Opinion North or South View

[steve000]

Hi Folks,

What is your opinion on placement of a permanent viewing location i.e observatory, pier, chair etc etc.

Viewing from mid aussie latitudes (brisbane etc)
Assuming you can see above you and western and eastern skies but south or north is blocked from around 60 degrees and below.

Both assume you can move to the opposite location but can only have a permanent setup at one for imaging purposes etc. Also assume access to each site is equal.

Would you prefer a permanent Northern (Lyra, Andromeda etc) view with the south obscured by trees
OR
Would you prefer a permanent Southern (crux, lmc, smc) sky view with the north obscured by trees.

Reasoning is welcome so is replys just saying north or south.

[AussieTrooper]

North. You'll see more of the sky, and it will change with the seasons. I'm always a little envious of observers in the tropics. You get pretty much the whole sky.

[rogerco]

Build up so you can see over the trees :thumbsup:

[ZeroID]

More and better targets in the South. Northern Hemispherites are always jealous of our southern skies.

[N1]

Tough call. South is pretty and it's where everybody seems to look & image, but a northern aspect in a northern state adds some novelty. Yes, M57 is a beauty, and so is the Veil, or North America Neb etc etc. It'll come down to what you are into, and what the LP situation is. Deep or shallow sky, suburban or rural skies.

Planets, Luna, Solar - none of that in the Southern half (in this hemisphere anyway) so not much change happening there, except in 1987 and when there is a comet ;). Although the solar system object do ride high over brisbane so will be seen from the South facing site most times as well.

Get a portable pier or put something on tracks & move between the two sites as you please.

[AussieTrooper]

If you're stuck and it really is a 50-50 thing, aim which ever direction is away from the city light pollution.

[steve000]

You might be onto something, I did allways want to put it on a deck.. long pier though because id be 2 to 2.5m in the air

[skysurfer]

Well, that is one of the reasons why I, who lives in one of the worst sites for astronomy, the Netherlands, due to a cloudy climate and lots of light pollution, try to travel almost every year to a southern location.
Now it is one of my last days of my South Africa stay and we planned to do this again next year.
I posted my astrophotos on the Dutch astroforum.nl and really forum members answered 'jealous'.
About the sky ? Yes, more objects but the northern skies also have some nice jewels, such as the Heart&Soul, IC1396, lots of Cygnus objects.
Planets ? Yes, Saturn climbs higher.

[billdan]

I'm trying to convince my wife we should move out of the Brisbane area and go west to the Toowoomba area up on the range.

Problem with the SE corner of QLD is the crappy nights we get in summer, and when there is a cloud free night it always seems to coincide with a full moon (like tonight).

I have often wondered where the best place in Australia is to set up, that gives clear nights and plenty of North and South targets. Move too far north and all the southern delights are too low but you get the northern targets and vice versa.

Bill

[ZeroID]

Big Moon nights I can usually image\view into the South. If the air is reasonably clear ( usually when he southerlies waft up ) I can still target Eta C, LMC, SMC, Cru regions with almost only the usual LP problems. Thin high haze changes all that obviously. I'm starting to think about narrowband now I have most of the basic system working.

Another good reason for having a Sth view aspect, moon in the Nth.

[speach]

Had the problem that my view to the north was restricted, this was my answer http://www.astronomyshed.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=78&t=22039 . Solved it but cannot walk around while I'm imaging. But I feel that's a small price to pay for an overall sky view.