How far have you travelled to observe?

[Daring Dave]

Thus far I have travelled about 50k west of Melbourne to find dark skies....... (Near Gisbourne) Was worth every bit..HUGE difference even with a bright moon...

How far do others travel to escape the city lights ??

A few years back a friend travelled to the middle of nowhere in northern Sth Aust to observe...only a 16 hr drive from Melb...



Cheers

:driving:

[seeker372011]

Every month I plan to travel 62 kms to my club's dark site at Linden in the Blue Mountains. Usually it seems cloud intervenes and the plan comes unstuck, but that is the closest dark site for me

On occasion I have travelled further-for examplewhen I visited the Magellan Observatory..I filed a report somewhere here in this forum

[Mick]

As far as it takes Dave, but usually only 30km to my parents place for dark sky, out of the city/big country town.

[Saturn%5]

Hi All,
I dont travel that much much, But when i do its about 5km out of the the town to a mates place,I guess that is the advantage of living in a samll town.:evil:

[iceman]

I haven't been out to dark skies much, but when I do go, I like to go about 20-25 minutes drive up to Mangrove Mountain.. it's far enough out of town to have lovely dark skies, and the soccer oval I observe from has some good views of all the horizons.

If I want to go a little further, I go to Koolang Observatory, which is another 30 minutes drive further up that road. I sometimes go for their Friday or Saturday open night where they get out some 10" dobs and depending on whose giving the show, sometimes the 20" dob makes an appearance too.

Seeing the tarantula nebula and jupiter through the 20" was spectacular.

[rumples riot]

I travel to two sites; one is about 20K from Adelaide and nice and dark, and the other is 213K to my block over on York Peninsula. Extremely dark skies, can't wait till christmas.

Paul

[mch62]

I travel at times out to a relatives place in a town called Stanthorpe , about 21/2 hrs drive west of Brisbane.
I only do that when there is a particularly good Comet or such to observe .

[dsturnbull]

isn't there an observatory in linden, seeker? :)

[seeker372011]

Yes the Linden observatory is where my club-The Western Sydney Astronomical Society goes to observe.

There is an area that is nicely mown and kept aside for WSAAG members to observe from. ..usually a couple of saturdays a month. I have gone up on other nights of the week as well once or twice.

But as I said earlier in this thread seems like ages since Ive gotten any observing done there because of the rotten weather we have been having

[iceman]

Ain't it terrible seeker.. the weather around sydney has just been horrible, haven't had an observing night for over 2 weeks now :bashcomp:

[Dave47tuc]

Hi Guy's,
I travelled from Melbourne to Woomera twice!!!
In 1998 and 2000 to catch the falling stars,
The great Leonids.:driving:

[seeker372011]

Come to think of it I have to tell my Venus transit story....

8 of June I have naturally taken the day off and planned to go to Bowen Mountain -in the Blue Mountains-to view the transit with others from the Astronomical Society of NSW at the ASNSW site.


By the time we get there (the whole family is with me ) there is solid cloud. Its already mid-day and only a few hours to first contact.

:confuse2:

What are we going to do?

we ring Lithgow Tourist information on the mobile. The girl says, nah there is cloud everywhere. D we go back home? It was cloudy when we left

ring Bathurst-this is at least a couple of hours away-the girl at tourist information says clear skies and she reckons the playing field just before you enter town would be a great place to set up

so do we stay or go? maybe it will clear here? if we guess wrong we have 8 years to wait before the next transit..lets go we decide

less than two hours left to first contact..pile into the car already groaning with two scopes, mounts, tripods, laptop, tables, three cameras and I forget what else, but we had a ton of equipment..in the end the kids had to hold the OTA of the newtonian in their hands all the way in the back seat

now I'm tearing up Bells Line of Road at barely legal speed with one eye on the sky..is the cloud following us?

we come out of cloud just before we start the descent from the mountains into Lithgow ...and just before the memorial..my son spots a clearing by the side of the highway.....and the sky is clear

I hang a U turn and we have maybe 10 minutes to first contact..mad panic to get all the gear out of the back of the car

we set up...and manage to miss first first contact !!

anyway we managed to image second contact and then most of the transit till sunset


:) :ashamed: :ashamed: :ashamed:

[craxguy]

Nice hunt seeker,

I watch the venus transit from my balcony. took a roll of photograph and then before i print it i manage to put it inside my jeans pocket that i dumped into the washing machine. rush it to the emergency room (read:photo shop) and declared dead!! i still have the roll with me untill now, "new" in the shell!!

btw im a 1st time poster here, g'day to ya all

ohh and to answer the original question in this forum, its 3m (from my room to my balcony)

[iceman]

doh :doh: nice story Seeker, sorry to hear about your troubles but glad you got some viewing in.

Also, :welcome: craxguy, nice to see you found your way here, and thanks for signing up and contributing!

[edosaurus_rex]

190km every month except May around the New Moon for Deep Sky. (N32.926 W99.2346) It's called Fort Griffin State Historical Park. Over the years we've formed a good relationship with the park rangers and they let us go up to the old fort to observe after normal park visiting hours. They ask for a small (tiny) fee of $2 USD to stay the night and they'll let you pitch a tent to sleep it off the following morning. Normally there are between 3 and 12 guys there on moonless weekends.

Once a year I go to the Texas Star Party (750km) near the McDonald observatory in Fort Davis, TX.

Ed

[ving]

gee, about 20mins from my place is the oaks airfield... been meaning to go to my astro socs spot in balangalow (sp) forest (you know, where ivan milat was)...

99% of the time i'm in my backyard tho. it dark enough most of the time :)

[janoskiss]

Lake Mountain is becoming a regular site for me. 120km from Melbourne, and about the same from where I live. The big flat carparks set up for the snow season are perfect for observing. And when the seeing is good, it's very good.

I'll be doing some observing in Europe hopefully later this year. That will be about 15000km away. I'll be buying a 10" Dob when I get there. :D

[beren]

On a semi regular basis about 45min out of Perth , the city is on a coastal plain bordered by the Darling range {450m above sea level} and state forest so its not bad . Thanks to a bit of 4wd experiance ive found a few good spots well away from potential impromtu visitors :) Some family friends have just brought a farmstead 1.5 hours NE of the city so Ill be able to set up there to :)
In the US I always notice this place mentioned http://home.earthlink.net/~dreyna14/pinos.htm a lot of diehards travel a long wy to ge there

[ballaratdragons]

For very very dark skies I carry my scope about 5 paces from my back door! If I want it even Darker I have to carry it up the back paddock!! Ahhh, the country.

The only time I have viewed away from home (in even darker sky) was at the Snake Valley Astro Camp last November and I had to travel 2k for that.

Apart from that I use to do a bit of viewing at our societies Ballarat Observatory but the last time I did that was about 17 years ago.

In other words, I don't have to travel anywhere.

[norm]

I usually goto Walcha several times a yr to visit inlaws, about 420k's from Sydney CBD. Clear dark skies. It was the 1st time I took the Skymaster's 15 x70 binos and I wasn't disappointed.
Just with the naked eye it was mind blowing enough, but with the bino's I could identify things I couldn't normally track down. Just scanning the Milky Way was awesome.
I could make out LMC and SMC with naked eye and area around Coal sack which normally in light polluted Sydney I couldn't (not with my eyes anyway). So many things to see.

Envious of you guys who have permanent dark skies!! Might have to re-locate to the country!:o

[Striker]

wow this thread was resurrected after being dormant for 12 months.....lol

I will travell interstate no problem.

[h0ughy]

Lets see now

I occasionally grace the guys at Kulnura with my presence, Yes I know guys its rare, that’s about a 1.5 hour drive for me one way.

Then there is SPSP, its about a 4 hour trip one way, see interesting people and avoid the cranky ones :P

Then there is the Queensland Astrofest, now this is a 16 hour trip one way. But well worth it, you can talk to those guys, they are gods up there :wink2: !!

And of course Lostock, no doubt once we visit there in January it will become a regular occurrence (probably in a cooler part of the year later on) its about 2 hours away from me.

The most travelling I have done for an event was the total lunar eclipse in 1999 or 2000, can't remember now suffering old timers!! I had set up and was ready for the event at the oblisk in Newcastle, then the cloud and rain set in on the coast. So quickly packed up and Alan Meehan and myself left there and travelled up the hunter valley until we were free from cloud totally and we had 15 minutes to set the scopes and photography gear up to start observing the first touch of the earths shadow. We had travelled about 74 km and were 12km shy of Singleton. We pulled off the highway into some lane and drove down it for 100m then just set up on the road! It was an awesome night as we also saw a green aurora to the south, plenty of meteors and a orange red moon. Just awesome!

Other than that no where special, just at home :lol: !

[h0ughy]

:P :P @ken

[Robert_T]

i open the french doors and I muscle the scope and LXD75 out in two pieces about two metres onto the courtyard pavers... sometimes if I'm adventurous I move about 5metres round the house to increase my northern horizon... once I even went out into the backyard - the joys and advantages of being a single minded planetary nut :lol:

[h0ughy]

Well considering the fact I didn't join up until april last year, this post is "new" for me Tony :lol: :help3:

you can Blame Ed in texas ;) :P

[asimov]

I keep my scopes in a granny flat that's been coverted from a shed which is located 1/2 dozen steps away from my back door. I don't travel anywhere to view.

[Sausageman]

Now, let me see.
Would the South Coast of Ireland count, with only Bino's.?
I was there in November last year.
I don't know how many K's it was, but it took 21 hours flying, another 7 driving and 3 on the ferry.
The Moon was upside down, And the Big Dipper was a great sight.

Do I win...LOL

Mike

[westsky]

well lets see, my longest astronomy trip.
Brisbane to Cairns, I setup the C8 to watch a partial solor eclispe at Innisfail.
Then two nights later I used the C8 at Coober Pedy, within 50k's of it anyway.
Then onto Nullabor or just past it by about 100k,
then onto Perth (didn't get the scope out in Perth)
back to Nullabor used the C8 again.then used the scope again near Mildura
then back home to Brisbane, all up a 12 or 13 day round trip.

David.

[Glenn Dawes]

Hi all,

One of the things I like about this forum is the interesting topics you come up with! What a chance to take a 5 min trip down memory lane!

Well I normally will go up the Blue Mountains (about an hour drive from my home in Sydney) with the occasional trip to Ilford (which unfortunately in recent years seems to have slipped to just the SPSP).

In 1981 I flew to Hobart to see an annular eclipse of the Sun and myself and my 2 friends (also from Sydney) were the only ones to see it (the locals warned us against going up Mt Wellington (too cold and exposed) but being foolish interstaters we went anyway and observed the whole event just above the clouds (the photos look like we were in Antartica).

When SN1987a went off in the LMC I headed up the Blue Mountains with some friends but ended up having to outrun the clouds. Around midnight we pulled into the driveway of a good friend who happened to work and live on Siding Spring Mountain at the time. Boy, was he surprised to see us! The sky was clear and we observed the supernova almost in the 'shadow' of the AAT.

In 1991 I went to Hawaii to see an eclipse of the Sun (about 7 mins of totality - it doesn't get much better than that). We were warned against remaining on the coastline so we went inland and got clouded out about 1 min from totality! We found out later the staff at our motel, on the coast, saw the whole thing from the roof!

I have flown twice to Perth to catch the Leonids! The first time turned out to be clear but not at the time of peak - but we saw probably about 20 of the nicest fireballs in my life (all on the same night - so no complaints). The other trip well.... it never stopped raining!

In 1997 I flew to the USA to see Comet Hale Bopp at its peak (my wife still thinks it was our Honeymoon!). Absolutely fantastic weather and got some nice shots with the dishes of the VLA in the foreground!

The trip to Woomera for the Eclipse was fantastic. There's been very few times I have got up in the morning and just knew it wasn't going to cloud up but this was one of those times.

And finally my most unusual trip (if you can call, looking over someone's shoulder the whole night and looking at a computer monitor, observing) was the evening I spent flying on NASA's Kuiper Airbourne Observatory back in 1983. This now decommissioned 2.2m telescope was mounted in a C131 jet aircraft. It was optimised to observe in the infrared and by flying around 40,000 ft + got them above most of the water in the atmosphere that absorbs the IR. The plane's track that night took us up over mid Queensland, across to around the NT / WA border, down south of the Bite, across to around Hobart and back to Richmond Airforce Base (near Sydney). Don't ask me how Ken Wallace and I got onto this lerk - that's another story and this post has already become to long (and self-indulgent - forgive me).

Regards

Glenn D

[ballaratdragons]

Mike, did you observe whilst on a trip or go on a trip to observe?

[h0ughy]

Glenn, I enjoyed reading this , what wonderful tales to tell on cloudy nights! :) :drink: thanks for sharing

[ausastronomer]

Well I once travelled to Southern Florida to do some observing :)

Actually it was just to see how astronomically deprived the Northern hemisphere folk are :sad:

[Twokids]

Since I have two small children I'm stuck with my front or back yard. The kids know that if they wake up in the night and can't find me, they can look out the windows and see me.:)

Luckily I live in a small town.I'm 60km or so away from the city so have relatively dark skies (there's a glow to the north :sad: ).

Is there a way to judge how dark my skies are? I can see the LMC and SMC easily enough (funny how I never noticed them before getting into astronomy, I must have just assumed they were clouds :confuse3: ).

[RAJAH235]

I only travel 10 klm. Just south of the 'gong. Horizon ain't much chop but it's fairly dark + it's got tables/benches etc & a 'john'.
You got your choice of bitumen carpark or grass paddock to set-up on/in.

Jodie, hi. This might help. > http://uk.geocities.com/dpeach_78/pickering.htm
:D L.

[jjjnettie]

When I travel to observe, it's for the social aspect mainly.
It's nice to talk to people who understand.

You're right there Jodie about the clouds. I like pointing them out to people and telling them what they are.

[janoskiss]

LMC and SMC are easily visible even on the outskirts of Metropolitan Melbourne. One good test for sky darkness is: how many stars can you see in the Cross (Crux) with the naked eye? Five is enough for some good deep sky observing including some galaxies with my 8". More than five is getting pretty dark, great for galaxy hunting and observing subtle detail you would not see otherwise.

[gaa_ian]

Well .. I regularly travel about 15km to our dark sky site in Gove.
I have on a few occasions travelled (about 2,500km) from Gove (NT) to observe with the Brisbane & the Sunshine coast IIS'ers
Actually, I travelled down there for work technically, but the observing was the best bit !

[Twokids]

Just to clarify, do you mean of the crux, or within the boundaries of the crux? There are a lot of whispy clouds tonight so I am looking through the clouds, but I can easily see the four main stars, and a few inside.

[janoskiss]

I mean the latter, the four main stars plus anything within. The fifth is in the flag, but most Oz citizens have probably never seen it. It is not visible from Melbourne suburbs within 15-20 km of the CBD. More stars are only visible from dark (mag 5.5+) skies.

[Twokids]

Yay for me then :P . Even through the thin clouds and a full moon, I can easily see six stars. After I've been out there for a few minutes I can see a few more (only barely though). I'll have to have a look under better conditions :) .

[DRCORTEX]

My record to this point - bout 5.5 metres, was 4.0, but I managed to get my son to move his car.


Once the weather fines up, maybe I could make a big plunge, and hit the local park ( if I don't get mugged ), which is at least 75 metres from our house.

Seriously, once the weather clears, I'll hit somewhere a "little" further away. I want to go up to the mountains and check out the guys/gals in the local astronomy society, and hopefully make it to Lobstock for at least one night. At this point , I'm frantically trying to read, etc, so I don't appear to be a total jackoff if I speak to someone and "invade" their viewing time - especially as we have had so much cloudy/rainy weather lately.

Lance