide park and there is a sign warning
you that there are snakes in the park. Snakes in a city park!? "Toto, we aren't in Kansas anymore". :lol:
Anyway, I re-program the SatNav and effectively ask it "take me by some
alternative route that isn't on the M2 because it is blocked".

OK. It takes me on a parallel road and I get to my destination and meet with the
people who are hosting my visit.

I tell them my story about not being able to find the entry to the motorway.
"Oh", they tell me, "It is one way between such and such a time and such and such
a time and then reverses to being one way the other way between such and such
a time and such and such a time except on weekends when the times are
different again".

I looked at their faces to see if they were pulling my leg. "You're not joking are you?",
I ask. "No, we are telling the truth" they respond.

Then the obvious question pops in my head about what happens if you happen to
just get on when it is about to reverse. "Oh, there is some dead-time to allow the
last cars to get off before cars can go in the other direction".

This leaves me doubling-up in laughter. :rofl: Being so familiar with the impossible
road congestion in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane and in dozens of other cities
around the world, the notion of a reversible motorway was not part of my driving vocabulary.

At the end of the day Dorothy, Adelaide really is just a big country town. :lol:

http://www.ozroads.com.au/SA/New/2/m2.htm

[michaellxv]

Yes it's true, for the moment. But I wouldn't recommend a drive down it even for the novelty at the moment. Road works on the entire length to duplicate it, 10 speed limit changes in 11km :screwy:

[naskies]

Brisbane had tidal flow traffic systems on Coronation Drive and Houghton Highway for several years in the 2000s...

[gary]

Hi Dave,

Thanks, but I believe you are talking about a common situation like
on the Houghton Bridge where I understand it is three lanes which at
any one time, two go one way and one goes the reverse direction.

By comparsion, the Adelaide M2 Southern Expressway reverses every
single lane.

However, as was mentioned by Michael, apparently they are in the
process of duplicating it so it can have two way flow at all times.

[iceman]

Well I'm in Adelaide (since yesterday evening), and I fought the urge to just go to bed. Thanks to the hospitality of rally, I went and photographed a church and an old shed up in the Adelaide hills, with the backdrop of the Adelaide night sky.

Light pollution isn't too bad even just 20km's out of the city. Of course it's worse pointing directly towards the city but that's to be expected.

Some great views over the city coming down from the Mount Lofty turnoff on the way back. The sky was beautiful and clear last night. Rally commented that it was the best it's been in ages.

Now, it's going to be 42deg today apparently. Glad i'll be in Air-con!

[Paul Haese]

Hi gary, whilst this might be a source of much mirth in the eastern states. I prefer to live here than the hell holes on the east coast. I have lived in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne and I can tell you I prefer the big country town. The population here is much smaller and that means a nicer life.

To be fair with the express way, it being a sore point here in SA even for us, it was built at a time when SA was basically broke after the State bank disaster. At the time it would have only cost another 50 million to duplicate the road but such was the state of coffers that we could not even afford that. Right now it is a nighmare but by 2014 it will be working as it should have from the beginning.

Mike, SA has had good weather for over a month or so now, but with quite a few hot spells. 42 today but couple of weeks ago we had a very hot run. Most likely not anything like you are accustomed to, but it is a pure dry heat which is often better than humidity. A change will move through later and cool down quite a lot. Good luck with your visit here. Perhaps you should have asked your work for a hire car fee. 50 buck a day gets you a pretty reasonable set of wheels at Hertz.

[gary]

Hi Paul,

I was coming down to Adelaide every few weeks and it did not take me long to
come to the realization that the calm, measured pace of life could easily trim
years off a man's life.

I will give you three examples.

When one is new to Adelaide, you will be driving to some destination downtown
and when you are close, but not quite there, you spot a parking space and instinctively
grab it. You then walk the 50m to your destination just to be dismayed to find
there were half a dozen empty spots out front. The anxiety and stress builds
as you ponder whether to go back and move the car right out front. Of course,
after a while, you grow use to being able to park nearly anywhere you want and
before you know it, you are hardly walking anywhere. Also with the $25 in your
wallet that you would have normally required to pay for parking in Sydney, you go
for the double chocolate mud cake for dessert and the lack of exercise and excess
calories quickly lead to chest pains after a few days there.

The lack of traffic and in particular tunnels results in the average Adelaide commuter
getting a tiny fraction of their daily intake of hydrocarbons compared to his Sydney
counterpart. Carbon, as we all know it, is the building block of all life.
Here in Sydney, a slow grind through the Eastern Distributor or M5 East tunnels provides
spades of ethylene, benzene, propene, cyclopentene and methybenzene delivered
straight to the lungs for maximum adsorption and then onto the cellular level
to do their stuff. Don't be surprised if the next evolutionary step in mankind
comes out of Sydney, where the mutations to the DNA will give rise to motorists
with X-Men superpowers.

Finally, as authorities have warned us, speed kills. In Adelaide, at one any one instant,
one is more likely to be doing the gazetted speed
limit. This includes daredevil speeds of 60km/h. If one is driving at such
a speed in downtown Adelaide, tries to dodge a snake crossing the street and
runs into a gum tree, the outcome is almost always fatal. In Sydney though,
they are much smarter, ensuring that you can only drive on roads such as Ryde
Road in the morning at a more sensible 3km/h. Even in the scenario
of a rear-end collision, the results will simply be a bent bumper. Rather than
someone having to die, the Sydney system is much fairer and much more egalitarian.
Whether you are an open heart surgeon that is remunerated thousands of dollars an hour
trying to get to his next operation or a school mum just dropping off the kids in the
Cherokee, everyone gets to where they are going at exactly the same time and 200,000
people each lose one hour of their lives rather than the token sacrifice approach
favoured in less populated cities.

So think carefully. Dark skies may be more abundant and more accessible in Adelaide,
but the equanimity of the place can take years of your life in the most insidious of
ways, without you being aware of it.

Take care! :hi:

[naskies]

Aah, point taken :thumbsup: I've spent about half a year in total (spread out over 5 years) living in Adelaide and I'd have to agree to with Paul - quality of life is very good. It makes me chuckle when the locals complain about the traffic there... what I've seen is still better than Brisbane's main thoroughfares during typical rush hour :)

[Paul Haese]

No probs Gary, I'll take the risk.;)