LAND or PROPERTY for Astrophotography

[johnnyt123 (John)]

Hi every one.

I am looking finding the best possible land that would be best suited for astrophotography.

Somewhere which is relatively at an elevated altitude, Dry, low humidity, not too windy, and doesnt get much cloud cover.....
Oh and somewhere about 3 hours drive from sydney.

I have been wanting to purchase either land or even property that might be at such a location to setup a permanent observatory in the not too distant future.

If any has any suggestions i would gladly look into them..

Thants.

John

[glend (Glen)]

Well your certainly not alone in your quest. I have been looking for land that could be leased for astro purposes, and Allan (Newcastle) is looking to buy an observatory site. We have discussed an area like the Golden Highway area west of Merriwa. There are also the temporary free options like the New Moon camps we hold out at Bretti (northwest of Gloucester). The next Bretti camp is next week and your welcome to come along, just check out the Bretti thread in the Star Party section of the Forum. I will be imaging during the coming week at Bretti.

[pluto (Hugh)]

I'm sure it's not the only one but this place will host a remote obs on their property in Coonabarabran: http://www.tenbyobservatory.com/remote.html
From memory one of this forums members has an obs there.

[johnnyt123 (John)]

Hmmm that remote observatory hosting is a brilliant option.

It is definitely an idea worth entertaining.

Just need to ask the, a few questions, namely if they would uncap and uncover the scopes for you when you start imaging and cover them once you are finished.
And what if it rains?
Are the observatories able to automatically shut down?

[MrB (Simon)]

Yep, I've had dreams of buying a country property for a remote obs for many many years.
Still not done it

Originally Posted by pluto

From memory one of this forums members has an obs there.

Yes marco (Marco Lorenzi) has one.
http://www.glitteringlights.com/Equipment/Observatory

[sn1987a (Barry)]

70 million Thursday night powerball Mr B

[pluto (Hugh)]

Originally Posted by johnnyt123

Just need to ask the, a few questions, namely if they would uncap and uncover the scopes for you when you start imaging and cover them once you are finished.
And what if it rains?
Are the observatories able to automatically shut down?

The observatories have to be completely automated I believe. From reading Marco's page about his setup (from memory, it was a while ago) he sends the system a list of targets every week or so and it does everything else - powers up, checks weather, gets everything ready to image, picks the most appropriate target, images, takes flats, shuts down, packs up, mows the lawn, does the dishes - the lot!

[MrB (Simon)]

Originally Posted by sn1987a

70 million Thursday night powerball Mr B

Today? Damn, forgot to get a ticket. Might have to go for a drive in my lunch break!

Originally Posted by pluto

.... packs up, mows the lawn, does the dishes - the lot!

Haha!
It would need to be fully automated if there is indeed only 3G Internets available at the site.
Remote via Teamviewer would get expensive pretty fast.

[johnnyt123 (John)]

Originally Posted by pluto

The observatories have to be completely automated I believe. From reading Marco's page about his setup (from memory, it was a while ago) he sends the system a list of targets every week or so and it does everything else - powers up, checks weather, gets everything ready to image, picks the most appropriate target, images, takes flats, shuts down, packs up, mows the lawn, does the dishes - the lot!

Thats sounds like a dream.

and what software do you use for all this automation???

[alistairsam]

Originally Posted by johnnyt123

Thats sounds like a dream.

and what software do you use for all this automation???

ACP does the lot except the dishes and the lawn
http://acp.dc3.com/index2.html

[pluto (Hugh)]

Originally Posted by johnnyt123

Thats sounds like a dream.

and what software do you use for all this automation???

Check the link posted by MrB (http://www.glitteringlights.com/Equipment/Observatory)
At the bottom he lists the software he uses.

[ZeroID (Brent)]

Does he give a credit card number to pay for it all ?

[rogerg (Roger)]

Originally Posted by johnnyt123

... namely if they would uncap and uncover the scopes for you when you start imaging and cover them once you are finished....

From what I am aware typically automated scopes are not capped. Certainly as a result of my investigations to automate a shutter several years ago, my main scope has had no dust cap on it for the last 8 years. Once a year I clean the exposed optics. Precautions can be taken such as parking the telescope not facing up and implementing measures to limit the amount of dust etc able to get in to the observatory when closed.

Weather etc is where ACP and various hardware comes in to play as suggested by others.