Seeing Conditions in Australia

[Allan]

I’m curious what everyone’s seeing conditions are like, and in particular whether we can pick a region in Australia that has the best conditions.

I know in the Coolah/Coonabarabran/Siding Spring area I’m familiar with, sub arc second seeing happens regularly enough. I notice this in particular when the wind is from the west, and therefore has travelled across the flat inland of Australia for a great distance.

Another way to describe it would be who’s getting the best high power planetary observing.

[glend]

Allan, certainly not around my area of the NSW coast. I have been trying for a couple of months, to get a good look at Saturn's rings with my new Classical Cassegrain but the Seeing conditions have yet to allow me to push it beyond 200x. With both Jupiter and Saturn reaching Opposition in just a matter of days now (Jupiter first then Saturn a week later (21st of July). Last week we had a number of clear night's but the planets appeared murky even at low power (supposedly due to dust blown in from the SW). I was so frustrated i just closed up the Observatory and brought the gear inside the house. I will try again closer to actual opposition but I heard tonight there is an East Coast Low spinning up for a big dump on Tuesday and Wednesday of this next week. Very frustrated.

[sn1987a]

Pretty good here in Perth tonight :D

[Startrek]

I image from southern suburbs of Sydney and image and observe from South Coast NSW with conditions varying all the time both through summer and winter . I’d suspect if your west of the Divide conditions would me more stable and predictable not like they are on the coast.

[The Mekon]

Yes, in my experience, areas near the coast and on the Great Divide suffer from inconsistent seeing and transparency. The Monaro plain is an an average elevation of 800metres and has offered some of the best viewing for me. I would think any area well inland and at some elevation would offer the same.

[Atmos]

Sometimes with a SW wind here in Melbourne we can get some pretty stable skies but we can also get months of terrible seeing too depending on the prevailing winds.

[Rainmaker]

So far Kiandra, in the Kosciuszko National Park, has had the best seeing that I have encountered.

[andyc]

Planetary imaging from Sydney is definitely tougher than inland seeing-wise, looking at the results of other observers west of the Blue Mountains or in western NSW. It's also clear that further north is also generally better, such as with Anthony Wesley and Phil Miles in central QLD. But I'm better off in Sydney than imagers in Melbourne I think! Not so sure about Adelaide and Perth?

The best seeing of all ought to be up in the tropics away from the jetstream, where outside the monsoons, skies should be good. (Best planet images worldwide come from equatorial regions)

Winters in Sydney tend to be poorer seeing because of the jetstream, but we're (usually) lucky to have more clear skies for the dark nights!

[Allan]

So as I thought, on the east coast with prevailing westerly winds is not so good, and you need to get to the other side of the range.

Did Anthony Wesley move to Queensland to get better seeing conditions? I wonder what the sky is like up there compared to inland NSW.

[Camelopardalis]

Jet stream can be a killer here in SE QLD but we do get the occasional good night :shrug:

I wouldn’t mind a spell in inland central or northern QLD and see how it goes, as they seem to have better luck once you get away from the coast/range.

It just gets bitterly cold out west at this time of year though :eyepop:

[AndyG]

I'm going to Longreach for work next week, for 5 days. Would it be worth bringing something small on the plane? We've had cloud for months here in T'ville - I've almost given up...

[glend]

Sure, Jupiter and Saturn are very close to Opposition.

[Camelopardalis]

Planetary-wise, I wouldn’t imagine anything much smaller than a C8 would show any difference.

Cloud-wise, anything should work :lol:

[AstroJunk]

The best and most consistantly good seeing that I have enjoyed has been up in the Burdekin region of Qld around Home Hill and Ayr. It has certainly given me some of the finest solar and planetary views over the years and the most perfect colorful split of Antares that I have seen (through my 20") ever.

Not sure why it is so good, but if ever I was planning on an adventure that demanded perfect seeing...

At my observatory on the other hand :sad:

[Allan]

The JetStream is probably as bigger problem for southern Queensland as anywhere at this time of the year. Sounds like further north inland Queensland is good.

[gregbradley]

On the western slopes of the Divide in NSW it is often very good.

The occasional bad night like anywhere but on average its good and the stars are stable with very little twinkling unless you look at the low lying stars.

Greg.

[multiweb]

The best seeing I got was at Wiruna around 1.7". In Sydney I ususally get around 2 or sometime 3. I measure subs in CCDIS to get the value. Never seen anything under 1" around here in Oz.

[Merlin66]

The seeing down here in the Bellarine varies from bad to worse!
Luckily for spectroscopy it's not a killer.


The LMDSS (the ASV dark sky site) was selected as being "pretty good" - just south of Bendigo. ( I used to observe from Heathcote, Vic and on a good night it was very good!)

The best night I've experienced in Australia was back in the late 1970's when we went caravanning just north of Hawker - absolutely magic!!!
The Zodiacal light was so bright and noticeable - I initially wondered what big town could be west of us.
I'd love to go back there.....

[Camelopardalis]

You're not wrong Allan, I've had much better luck with the planets while sweating me horses off in February and March :rofl: