Dark Sky site within 5 hours from Sydney

[Harb]

We its hot, the moon is up....smoke in the air.....all amounting to great astronomy lol.
But regard all this, the daughter wants to go camping with telescopes in tow as well as the Dog etc etc.....a daddy daughter 3 or 4 days out in the bush, Mum is staying at home.
Now I hate....read hate camping in the normal touriste spots and will go to great lengths to get well away from other holiday makers....unless they are astronomers of course !!

So, my question is were to go.....Nat parks are out due to the dog (her best mate...a well controlled border collie), so I am looking for a big sky spot for loners that can do without the noisy parties and circle work in the middle of the night....

Any idea's...... 500 or 600 km's from Sydney would be great......HHHHheeeeeelllp !!!!
Oh......forgot, we want to leave tomorrow morning :P

[sheeny]

My suggestions would be:

Burraga Dam. Free camping, Pit Toilet, Fresh water in the dam. OK for Dogs.
Tuena. I believe there's free camping in the park or common in Tuena. Might be near the pub I think.
Glen Davis. There's fee camping in the middle of the "town". There's showers and toilets there and a community run Kiosk. Might be a few too many trees for astro work though.
Bylong. There is free camping in the showground across the road from the general store. Toilets, showers, 240V power available for free (donations welcome). Wide open views of the sky.:thumbsup:

The attached`map from Google Earth has the light pollution overlay on it so you can see what its like. Probably doesn't matter a heap with the moon up. There might be other darker further out but I don't have knowledge of them...:)

Enjoy,

Al.

[glend]

We use Bretti Reserve, which is just abit north-west of Gloucester on the Thunderbolt Way. Just Google it, its a long stay free camping reserve which is popular with the caravaners so there are always others there. Plenty of dark sky. There is a river you can use for washing but don't drink it, and there are longdrop type toilets, and its dog friendly - my lab loves it. Bretti is about two hours from the Central Coast, exactly 200kms from my place, so its not hard to get to.

Keep an eye on the Star Parties forum section for the next Bretti gathering. BTW a bunch of us are going up to Lake Chaffey, south east of Tamworth at the end of February around the new moon.

[Allan]

Hey Al, I have tried doing that light pollution overlay, but couldn't get it to work. Have you got one that shows all of NSW? Cheers

[sheeny]

Yep. Mine covers all of Australia, NZ and SE Asia...:lol:

Al.

[mithrandir]

I've just got the light pollution overlay to work with the current Google Earth.

Download the Australia overlay from https://mywebspace.wisc.edu/dlorenz/web/astronomy/lp2006/ which seems to be the latest available.

Fire up Google Earth.
"Add"->"Image Overlay"
Give the overlay a name, and use the "Browse" button to link to the image.
In the "Location" tab
1st corner long 94 lat -48
2nd corner long 180 lat -48
3rd corner long 180 lat 8
4th corner long 94 lat 8
Adjust the "Transparency" to suit. About 25% seems to work for me.

[Harb]

Thanks everyone....a few idea's there.

for anyone with an Ipad or Iphone there is an app called "Dark Sky" which is similar to the one above..........

there seems to be an app for everything lol

[Allan_L]

If you are taking the telescope, I second Bretti.
Easy drive from Sydney.
Two rivers (small) run through it so it is ideal for a dip.

and most of all there are big expanses of open ground,
(none of those pesky trees to block your view).
There are shady spots along the river if you prefer for your camp.

And there are no fixed lights.

A great spot I keep returning to.

Oh yeah, and it is in the dark sky zone of that map of Al's.

[Harb]

Sounds great Allan........I will give it a go I think.
We are lucky enough to have properties out in the far west were its darker than the inside of a black dog, but its 7 or so hours drive, and the little girls wants a Telescope adventure......so it will be new for both of us, which is always fun.
Thanks again everyone !

John

[Harb]

Ok, just got back from Bretti.
Well I didn't get a chance to get the scope unloaded......cloud cover the whole time every night lol......it seems to follow me.
Well besides that, I can see why people go there....its a very nice place....clean, laid back camping with no yahoo's.
Will def go back when its darker and less cloudy !