Calls for international dark sky reserve in Central Australia

[Weird1 (Keith)]

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-05-0...eserve/9488004

Interesting, we need more dark skies.

Cheers Keith

[Wavytone]

Well he's welcome to all the tourists and all that goes with that.

I'm not revealing my favourite sites anymore - prefer to keep it that way to preserve them from being spoiled.

[leon]

I have seen a lot of outback at night and it is pitch black out there and there are thousands of square hectors, enough for everyone.
Just park up anywhere and set up, you don't need a special cordoned off area IMHO.

Leon

[tlgerdes (Trevor)]

Grand idea, but generally useless. How many people will take their $10000 worth of astronomy equipment to the West McDonald ranges, even $2000 worth of equipment, plus flights, plus rental car, plus accommodation, to get maybe 10% better skies than somewhere closer.

The site needs to be generally accessible for the vast majority for it gain acceptance. Hence why Coonabarabran is popular. Yes, it is still 6hrs from Sydney, but better than 5 days driving.

Even the numerous club grounds across the country provide more reasonable attainability of dark skies.

[xelasnave]

I can imagine if promoted there would be folk lined up.

Alex

[leon]

You don't have to go far Alex to get some really dark skies, Snake Valley near Ballarat is as black as ink on a Moonless night.

Leon

[dpastern (Dave Pastern)]

The sad thing is, the vast majority of Australians under 25 haven't seen the milky way...I still remember spending a week and a half farm sitting with my best mate and his parents at a farm in mid central West NSW. The views were absolutely gobsmacking stunning. I've never seen anything like it since.