Last minute notice - Blue Mountains, Katoomba Airfield tonight

[mental4astro]

Hi folks,

Fickle are the Gods of chance, and chance has rolled a last minute set of circumstances that make Katoomba Airfield open for us tonight.

Forecast says it will be a clear night all night long for once. Rod at the Airfield says things are windy there now. If it remains breezy tonight we can head to the Swamp camp ground towards the junction of the two runways where it is more sheltered from wind.

I'm looking to get there by 8pm, sunset. If the Swamp is the better option then I'll look to put up a few lights to mark the access point. I'll post a few pics in a short while too.

At this late point, any questions might be best to give me a call, 0410678730 or search for other Katoomba Airfied threads in this forum.

If you haven't been here before, you are most welcome. There's no quitting time other than when you've had enough. We are welcome to stay overnight. You can also crash in the Airfield office building for some shut-eye before heading home. Only thing is the hst gets passed around to cover the gift of a slab for Rod to thank him for the use of the Airfield, :)

Cheers,

[mental4astro]

Heading to the Airfield

Note that some natsav systems call this site "Katoomba Airport", and won't show Katoomba Airfield.

On entering the Airfield's gates, keep to the left hand track - there is no access to the observing field using the other two tracks. Drive past the "no entry" sign and turn right up the hill past the various buildings. The setup slab is on the left once you reach the main runway.

The first pic below shows the route to the Airfield coming from Katoomba. The second pic shows the way to the observing slab on the main runway.

If you have a telescope, bring it along! If all you have are binoculars, brilliant! Bring them! Binos are a fantastic astronomy tool. I always bring my pair. If you don't have a scope, no problem either, we like to share the views through ours.

[mental4astro]

The Swamp


There is one peculiar feature that appears at a few places in the plateaus of the Blue Mountains. These are 'Hanging Swamps'. They are formed courtesy of capillary action. Cracks in the rock that reach down from the very top of the plateau can reach very deep down to natural water courses in the rock or further down into the water table. These cracks draw up water through capillary action all the way up to the top of the plateau, which can be several hundred meters. This water then keeps being drawn up and spreads over the rock if evaporation cannot draw more than is being brought up. When this happens, a 'hanging swamp' is created.

There is one such swamp on the grounds of the Airfield. There is a clearing located in the northern wedge formed by the two runways. This clearing is a natural formation and is where the swamp is located. There must be some mineral brought up by the water that most trees and plants just do not like, and very little actually grows here other than grass as a result.

This clearing is only occassionally boggy too. It is also used by scout troops for camping, as well as other community groups.

If things are a bit breezy tonight, it might be an option to use the swamp camp ground for some shelter from the wind. If there is no one set up on the concrete slab we normally use on the runway due to wind, most likely we would have set up at the swamp camp ground.

[mental4astro]

Forecast update has wind dying down nicely. Humidity down to 33%. Looks like I'll be setting up on the slab, :)

[MortonH]

See you there!

[AG Hybrid]

Sorry Alex. We are currently at Wiruna. The moon is still small next weekend. We would be able to come on Saturday or Sunday if your scheduling another meet.

[Wavytone]

Ye gods, Alex, you will be eaten alive by the mozzies at the swamp at this time of year.

The usual concrete pad is better by far...

[mental4astro]

Pausing for a coffee-

What a night!!

The most transparent I've seen it in years. Blooming marvelous :)

[Wavytone]

Envious.

Yes it was spectacularly clear on the coast too - I had permission for a quick fly at long reef this afternoon and was wondering about how good the night would be.

Might make it in a few months time.

[mental4astro]

This was the best night at the Airfield for a long, long time. Transparency was looking exquisite from the drive up! I cannot remember ever having seen such a clear view of the Blue Mountains range from the M4. I could make out individual trees on the furthest reaches. Truly stunning.

Seeing was not the best, 150X as far as things could be taken - it is summer after all, and asking for stable seeing too was just a little too much. But if you worked within that limit, oh, what a view! The Trapezium of M42 was peppered with a swarm of tiny stars. Not something I've seen many times, even with my 17.5". M42 itself was just delicious. Sooo much detail on offer tonight. One of the two sketches I did this session was of M42. The longer I looked the more and more detail became visible. "When's this going to stop!" I was thinking after two hours at the eyepiece.

Morton and Oleg were able to join me this night on such short notice. We were treated to one very special evening. No dew, the softest of breezes, and plenty of pipistrelles to keep the mozzies away, :)

[mental4astro]

Oh, I should make a special mention of the good folk of SWAAG at Linden Observatory for my mad dash in-and-out of their gathering at sunset. I was meeting up with our friend Steffen briefly, got there a little early and I was so warmly received there :)

Thank you gentlemen for your hospitality, and for putting up with my mad rush through your session. I was a little uneasy about gate crashing and then leaving for another observing site. Please excuse my rudeness this way. I hope the evening was just as wonderful and productive as it was for me , :thanx:

Alex :)

[Robh]

Hi Alex,

It was good to finally meet someone with whom I have had many conversations in the IceInSpace forums. I think you have a reputation here for your helpfulness, enthusiasm and positive attitude.

And yes, we had a very productive evening. The weather was most kind to us at Linden last night. Many of us didn't pack up until about 3am.

Regards, Rob Horvat (President WSAAG)

[Camelopardalis]

Glad to hear you guys got some photons Alex! I'd been lurking out at Wiruna and the transparency was very good both nights :thumbsup: but like you say, the seeing was touch and go :sadeyes: can't have it all :D

[MortonH]

Wonderful night. And for once I didn't miss it! :D

[Allan_L]

Versus



Hmm!

[Steffen]

Alex (and all who went to the Airfield), what was your impression of the Hydro Majestic light pollution? Is it an issue at all?

Cheers
Steffen.

[MortonH]

Sorry Allan!

[mental4astro]

I made a point of looking at the Hydro on my way up to check out the situation of lighting. Not good with a lot of light just thrown up into the sky around two buildings, the 'Casino' and an old building on site. I can see why this is annoying the neighbours.

From the Airfield itself, I could not see any ill affects. The Hydro and its lights sit behind the clump of trees around the entrance to the Airfield. Mind you, this night was an exceptionally clear one, with very low humidity. Any effects of the lights would be more significant with less favourable conditions. This particular night might not have been the best then to evaluate the extent of the problem.

I left the Airfield at 5am - still dark. I had other things on my mind at the time so i missed checking to see if the Hydro had turned off these lights. Bugger.

[AG Hybrid]

Don't feel bad Allan. At least people turn up to your site with 20"+ scopes on a regular basis.

[Allan_L]

Not a problem Morton.:thumbsup:


True Adrian. But no 28" this time, but we did have Arthur's 16"SW and Allan's 12"Zambuto powered Orion.
:lol:
Next Sunday night (Aust Day Long weekend) I believe there will be the 28" Wild Thing (28"/F3.3 SDM) and 14"/F4.5 Zambuto powered SDM

Are you busy then? ;)

[AG Hybrid]

I will most certainly be there my friend. After looking through the 25" at Wiruna this past weekend I'm getting that aperture fever feeling. My wallet and back are saying don't do it though.
I'd like to meet Jobn B as well. Talk **** about Televue> Pentax or something that will get him excited. Like how SCT's out perform Newtonian's. Regardless of whether I believe what I'll be saying. :P

[andyc]

Damn! wish I'd seen this thread earlier, would've headed to the airfield. I finished up near Nowra under lovely clear skies, but with 95% humidity, and a terrible battle with dew all night. Learned a lesson about checking appropriate weather charts for if I need to consider dew management!

Can't make any events this weekend though, other plans - pity, as the 28" sounded awful tempting for a look through... hope you all have clear skies :)

[Allan]

It's easy to fire John up if you start saying TeleVue are better then Pentax, it's good sport IMO.

[Wavytone]

Hehe you've learned something. Been there done that, 30 years ago, as far as Nowra, Berry and the hinterland. There's really nowhere down south any good for observing... the microclimate near the coast is bad enough with salt-laden moist air (sea breeze) and inland the farmland means dark, rich soils with loads of water = dew, really seriously bad dew. What's more the escarpment doesn't help either, I'm not sure why, whether it's hanging swamps or whatever, it still dewy and the transparency very poor at night.

To escape dew look for dry sandstone country, ideally national park, so it's well away from farmland. Clue: pale sandy soil doesn't radiate as much heat away at night as black soil does, and sandstone doesn't hold as much water.

If you're down south I would head inland... Bungonia or a ridge somewhere above the Araluen valley across to Braidwood, that's seriously dry.

[andyc]

Yeah, I was actually at 600m elevation on the plateau not far SW of Nerriga and near Moreton NP (so climatologically not unlike Braidwood)... but Saturday night, the moisture easily got that far inland! It's usually a very dry site for observing, but they've had a lot of rain, there was a black snake swimming in the dam, and moist, moist air off the east! I'd imagine the coast would typically be much more humid.