Quote:
Originally Posted by mordrax
What I would really like to do is find the closest bortle 1-2 area to Sydney open to the public. Any suggestions would be awesome!
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Closest truly dark skies I have been able to find are:
- Putty Road - drive time ~90 minutes. Just 30 minutes out past Windsor you get decent skies. Sydney light bowl cuts off viewing to the south and east, but great for a quick transit and decent viewing in a short single-night session. You will need to level yourself, you will literally be pulling off the side of the road in to any decent sized clearing you find
- Hargraves Lookout, Blackheath - drive time ~90 minutes. Listed second because of the surrounding light pollution of Katoomba and the valley houses, this is a cleared lookout at the end of a short unsealed road section (totally doable in a regular car). The site is well cleared and being a lookout, it is quite exposed - 300 degrees of visibility. The valley does have a decent number of properties in it, but their overall contribution pales in comparison to the Katoomba (and Sydney) light bowl. I've had many a night of wide-field astrophotography there, so deep sky will be significantly better!
- Glen Davis Road, Capertee - drive time ~2 hours. Listed third only because of the drive time, this is by far the closest "dark" sky I have found that is doable (and worthwhile) in a single night. My best viewing has been from here, including staying in the nearby Royal Hotel in Capertee with a good friend to make a weekend of it. VERY dark. The only real light sources are a small light bowl from Lithgow and the minor irritants of coal mines, but they won't affect the fact that you have incredibly dark skies over all. If I could stay there, I'd never leave. You will again need to level yourself, as you will be pulling off the side of the road in to any of the many clearings, and if you drive very far along, you can remove a lot of the Lithgow light bowl.
I can give exact Google Maps for all of my favourite spots as a DM, if you'd like!