Would you come ?

[Harb]

Now this is a bit premature at the moment, but I was wondering.

I was thinking of organising a trip out west were the lights don't shine!!

I have a place in mind, it is north west of cobar in far west NSW, to a property I think I can get us onto.
It has a large shearing shed with shearers accomodation on site which is basically a building that contains around 6 bedrooms and kitchen, shower facilities, power etc etc.
The setup is around 30km,s from the nearest house and 150 odd km's to the nearest small town.
Well off the road, Km's......so no headlight issues either.....
It is an understatement to say the sky is dark at night, it is buy far the darkest place I have ever been, and after an hour or so the stars seem like street lights!!
I was thinking about 3 nights at the site with a day to travel up and another day to travel back.....so say 5 days in total.
Would be keen to see if anyone else was interested in coming.
Keep in mind that, you would need to get yourself there and back or team up with someone....., around 800kms one way from Sydney with about 100kms of dirt involved......
This is only an idea at the moment, but let me know what you think.


cheers
John

[matt]

Yeah. Am interested;)

[Harb]

Forgot to mention........no date set at this stage......would need to be worked out, but sometime in the next say 3 months or so maybe :shrug:

[matt]

Would be better further into Autumn anyway with the cooler nights and steadier seeing, eariler sunset (DST) etc

[Harb]

Agree, sounds good.

We would all meet somewhere common, or say a couple of meeting places along the way, then drive in convoy to the site.
4wd not neccessary but better for daytime touring if you have one,
but I am sure we could shuffle around to suit everyone.

[ving]

gee harb, thats a long way to go. sh=urely you dont have to ge that far for dark skies?

[Harb]

Hi Ving,
Its actually a fairly normal drive for me, but I realise for others it may be a long trip,
I do believe however the trip itself and the absolute remoteness of the site, just add an unbelievable feel to the whole adventure.
There is nothing like being so far from anywhere with flat horizon right the way round.........this is big sky country in the full sense.
I would go as far as to say, once you have done it, you will always rate every sky against this one.
It is amazing how much space is out there.............infact I think I will name the trip the Great Western Space Adventure.

:lol: :lol: :lol:

[ving]

gwsa? doesnt reall have a ring to it ;)

[sejanus]

hey I'd be interested but wouldn't be able to commit until I see the dates as I do photo jobs most weekends until April when it gets a bit quiet.

Would love to give the camera a whirl under some serious dark sky!

[Rob_K]

Harb's idea is a great one, and the flat horizons are amazing. I lived in White Cliffs, a bit further to the north-west, for several years and still go up there regularly. The skies can be astonishing and I can remember gazing up at the Milky Way in awe many times (sometimes flat on my back outside the pub, but that's another story..!). However there are a couple of things to bear in mind. Equinoxial times (autumn, spring) can be quite windy even at night, and there's nowhere to hide! In summer the intense heat radiating from the ground can affect seeing well into the night, and transparency can be affected by dust. But go for it guys, what a fantastic experience - if conditions are not that great, Cobar's a really interesting place anyway...

Cheers -

[rogerg]

If by 'west' you meant 'western australia' I'd come :lol:

I'm always happy to dive long distances for short stints of astronomy, half the fun is getting 100's of KM away where there isn't anyone else and where you feel like you're in the middle of nowhere. My usual spots are 2.5 hours and 3.5 hours of 110km/hr driving..

But, no, I won't make it to your destination Harb..

Roger.

[iceman]

I'm not opposed to driving some distance, and would love to view under the dark skies and flat horizons of the "outback".

However I won't be able to do it this year, with IIASC2007 and SPSP I think my star party browney point quota is full up.

It's an interesting idea, but I'd suggest it needs more thought and organisation than "let's get together this weekend", especially when long distances are involved. I can tell you that organising a star party event is a lot of work, if you haven't done any event management before.

[Harb]

Thanks for the resopnses so far everyone,
Understand your browny point situation Mike :) , and yes planning such trips does take some organising, we have done quite a few big events over the years and even with work we need things to work out well given moving big numbers of staff around etc.....
But the main thing is seeing if there is any interest to begin with I supose........
I have over the years learnt that there are many types of people, with some, a motel room is roughing it, others sleeping on the ground next to their car seems good enought !! , and the whole big picture of things directly affects how your trip turns out.

Back to the trip,....if there is a trip!..........
There is one very short mount range......well big hill......bump,... just to the south east of the facilities, about I recon 5km's away, on the same property.
If we all wanted to, we could use that as a way of getting above the heated ground affect and improve seeing somewhat.......it is treeless and the view up there is totally amazing....you fee like neil armstrong panning around!
It would be posible to either go up the for viewing, or camp up there or whatever combination I guess. But I suppose the time of the year would dictate if we needed to gain the extra height at all.
Any sugestions regarding a date/month etc would be welcome......
Just remember this will be a trip, for a few like minded guys/gals (maybe 1/2 dozen or so) to go to, what I regard as a premium viewing area and enjoy some pristine dark skys and enjoy the company and the adventure...................definat ely not a huge event like IISAC or some of the other big events................Just a great time.
(Maybe down the track, if it worked out well, we could look at increasing numbers, but the old KISS rule would apply here in the short term anyway)

cheers
John

[Omaroo]

Yup - sounds great. I normally go to Lightning Ridge every Easter (folks have a place up there: http://www.blackqueen.net.au ) so it wouldn't be far to divert to Cobar for a couple of days. Alternatively, have you thought of Lightning Ridge or somewhere around there?

Cheers
Chris

[astronut]

Great idea John,
If you have a few takers maybe hiring a large mini bus, so that everyone can go together would be the go.:D

[Eternal]

Since I cannot make it to the IIS Astro camp this seems like a great idea, providing it isn't held during the working week. Perhaps it could start on Friday 26th Jan (Australia Day) and end on Sunday. Two great viewing nights is better than none.

[Harb]

Hi everyone thanks again for the input,
I am going up their on a bit of a reccy in about 2 weeks.
I will do a bit of looking around and picture talking and even a bit of video that I can post so you can check it out.
Will let you all know how it looks.
Astronut.......minibus........man that would be a trip...!
I recon about say half dozen would be a better trip this time round, so as to simplify the organising and test the whole thing out. but I guess anything is posible after we do the toe in the water bit!!

Eternal......its about 800km's roughly one way, so it would be way to far for an enjoyable weekend trip.
I think most people tend to need about half a day to a full day to get over the trip before the enjoyment sets in.......
Unless of course you happen to have a plane,..... do you !!! there is an air strip just down the road!! ;)

cheers
John